Our Bankruptcy Attorney Blog

Bankruptcy law is a very specialized field in the United States and there is an entire division of the legal profession that specializes in it exclusively. The reason that this specialization happens is that bankruptcy law is extremely complex and though simple bankruptcies may not require expertise, it is better to have this expertise available should something unexpected occur. The bankruptcy courts are notorious for expecting anyone dealing with them to know what they are doing and do it correctly; therefore they tend to be very unforgiving of mistakes. The smallest error can result in your entire case being dismissed out of hand. Here are the top three reasons to consider hiring a bankruptcy attorney:

First there is simply the matter of getting the process down correctly. Bankruptcy law in complicated and most of it involves filing various documents with various officers of the court at various times through the process. Further, the bankruptcy courts are very bureaucratic and expect anyone filing documents with them to know what they are doing. Failing to file a document in the right sequence, filing a document without the proper permissions and approvals, and other minor mistakes can result in the entire case bing tossed out of court altogether. On top of this, there are now restrictions on how often someone can refile, so if you ruin your filing, it will be a while before you can try again.

Secondly, there is the very real issue of accidents and mistakes being made inside your filings. Failing to enter your exempt assets on all the right forms can result in your exempted property suddenly losing its exemptions and being up for grabs to your creditors. Similarly, failure to properly disclose all of your assets, holdings and income can potentially result in criminal prosecution as a deliberate deception. As noted above, the bankruptcy courts generally expect anyone filing documents with them to know what they are doing and they show very little understanding for mistakes. A professional can certainly help you avoid these kinds of very serious mistake possibilities.

Third and finally there is always the possibility that one or more of your creditors will decide to contest some of your information or claims, turning what should be a simple operation into a much more complex one.  Frequently, the creditors will argue that you do in fact have the possibility of paying back their debt over a long term repayment plan (as opposed to having the debt discharged). When this happens, the petitioner (you, the person filing) really needs to have an aggressive attorney representing them that can argue – successfully – for a full discharge of the debt. Other creditors may try mother tricks, espcially if they know you are filing for bankruptcy long in advance, so it can really pay to have someone on your side that can address these concerns as they happen.

Not all people really need a bankruptcy attorney, especially ones that are already utterly destitute, but for everyone else, having an attorney is a good idea. The bankruptcy courts have no patience for anyone wasting their time and even the court’s official website strongly suggests that all petitioners hire an atorney that specializes in bankruptcy law.

Tags: bankruptcy lawyer

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.