Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal procedure by which an individual, married couple, or corporation, get a fresh financial start. Generally, itÕs fairly predictable way of eliminating debts, harassment of the bill collectors, etc. Many clients think that after filing for Bankruptcy they will not be able to keep their house or car. This is not right, as they can reaffirm the debts and keep many properties. Also, filing bankruptcy alone, most likely, is not going to create more trouble for you; if you are already behind on your bills, your credit may already be bad. Bankruptcy will probably not make things any worse than they already are.

Usually you cannot be accused of fraud for filing bankruptcy. Federal law, even the U.S. Constitution, created the right to file bankruptcy, and there is nothing dishonest about bankruptcy when it is the right business decision. However, it is wrong to incur a debt if you intend to try to discharge it in bankruptcy. For example: if you purchase items on credit after seeing a bankruptcy lawyer, the creditor may think you were not sincere about trying to pay the bill.

Chapter 7, or straight bankruptcy, is the most common type of bankruptcy filed by individuals. Chapter 11, on the other hand, is a type of reorganization used by businesses and a few individual debtors whose debts are very large. Chapter 11 is very complicated and more expensive to file than Chapter 7.

My law office handles both Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 filings.