Practically Plug in Tax Resolution and Tax Preparation to Your Practice: Tax is a common debt owed by many bankruptcy clients. Tax resolution and preparation work are some of the highest dollar-per-hour services you can offer and are compatible with a bankruptcy practice. The key to success is to smoothly integrate tax into your practice. How? NACBA’s panel will describe how they have included tax services into their work. They will discuss practical steps to educate yourself, how to handle tax controversies and to identify when you should refer a problem out. Learn to identify tax resolution cases, evaluate tax transcripts, the attorney/client engagement process, how to get paid, fee structures and fee agreements, malpractice pitfalls, offers-in-compromise, installment agreements, innocent spouse relief, CNC, penalty abatement, IRS notices and critical dates. Furthermore, the panel will discuss tax preparation services you can offer your client. This all-day intensive study will provide a plan to integrate tax into your practice, forms and checklists, and other resources so you can begin to integrate tax into your firm when you are finished.

 

Increase the Value of Each Bankruptcy Case Using the FDCPA and the TCPA: The principal motivator for most clients seeking bankruptcy protection is aggressive debt collection. Bankruptcy effectively cancels this problem, but there are additional remedies for abusive debt collection. Your client may be entitled to damages and attorney’s fees for events occurring before the bankruptcy is ever filed. The panel will discuss how to identify these issues and will take a deep look into two federal consumer protection statutes: The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and the Telephone Communication Protection Act (TCPA). These statutes are used by many bankruptcy attorneys to give their clients additional relief from their creditors. NACBA’s full-day panel will explain the law underpinning these claims, and will give attendees practical steps to fold these actions into your bankruptcy practice. Further the panel will provide checklists, generic complaints and answers to common motions for summary judgment. Adding the FDCPA and the TCPA to your practice will increase the value of every bankruptcy case and benefit your client.

Each year, millions of individuals and families across the country struggle to pay their bills. Often financial distress follows on the heels of other unanticipated events such as job loss, divorce, substantial out-of-pocket medical expenses and natural disasters. Bankruptcy may provide these debtors with the opportunity for a fresh start. However, bankruptcy debtors, lacking both financial resources and exposure to the bankruptcy system, often do not have the ability to protect the integrity of the bankruptcy system and preserve the bankruptcy rights of consumer debtors more generally. The National Consumer Bankruptcy Rights Center (NCBRC) was created to fill that vacuum.

 

NCBRC provides assistance either by working directly with debtors’ attorneys or by filing amicus briefs in courts throughout the country. NCBRC also strives to impact the national conversation on bankruptcy laws and debtor rights by increasing public awareness and education and by attracting media attention to the important issues involved. Help support NCBRC today!