An attorney who specializes in bankruptcy law is otherwise known as a bankruptcy attorney. He can provide legal aid to the individuals and organizations. Your lawyer may advise you to settle your debts by liquidating your assets or alternatively, may also help you to settle your debts with a reorganization plan that has been approved by the court. Bankruptcy lawyers help in explaining the applications of specific laws and how exactly these laws work in order to relieve the burden of debt of the debtors and give them a fresh start financially. If you are a business at the verge of foreclosure, liens, repossessions or lawsuits, a bankruptcy attorney can help you out in finding the best option to eliminate your debts.

Experienced Lawyers – A Big Help Chapter 13 bankruptcy and Chapter 7 bankruptcy are the most common consumer bankruptcies. There are experts who exclusively handle such cases and can thus aid you in getting the most accurate legal aid when you file for bankruptcy. These attorneys can help you fight in order to protect your property and rights. They help you to settle your debts with your creditors in a manner that is agreeable for all. Bankruptcy lawyers can thus help you to salvage your vehicle, home and other assets. Such lawyers are committed to acquiring debt relief for you and providing the necessary advice, services and information that is required for you to achieve a better financial future. It is easy for you to get a professional from the directory by clicking on a specific state or province.

Reasons To Opt For An Attorney If you are in a position where you find that making the minimum payments itself is a struggle and you find yourself lagging behind each month, then it makes more sense to call a bankruptcy attorney. He or she can help you to make good decisions for the future and can help you to decide whether filing for bankruptcy is helpful in your current financial scenario or not. Although there may be many other resources, which provide helpful information, the help of an experienced attorney can often be invaluable. A professional can help you view your financial position in an objective manner, educates you on the differences between Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 and can, in short, help you to make your next move.

A Chapter 7 bankruptcy can help in eliminating most of your unsecured debts like medical bills, unsecured personal loans and credit card debts. An experienced attorney can help you to determine whether Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy is appropriate for you and also helps in explaining the automatic stay provisions of the law.

Bankruptcy is a specialized area of law that can be far more complex than appears on the outside. The issues are not always apparent or simple. Pick a bankruptcy lawyer who can help you work through the issues, alternatives, and conclusions of your own choices. Pick a lawyer with whom you are comfortable, one whom you can ask questions and get responses you understand. He or she is specialized in bankruptcy or does a large part of his or her practice in the field.

It is also good if you ask questions until you understand what your choices are. And also do not be afraid to interview a lawyer and leave without retaining if you are not satisfied.

Look for a certified specialist or a lawyer with significant experience in bankruptcy. Never associate your self to a generalist, he or she might do a simple bankruptcy, but may not be able to tell the status of your case.

You can also ask for any local bar associations, they have a referral panels of bankruptcy. You can ask them about their experience with cases like yours. If you find it hard trusting them, you can use your yellow pages for other lawyers.

It is better to interview lawyers until you find one who suits you. Ask how many cases like yours he or she handles, and how long he or she has been practicing bankruptcy. And find someone with whom you can communicate well with.

A bankruptcy lawyer will be committed to getting you debt relief and providing you with valuable information, services and advice to get you a better financial future. They may also give you advice on where it is better to file bankruptcy.

On your first visit to your lawyer’s office you should bring a list of all the creditors that you owe. This includes debts that you are not behind on like credit cards, medical bills, taxes, cars, houses, and personal loans. The better the information that you give to your lawyer, the better their advice will be. The list of your assets and income is also needed.

Your lawyer can also stop your creditors harassment, immediately once you retain a lawyer to file your bankruptcy they will start taking your creditor calls.

You should also take advantage on your lawyer’s expertise. He or she can talk to you about everything in regards to your financial condition. Take note that without all the debt information your right cannot be protected. All too often, information that a client withholds because they think it is troublesome presents no problem, if disclosed. Lying to your lawyer may cause a problem where none existed before.

Read carefully the representation agreement, the draft schedules, the court notices and communications from your lawyer. Ask your lawyer questions what you do not understand at first. Inexact or not whole information can have severe and obnoxious penalties.

