The core purpose of bankruptcy in general – including Chapter 7 bankruptcy – was to provide debtors with a degree of protection for a while in order to help them avoid utter destitution. However, since bankruptcy has a strongly negative social connotation in the United States, many people fail to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy until it is already too late. This, needless to say, more or less defeats the purpose.

The basic idea is that all of the debtor’s property – except the various types of property that are specifically exempted, usually property needed to maintain life and employment – is liquidated and the funds are used to pay creditors. Then, the remaining debt is discharged, or essentially erased by the court. Plainly it is all considerably more complex than this, but this is the general idea behind a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The nuances, however, can be extremely complicated and though a person can file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy by themselves, it is generally advisable to have a bankruptcy attorney if the debtor has any property to lose.

All bankruptcy in the United States is essentially a bureaucratic affair that involves making a number of separate filings with the court in the proper sequence and including the appropriate information. Although this may sound simple, in reality it can be very complicated and the penalty for accidently omitting something, filling out the form incorrectly, or failing to provide everything in the proper sequence can be financially disastrous.  Bankruptcy law represents a specialized niche within the legal profession and even other attorneys may not have the appropriate experience to file a bankruptcy case. Of course, if the debtor has absolutely nothing to lose – as is frequently the case – filing “pro se” may be a viable option.

In 2005 the government passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (or BAPCPA), which was written by the institutional lending industry and was specifically designed to make bankruptcy more complicated, more expensive, more time consuming and to reduce the potential benefits of filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. However, after the collapse of the real estate market and the subsequent credit crunch and recession, the number of bankruptcies skyrocketed despite the BAPCPA. The BAPCPA has radically altered what is required for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and what the courts are allowed to do and this is another reason why it may be very helpful to have a qualified attorney available. All said, this law has made bankruptcy much more difficult and significantly undermined its utility.

Perhaps the worst aspect of bankruptcy is the fact that it shows up on your credit report and stays there for at least ten years. Further, even if significant portions of your debts are discharged by the court, this does not necessarily mean they will be removed from your credit report. Instead, you have to manually have the discharged debts removed. There have been many cases of people who did file for bankruptcy and had a lot of their debt discharged, but never bothers to contact the credit bureaus about it. The result was that not only did all of the old debt remain on their credit report, but so too did the bankruptcy, resulting in an even worse credit rating than they had previously.

Another significant problem with filing for bankruptcy today is that it does not discharge as much debt as it used to and many debts are simply exempted from the process altogether. If your primary debts are student loans or tax liabilities, these are not likely to be discharged at all. Even the primary target debts for many filers – revolving credit accounts – are not always immediately discharged if the court determines there is a reasonable possibility of the debtor paying back the debt over a set period of time. The types of debt and your basic economic situation plays a big role on what the court will agree to discharge and what it will not. The old days of having almost everything swiped clear with the pounding of a gavel are pretty much long over.

One of the key changes to bankruptcy law that was implemented in the early 2000s was the requirement that anyone wanting to file for bankruptcy has to receive credit counseling from an approved credit counseling service. The basic idea here was to deny the bankruptcy option to people that had better alternatives available. These approved credit counseling agencies are generally non-profits and are familiar with all of the potential alternatives to bankruptcy. Therefore this process somewhat culls the ranks of those considering bankruptcy and provides tangible alternatives where they are possible. In fact, some of these credit counseling agencies will deny you the certificate of compliance that you require in order to even make the initial filing for bankruptcy if they feel you have viable alternative options available.

Bankruptcy is never a great idea and most people that can avoid it do so. The result is that those people that do file for bankruptcy and get some or all of their debt discharged are deemed the worst of the worst borrowers and are even seen as dishonest by many people. If you can avoid bankruptcy, it is usually in your best interest to do so and the credit counselors will give you a good idea of what alternatives may be available to you.

There may come a time when you will need to file for bankruptcy and this means that you may want take the time to get a lawyer to assist you with all that you need to do when it comes to making the best decisions you will need to achieve your goal as best as possible.

Did you know there are a lot of people who neglect to file for bankruptcy because the simply do not wish to admit they have this problem. However, if you fall into this category, you will need to make sure you do take matters into your own hands and be sure you get the assistance you need to allow you to file for bankruptcy.

It is a great idea that you consider getting a bankruptcy lawyer to assist you in the event that you really need the aid of one. It can really be quite a challenge to find the assistance you need and this means that it is a great idea to get a bankruptcy lawyer to help you.

When you hire a bankruptcy lawyer you can count on them to do all the paperwork and this is a great idea to help alleviate your stress as far as bankruptcy is concerned and you are certain that you will be able to get rid of much of the stress that may be associated with your bankruptcy by having an attorney.

Also, when you have a lawyer to do all the work for you, you can count on not having to get nearly as involved with the paperwork and this is a great way to make certain you get everything correct. So, there are many advantages to hiring a bankruptcy attorney to assist you with your bankruptcy and of course, one of the biggest is the fact that everything is taken care of for you.

There are a lot of times you may find that a bankruptcy lawyer will make your life much easier and this is very true when you hire a bankruptcy lawyer to assist you with all the needs that you may have.

Also, when you make use of a good bankruptcy attorney, you will find that it can be a great way for you to have a tremendous peace of mind knowing that a professional is taking care of your finance issues and can really allow you to gain a great peace of mind in this area. It’s great to know you have a professional to help you take of matters as serious as this.