One obvious problem facing the United States today is the battered economy and lack of jobs. As a consequence of the losses in the economy in 2008 and beyond, personal bankruptcies in the United States have reached an all-time high. Most of the reasons for the increase in personal bankruptcy filings have been the direct result of job losses in the business and financial sectors. Compounding this fact is that many income-dependent young families that have been devastated by the recession and older Americans facing a medical crisis or nursing home stay have not had the personal resources or disposable income to weather this. As a result, many more Americans than normal, including older Americans and retirees, are turning to the courts and a skilled bankruptcy attorney for guidance and help in weathering the crisis.
But what is bankruptcy? As stated by the Supreme Court in a 1991 case, the purpose of the bankruptcy code is to give families and individuals in the United States a fresh financial start. Another way of looking at this is that bankruptcy allows you a fresh start without any debt burden affecting your life. How do you go about seeing if you qualify for this fresh start? The best way is to make an appointment with a qualified bankruptcy attorney licensed in the state in which he lives. Bankruptcy is a specialty of the law and no one knows the ins and outs of bankruptcy better than a qualified bankruptcy attorney.
One of the first things your attorney will ask you to do when you meet is fill out a worksheet that sets out your assets and debts, along with a list of creditors and the amount of money owed to each along with your payments. This is to give everyone a snapshot of your current financial situation. This snapshot is necessary to see what form of bankruptcy protection you are eligible for and how best to proceed. There are two basic forms of bankruptcy protection, a Chapter 13 reorganization and a Chapter 7 liquidation. The basic differences are that under Chapter 13 you agree with the court and your creditors to pay, in most cases at a dramatically lower rate. lower, all of your secured debts and other outstanding debts for a fixed period of time, usually five years. A Chapter 7 liquidation, on the other hand, is a complete sale of all your non-essential assets and a complete discharge of all outstanding debts. With a chapter 7, you are allowed to keep some assets that are essential, such as work tools or equipment, cars and other transportation, IRA and savings accounts, and your main home. You are simply not allowed to hold onto or hold on to anything that is superfluous. When you have decided which way to go with your bankruptcy to get a fresh start, your bankruptcy attorney will guide you through the maze of petition filing and court procedures to fulfill your task of starting over.
