How to file for Bankruptcy
Most credit specialists agree that the worst possible credit entry on your credit statement is a Bankruptcy! Whether you have filed a Chapter 13 or Chapter 7, it demonstrates a complete failure in managing your credit, Regardless of why you filed.
If you decide that you want to file for bankruptcy on your own, the first decision you have to make is which kind of bankruptcy you should file for: Chapter 7or Chapter 13? Once again, these decisions cannot be made fast. There are several ways to file for bankruptcy. You can choose a bankruptcy attorney, file the documents and handle the bankruptcy yourself or choose from available online services and file with online help. That would save up to thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees, with Chapter 13 bankruptcies generally costing 50 percent more than Chapter 7 filings. Consider these issues when deciding which way to go when filing bankruptcy. Some people choose to file without the aid of a lawyer. However, it’s highly recommended to hire a lawyer. Your research should help you decide on a lawyer. In most cases, people who choose large firms to represent them will work with a paralegal and not the lawyer. Try to find a firm in which you have direct contact with your lawyer. A bankruptcy lawyer can guide you through the complicated procedure of filing for bankruptcy. You will have to provide you bankruptcy lawyer with all your personal information in order to put together and file your voluntary petition. Once the documents are filed at the bankruptcy court, you will be assigned a trustee who will see to it that all the information that is needed is collected from you and that all the information provided is accurate. The next step would be to notify your creditors that you will be filing for bankruptcy so that they will have to stop all actions they might be taking up against you to get their payments. The later procedures include meeting the various parties who are involved in your bankruptcy case, together with your creditors and if possible your creditors’ lawyers.
Bankruptcies are perplexed. There’s no two ways about bankruptcy – it’s very complex. The filing for either of the two individual bankruptcy chapters is long and detailed and requires information on your income and expenses for the past six months. The Chapter 7 filing requires a decision on whether the presumption of abuse exists in a Chapter 7 filing. Knowing what that means requires familiarity with bankruptcy laws, and being able to figure out the calculation needed to come up with the answer is even more difficult. Basically, abuse is presumed in a Chapter 7 case when a high-income debtor has enough disposable income to be able to pay at least $167 a month to creditors. The presumption of abuse, concluded after conducting the Means Test, forces a debtor to go to Chapter 13 or give up the bankruptcy filing entirely, if not successfully rebutted.
There are some places that will file for free if you do not have the financial means to do so. The average fee will vary depending upon where you live. A lawyer cannot be your creditor in a chapter 7 case, so the attorney’s fee for a chapter 7 case must be paid in full before the case is filed. If you still owe an attorney part of the bankruptcy fee when you file a chapter 7 case, it becomes noncollectable and the attorney must waive the unpaid balance or else cannot continue to represent you. In a chapter 13 case, if agreed with the lawyer, the entire attorney’s fee need not be paid prior to filing, and may be paid through your chapter 13 plan.
Keeps all of your bankruptcy filing records for at least a year after filing, including all back-up documentation?
The parties to which you owe debts can decide to challenge the discharge of a particular debt or of your entire discharge any time from the day you file the case through the 60th day after the date first set for the meeting of creditors.
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