Laurel E. Bretta

Since establishing a private practice, Attorney Bretta represents clients in areas such as tax, bankruptcy, corporate and business law, and immigration matters. Ms. Bretta has had several notable achievements in Bankruptcy Court, including but not limited to, three first-impression decisions in her clients’ favor. She litigated the first case in which a debtor’s chapter 13 bankruptcy was dismissed as a result of bad faith filing. She successfully litigated on behalf of a client who sought to modify his mortgage on a property which housed a portion of his principal residence in order to save a substantial amount of money, reducing his mortgage from $196,000 to $36,000, and saving the property from foreclosure. Attorney Bretta also argued a case which appeared in Lawyer’s Weekly, in which she won an appeal before the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel, modifying a judgment against a bank in which a mortgage was improperly recorded against the incorrect property. Recently, she won an appeal before the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel involving a $2.1 Million Judgment against her client. Ms. Bretta has also litigated several waiver and cancellation of removal cases in the United States Immigration Court in Boston, Massachusetts. In each instance, she has been able to obtain a favorable result of a Waiver or a Cancellation of Removal for her client, and, eventually, preserve their resident status in the United States. Attorney Bretta is also knowledgeable in the defense of “responsible person” penalties before the Internal Revenue Service, as well as the Department of Revenue, and deals with both taxing authorities, as part of bankruptcy work, and as income tax advocacy services outside of the bankruptcy forum. Attorney Bretta has been admitted to practice in both state and federal Courts, such as: United States Tax Court - 1st Circuit United States Bankruptcy Appellate Panel - 1st Circuit United States Court of Appeals - 1st Circuit United States District Court - 1st Circuit Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Massachusetts Trial Courts Attorney Bretta is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association, and frequently provides pro bono services through various agencies in the Boston area.