Discharge of Debt Does Not, Necessarily, Remove Secured Lien

By Douglas B. Jacobs, Jacobs, Anderson, Potter & Chaplin, LLP (Chico, CA)

Remember those days in law school when the professor tried to explain the difference between “a debt” and “a lien”? Well, here we are again. In bankruptcy, that distinction can be very important.
“A debt”, according to Black’s Law Dictionary is “a sum of money due by contract.”

“A lien” is defined by Black’s Law Dictionary as “A qualified right of property which a creditor has in or over specific property of his debtor, as security for the debt …”

For example . . .

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