During 2020, small business owners suffered closures, breach of contracts, and changes to federal and state laws to help tenants or clients hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. If your client, supplier, or vendor, critical to your business objectives, failed to reopen or filed for bankruptcy, you may be able to negotiate new contracts, reorganize, and profit from new alliances forged during the economic downturn.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act
Under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, terms of business loans and contracts could be rewritten and extended for seven years under the auspices of Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The CARES Act changes to the federal bankruptcy rules that extended the length of Chapter 13 repayment and Chapter 11 debt reorganization plans to seven years expire at the end of March 2021.
Challenging Your Customers in Bankruptcy Court
If your customer filed a bankruptcy petition, the trustee appointed by the court will review his or her financial paperwork filed in the bankruptcy case. The trustee scrutinizes the debtors’ financial transactions in the quarter or year before the bankruptcy petition was filed. If the trustee finds that the debtor made preferential payments to a few creditors or transferred assets to family members or friends prior to filing for bankruptcy, the trustee demands the payments and assets fraudulently transferred returned to the debtor’s accounts. The trustee can sell or liquidate assets to pay legitimate lien holders with the recovered money.
Investigating Fraud
If you receive different figures for your customer’s income, outstanding debts, or collateral in your copy of the bankruptcy petition than the customer used to apply for your loan, to rent your equipment, or purchase your property, our debt collection attorney can help you have the customer investigated for fraud. Our bankruptcy attorney can serve the debtor with a complaint and require him or her to respond within a specified number of days.
Fraud Prosecution
If your customer falsified financial information in your application for a loan, goods, or services, the United States Department of Justice can prosecute the debtor for fraud. Furthermore, if the applicant applied for credit from your business less than two years before filing for bankruptcy knowing there was not enough equity remaining in his home or on his business property to secure your loan, the U.S. Department of Justice can prosecute the debtor for fraud.
Lien Stripping
If, however, you have a lien on a debtor’s property and the debtor suffered severe economic hardship due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the bankruptcy trustee can strip your lien from his or her deed or title and discharge the unpaid unsecured deficit on your loan.
Internal Revenue Service
Our small business lawyers can represent you in the United States tax court to mediate or negotiate a settlement for your past due income taxes. With more than 50 years of experience, our debt collection lawyer can use apply IRS regulations and protocols to help you with:
• Unfiled federal and state tax returns
• Compromise offers on your past due income tax
• Payment plans to the IRS or your state department of taxation
• IRS and state wage garnishments, liens, and tax audits
Boston Commercial Collection Lawyer
Our Boston debt collection lawyer, familiar with CARES Act modifications to debt collection procedures, can help you look at the most lucrative aspects of your small business, liquidate assets, cancel less successful contracts, and find more lucrative contracts for a prosperous 2021. Our business lawyer may even help you strip liens from your business property or residence. Our Massachusetts debt collection attorney can help you:
• Certify your business at the federal, state, and local levels
• Draft new large contracts and noncompete agreements
• Collect payments with interest on breached contracts
• Find and negotiate lucrative sales to government agencies
• Export your products Internationally
Online Mediation and Arbitration Services
Through free online arbitration and mediation services, our Boston commercial collections lawyer can renegotiate your contracts within the restrictions of the emergency modifications to federal, state, and local laws due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The nonprofit JAMS Foundation operates an International online conferencing platform to mediate domestic and international contract disputes through alternative dispute resolution. Online tutorials prepare you to use the JAMS website and all the legal services it offers.
Small Business Lawyers
With more than 50 years of experience advising businesses and collecting our clients’ debts, our Boston lawyer is personally interested in helping you achieve your business goals and reaching your full potential. Our small business lawyers can solve complex legal problems and strategize with you to reach or exceed your objectives. Our business lawyer can represent you in complex civil litigation or with the succession of a business after the death of a loved one, partner, or owner.
Goldberg and Oriel
Call or contact our Massachusetts debt collection attorney today for a review of your debt portfolio including your customers who have filed for bankruptcy. Our commercial collections attorney recovers the maximum allowable amount on your past due accounts. All consultations are free, and a representative from our law office will respond within 24 hours of receiving your request.