Sacramento Bankruptcy Attorney serving Elk Grove Answers Questions About Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy relief

Should you consider filing for bankruptcy without a lawyer?

Many people wonder if they should try to file for bankruptcy pro se, that is, without the assistance of an attorney.   After all, many people who are considering bankruptcy, have already used up most of their assets in an attempt to repay their unmanageable debts; anything that would help save a few hundred dollars of attorney fees would be good, wouldn’t it?   While it is true that it is perfectly legal to file for bankruptcy without the advice or assistance of an attorney, is that the best way to relieve the most debt and preserve the most assets?  For one viewpoint, let’s look at someone who recently contacted me about his actual experience with his bankruptcy case.

By the time I decided to file for bankruptcy, I had already spent most of my savings and retirement funds trying to pay down credit card debts on my own.  Then I was ill for a while, and fell behind on even the low monthly payments that I had negotiated with my creditors.  They quickly let me know that they no longer wanted to work with me.  One creditor even refused to accept the small payments I was attempting to send each week, they sent the checks back with a note demanding a single immediate lump-sum payment of the outstanding balance on the card.  I knew bankruptcy was the only logical choice, but I thought about filing the forms myself to save attorney fees.  After all, I had always filed my own income tax forms, so how hard could this be?

I wanted to file for chapter 7 bankruptcy, since I had very little income after being laid off, I didn’t have any major assets like a house or a car, and I wanted a ‘clean slate’ to put my debts behind me.  I looked online at quite a few sites about bankruptcy, some sites even had free down-loadable forms for the various required bankruptcy filings.  Whoa! No way!  One site had over 36 forms to fill out for filing, another site listed over 75 bankruptcy terms I would have to know the meaning of  before proceeding.  A third site advised that if I left out any required forms, filed at the wrong local court, or missed any hearing deadlines, my whole bankruptcy petition could be denied;  I would end up with no way to discharge those debts off my records.

I decided that the assistance of an experienced bankruptcy attorney made sense in my case.  A friend helped me raise the required filing fees and attorney fees.  My attorney helped me file the lists of assets, income, debts, and creditors.  He made sure that the correct format was used as specified by the rules of my local court.  He helped ensure that everything was filed on time, and that every creditor and interested party was properly notified of my bankruptcy hearing.  In the end, my attorney helped me save an asset that was worth significantly more than the fees I paid him.  I am glad I decided to hire an attorney for my bankruptcy case, I only wish I had contacted one sooner after my job loss and medical issues, I might have been able to have kept even more assets.

Please contact our Sacramento office serving Elk Grove at 916-313-9069 or via email at info@california-bankruptcyattorney.com.