Our Bankruptcy Attorney Blog

It is required for companies and other entities to employ an attorney when filing for bankruptcy, but this is not a requirement for individuals. Technically anyone is allowed to file for Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy “pro se” (Latin: “for oneself”), or without legal representation. However, realistically this is usually a bad idea for anyone with that still has assets and an income, since the smallest mistake in the very complex procedure can have long lasting and far reaching consequences.

The Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the U.S.C.) is well known for extreme complexity and staunch adherence to process. As such, bankruptcy law represents a legal specialization that even many other types of attorneys are not really qualified to deal with. Further, the courts are generally unforgiving of mistakes that result in wasting their time, even relatively minor omissions or failure to file all the requisite documents in the proper sequence. Worse still, since so many people try to hide assets or use bankruptcy unethically, the courts are much more likely to automatically assume that any particular mistake or omission is intentional and more likely to respond accordingly. In fact, each of the federal bankruptcy court’s websites specifically says as much and strongly advises all filers to use an attorney.

The only people that should even consider filing without an attorney are really people that have little or nothing to lose either way. If you have no assets, no cash, and no income then there is really little to lose and the filing process should be extremely simple. One of the places where many pro se filers get themselves in the most trouble is with the properly claiming their exemptions, but of course this does not matter for someone without any assets to claim as exempt. However, pretty much anyone else – and especially those with any sort of complex holdings like real estate – should certainly use an attorney in order to guarantee that their exemptions are claimed properly and claimed against all creditors.

Another area where many pro se filers get themselves in trouble is with listing all of their creditors. There is a set process to exempt particular creditors, but simply omitting them from the filing is an extremely bad idea that many pro se filers seem to do. Not only does this mean that the excluded lenders still have a full range of collection options available to them, but there is also a very distinct possibility that the court will believe the omission was deliberate in order to misrepresent the filer’s actual financial position. Again, an attorney knows how to file the proper paperwork in order to exclude – with limits – some creditors in a way that the court understands and appreciates as opposed to ad hoc measures taken by non-professionals trying to be clever.

To conclude, officially it is not really necessary to have an attorney for an individual filing for personal bankruptcy. However, realistically speaking, it is a good idea to have one for anyone that has a significant number of assets, money laid aside, real estate or equity, and/or a regular income. Pro se filing is only really a good idea for people with virtually nothing to lose.

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