“King of Tort” Bellies Up When Beaten to the Punch
Melvin Mourin Belli was a famous American lawyer who became known as the “King of Tort” because he won over $600 million in judgments for his clients, often famous or celebrity.
Born in the California Gold Rush town of Sonora, California in 1907 to immigrants from Switzerland, Belli grew up on the West Coast graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, then from the Boalt Hall School of Law at Berkeley. Of all the cases that Belli handled throughout his career, probably the one that made him the most famous was his handling of Jack Ruby, the man who shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of President John F. Kennedy.
Despite making a fortune throughout his career, Belli was forced to file for bankruptcy when breast implant manufacturer Dow Corning filed their own bankruptcy beating “King of Tort” to the punch. Belli had sued Dow Corning in 1995 on behalf of 800 women who had received Dow Corning made implants. He then filed his own bankruptcy after having no way to recover the $5 million his firm had advanced doctors and expert witnesses for the law suit. Belli died of complications from pancreatic cancer the following year at the age of 88.
For the majority of you who may have lost everything because of a divorce, foreclosure, bad business dealings, or bad advice, going completely broke may place you in the position of having to file for bankruptcy. Sometimes, filing for bankruptcy is not a choice you make, but others make it for you. There are basically two kinds of bankruptcies- voluntary and involuntary. Although rare, an involuntary bankruptcy occurs when a creditor legally forces bankruptcy proceedings onto a debtor. The greatest majority of bankruptcy legal proceedings are of the voluntary variety. Even famous people including lawyers like Melvin Belli can be forced into bankruptcy if they cannot pay their creditors on time, regardless of the reason.
As a society, we have come a long way since the days of debtor prisons and states. The Constitution provides for our protection against those antiquated ways when it gave Congress the power to legislate bankruptcy law making the primary laws governing bankruptcy federal. State laws supplement the federal laws by honing out some of the necessary details. The laws have been designed to protect both creditor and debtor making bankruptcy a legal proceeding designed to allow the honest person to work their way out of a bad financial situation.
As an individual, when you have to or forced to file for bankruptcy, you have two options:
- A Chapter 7 bankruptcy, commonly called liquidation of your assets, is normally the simplest and quickest form of bankruptcy. It is available to individuals, married couples, corporations, and partnerships. A trustee that is appointed by the court will gather and sell your non-exempt property, and he will use the proceeds from the sale in order to pay your creditors. Most chapter 7 cases are “no-asset” cases, meaning you do not have any non-exempt property for the trustee to sell.
- A chapter 13 bankruptcy, known as the wage earner’s plan, is the second bankruptcy available to individuals. It enables individuals with regular income to develop a plan to repay all or part of their debts. Under this chapter, debtors propose a repayment plan to make installments to creditors over three to five years. If the debtor’s current monthly income is less than the applicable state median, the plan will be for three years unless the court approves a longer period “for cause.” If the debtor’s current monthly income is greater than the applicable state median, the plan generally must be for five years. In no case may a plan provide for payments over a period longer than five years. During the plan, creditors may not start or continue collection proceedings.
In order to determine which bankruptcy would be appropriate for your particular situation, complex bankruptcy laws and good common sense should dictate that you might need the services of a bankruptcy attorney. After all, there have been many famous people to file bankruptcy before you, so, if you determine you are in need of relief from the stress associated with debt and you live in or around the metropolitan area of San Francisco, California, contact us today at www.BankruptcyHome.com . We will help you find a bankruptcy attorney in your area that will help you with any questions you may have on bankruptcy law.
