Monthly Archives: April 2018

Rookie Bankruptcy Paralegal Anthony Rodriguez

Episode 1: The Journey My name is Anthony Rodriguez. At age 33 I found myself barely making it in the San Fernando Valley located in the county of Los Angeles, California. Even making a decent income every year, I was still living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to make ends meet. Single, no kids and still struggling! I have nothing but love for California but I do not miss the struggle. In my opinion, there is no longer a middle class in Los Angeles. You Read More +

Connecticut – A Legacy of Debt and the Possibility of Chapter 9 Bankruptcy

The State of Connecticut ended the 2017 fiscal year on a note of financial doom. As of the end of December, 2017, the state had the most underfunded pension system in the nation with over $127 billion in government-worker pension liabilities and no viable plan to institute needed reforms. Public-Worker Pensions – The BIG Problem: Pension woes are not the state’s only problem that threatens the economy, but they are the worst. The problem is huge, made up of the following critical components: pensions for Read More +

Chapter 9 Bankruptcy – Santa Cruz, Ca & Calpers Pension Crises

The City of Santa Cruz, CA is one of the latest municipalities to fall into what some have called a “…disturbing trend that will end in a full-fledged pension crisis” across the breadth and width of the nation. Santa Cruz is a California coastal community of 65,000 residents situated some 75 miles southwest of San Francisco. The small city, home to the University of California at Santa Cruz, is heavily dependent upon year-round tourist trade and not much else in the way of economic support. Read More +

Public Sector Pension Plans: A “ticking Time Bomb”

According to a December, 2017, washingtonfreebeacon.com report “…unfunded liabilities of state public pension funds increased by $433 billion over the past year and presently exceed $6 trillion…”. The report continues, “Unfunded liabilities of public pension plans continue to loom over state governments nationwide. Absent significant reforms, unfunded liabilities of state-administered pension plans will continue to grow and threaten the financial security of state retirees and taxpayers alike.” Astonishingly, the $6 trillion in unfunded liabilities average approximately $18,676.00 for every person in the United States. Alaska has Read More +

Winn-dixie to Close 94 Stores – Parent Company to File for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

Florida-based Southeastern Grocers – the parent company of the Winn-Dixie grocery chain – announced yesterday that it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy by the end of March. Southeastern said it is “…implementing a court-supervised, pre-packaged” debt restructuring agreement after “conducting a thorough review of options for reducing our current debt”. The company expects to reduce current outstanding debt by approximately $500 million. In addition to Winn-Dixie, Southeastern Grocers also operates stores under the brand identities of BI-LO, Fresca y Mas and Harvey Supermarket with Read More +

Puerto Rico & Bankruptcy

The island of Puerto Rico is officially a Commonwealth of the United States. Puerto Ricans are citizens of the United States who share many of the same rights and benefits of their fellow citizens living on the mainland. Until February, 1898, Puerto Rico had been under the colonial rule of Spain for centuries. In that year and month, Spain granted them a quasi-independent status. The welcome status under the rule of the Spanish Kingdom came with a constitution, voting rights, and a theretofore unknown sense Read More +