The Howze Law Firm

The Howze Law Firm The Howze Law Firm in Rock Hill, SC, was founded by Tracy Bomar-Howze in 2018. Attorney Howze ...

Attorney Howze has over 20 years of experience handling family law cases both in South Carolina and in Michigan. The Howze Law Firm focuses on helping families who are going through difficult situations. The firm handles both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcies, divorce, wills and powers of attorneys, . When handling divorce cases, the Howze Law Firm also deals with the issues of child custody and visitation. In addition, Attorney Howze is admitted to practice law in Michigan, US District Court, and the US Bankruptcy Court.

Your neighbor waves from her driveway and asks if you're putting up a for-sale sign before the bank does it for you.Fili...
09/23/2026

Your neighbor waves from her driveway and asks if you're putting up a for-sale sign before the bank does it for you.

Filing Chapter 7 doesn't automatically put your house on the market. South Carolina requires filers to use the state's own list of exemptions instead of the federal one, and that list includes a homestead exemption built to shield equity in the home you live in. Not the whole value. Just the equity, up to a cap.

What catches people off guard is assuming that cap covers whatever they've built up, no matter the amount. How it applies can shift depending on how the home is titled and who else is on the deed. Getting that number confirmed, before you assume anything, is the part worth doing early.

The earlier in the case, the more options you have. Call us: 803-266-1812.

You spread six months of pay stubs across the table and then use last month's number, because that's the one that feels ...
09/19/2026

You spread six months of pay stubs across the table and then use last month's number, because that's the one that feels real.

The Chapter 7 means test doesn't care what you brought home this week. It looks at your average income across the six months before you filed, a number that includes almost everything you received except things like Social Security. That average gets compared against South Carolina's median for your household size.

This is the step where I see people go sideways. They eyeball one bad month or one good month instead of the real average. Or they land over the median and assume they're done. Not necessarily true. Going over just typically means a longer form comes next, one with deductions built in, not an automatic no.

If you want to know where your actual number lands before you guess, call us: 803-266-1812. That conversation is worth having early.

Proud sponsor of Northwestern High School Cross Country Team
09/15/2026

Proud sponsor of Northwestern High School Cross Country Team

Beautiful morning in Rock Hill, South Carolina. I am enjoying my course monitor duties at the Northwestern High school c...
09/12/2026

Beautiful morning in Rock Hill, South Carolina. I am enjoying my course monitor duties at the Northwestern High school cross country invitational meet.

Your phone buzzes. Payroll app, new pay stub. Just another Tuesday, except that notification is about to become part of ...
09/04/2026

Your phone buzzes. Payroll app, new pay stub. Just another Tuesday, except that notification is about to become part of your Chapter 13 file.

The means test runs on paper, not guesswork. You need your last 60 days of pay stubs and your most recent tax return before the petition can even go in. The trustee's office covering York County typically also requests two years of tax returns, six months of pay stubs, and three months of bank statements before your creditors meeting, plus mortgage and car loan statements if a house or vehicle is part of the case.

That income number does more than fill in a blank. It decides whether your plan runs three years or five, and whether what you filed matches what the trustee sees on your actual pay stubs.

Get that mismatch wrong and the case can stall. Call us before those documents go to the trustee: 803-266-1812.

Better to sort that out now than explain it during your creditors meeting.

You head out for the early shift and the driveway is empty. No note. Just a space where your car sat.Once a lender has a...
08/31/2026

You head out for the early shift and the driveway is empty. No note. Just a space where your car sat.

Once a lender has an order to take the car, every day before the tow truck shows up is a day you still have choices. Filing a Chapter 13 petition puts an automatic stay in place, and that stay stops the repossession. What you're behind on gets folded into the plan instead of coming due all at once.

If the car is already gone, that isn't automatically the end of it. As long as you still have an interest in the vehicle when you file, the lender can be required to turn it back over. One catch: if it's a purchase-money loan taken out within 910 days before filing, reducing the balance to the car's value isn't on the table.

Call us at 803-266-1812 before you start phoning tow lots.

HR pulls you aside during your shift and says the paperwork came in. Your check is about to get smaller starting next pa...
08/28/2026

HR pulls you aside during your shift and says the paperwork came in. Your check is about to get smaller starting next pay period.

That's a wage garnishment notice, and it means a court order is telling your employer to take a cut before the money ever reaches your account.

Filing a Chapter 13 petition puts an automatic stay in place the moment you file. That stay stops most wage garnishments tied to debts you owed before filing, though it doesn't reach child support or alimony orders. Once your employer has notice of the case, the withholding is supposed to stop.

Timing matters here. The stay protects you from the point you file forward, not before.

Save our number before you respond to that letter: 803-266-1812.

Your coworker in the break room swears filing bankruptcy means signing the house over to the bank. It doesn't.The moment...
08/22/2026

Your coworker in the break room swears filing bankruptcy means signing the house over to the bank. It doesn't.

The moment you file a Chapter 13 petition, an automatic stay stops the foreclosure process. Your mortgage company can't keep pushing toward a sale while your case is open.

From there, the plan does the real work. You get years, not weeks, to catch up on missed mortgage payments while keeping the regular monthly payment current going forward. Miss those ongoing payments and the lender can ask the court to lift that stay, so the plan only holds as long as you stick with it.

The earlier you talk to us, the more room you have to keep the house instead of losing it. Call us: 803-266-1812.

Somewhere on the courthouse steps in York County, a date is already circled for your house. That's the day the sale happ...
08/18/2026

Somewhere on the courthouse steps in York County, a date is already circled for your house. That's the day the sale happens if nothing changes before then.

Filing a Chapter 13 petition before that date puts an automatic stay in place right away. Your mortgage company can't push the sale through while the case is open. The amount you're behind on gets folded into a repayment plan and spread out over the case, while you keep making the regular payment as it comes due.

Even after the auction happens, South Carolina holds the sale open for a 30-day window before it's final, since a higher bid can still come in. That window exists on its own. Filing before the sale date is still the surest way to stop it from happening at all.

If there's a sale date sitting on paperwork you've already gotten, call us: 803-266-1812.

The school secretary calls and asks, "Can your daughter's father come sign her in too?" You realize you don't actually k...
07/27/2026

The school secretary calls and asks, "Can your daughter's father come sign her in too?" You realize you don't actually know the answer.

In South Carolina, that answer lives in your custody order, not in whoever's easier to reach that week. Sole legal custody means you're the one who decides on enrollment. Joint legal custody means you and your co-parent are supposed to agree on it together. A text where he says "fine, go ahead" doesn't rewrite what the order requires the next time this comes up.

When joint legal custody parents can't agree and the order doesn't name a tiebreaker, either parent can ask the Family Court to step in through a motion for temporary relief or a motion to clarify the order. The judge decides based on what's best for your child. Not who called first.

Save our number before the first day of school: 803-266-1812.

Address

200 Oakland Avenue, Suite A
Rock Hill, SC
29730

Opening Hours

Monday 8:30am - 5:30pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 5:30pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 5:30pm
Thursday 8:30am - 5:30pm
Friday 8:30am - 2pm

Telephone

+18033249009

Website

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