Cooperate in providing promptly information and feed back with your bankruptcy lawyer when requested so that court deadlines can be met. Take responsibility for your case. You are the person with the best handle on the facts of the case and the one most affected by the case’s outcome. Your lawyer can file a bankruptcy with you, but not for you. He or she may help you, but not all the time. Remember, he or she is a lawyer, lawyers can only help you in regards to legal aspects.

Is there a bright side to bankruptcy? Yes there is, although bankruptcy should still be considered your option of last resort, and the bankruptcy option only employed after you have thoroughly investigated all other options and alternatives. There are many downsides to filing bankruptcy, not the least of which is that this will become a huge red flag on your credit report for the next seven to ten years.

But sometimes bankruptcy is the best option in a given situation and if that is the case, you need to understand that there are bright sides to bankruptcy. Keep in mind that, especially with the new bankruptcy laws, one cannot file for bankruptcy on a whim, nor can it be done if you have already declared bankruptcy in recent years. The bankruptcy court needs to APPROVE your bankruptcy before things can move forward, and that approval is not nearly as automatic as it once was. Yes, after looking in your particular financial situation in a great amount of detail, the court may actually decide that you are not eligible to file bankruptcy, and you have to seek another option out of your financial difficulties.

One of the bright sides of bankruptcy, if you are approved to be able to file, is that the harassing phone calls from your creditors come to a screeching halt. But here is where it gets tricky because you also have some responsibilities here. After you have filed your bankruptcy petition and it is approved by the bankruptcy court, knowledge of this fact is not known to your creditors automatically. So the next time they call after your bankruptcy has been approved, keep track of the information. Write down the date and time of the call, which creditor it is, the name of the collections agency, and the name of the individual calling. Let them know that you have filed bankruptcy. By federal law, that stops calls from that creditor.

The reason for keeping a notebook handy where you record this information is so that if a creditor calls again who has already been told that you have filed bankruptcy, again write down the name, phone number, name of the person and name of the creditor as well as date and time of the call. With that information in hand, you can inform the creditor that they are now in violation of federal law. The ball is now in your court. There have been cases where a creditor continued to call after being informed that you had declared bankruptcy, and as a result, the consumer filed a countersuit against that creditor for their continued calls, and the debt from that creditor was wiped clean!

Another bright side to bankruptcy is your potential ability to start over with a clean slate and no financial obligations. Getting new credit is going to be difficult and you will have to spend time getting things like a personal loan, car loan, or even a mortgage, but it can be done. But since your credit report will show your bankruptcy filing clearly, be aware that it will be a longer row to hoe than it previously was.

If you file bankruptcy under the Chapter 7 regulations, you will need to demonstrate and prove that you are unable to pay even a portion of your outstanding debts. If this can be proven to the court’s satisfaction, your slate will be wiped clean.

The decision to file bankruptcy is not an easy one to make, and again, you are encouraged to examine all your options and alternatives. But if bankruptcy is your most viable option, make sure you understand the bankruptcy laws and have a bankruptcy attorney who understands them, because you don’t want to risk making a bad situation worse.

Is there a bright side to bankruptcy? Yes there is, although bankruptcy should still be considered your option of last resort, and the bankruptcy option only employed after you have thoroughly investigated all other options and alternatives. There are many downsides to filing bankruptcy, not the least of which is that this will become a huge red flag on your credit report for the next seven to ten years.

But sometimes bankruptcy is the best option in a given situation and if that is the case, you need to understand that there are bright sides to bankruptcy. Keep in mind that, especially with the new bankruptcy laws, one cannot file for bankruptcy on a whim, nor can it be done if you have already declared bankruptcy in recent years. The bankruptcy court needs to APPROVE your bankruptcy before things can move forward, and that approval is not nearly as automatic as it once was. Yes, after looking in your particular financial situation in a great amount of detail, the court may actually decide that you are not eligible to file bankruptcy, and you have to seek another option out of your financial difficulties.

One of the bright sides of bankruptcy, if you are approved to be able to file, is that the harassing phone calls from your creditors come to a screeching halt. But here is where it gets tricky because you also have some responsibilities here. After you have filed your bankruptcy petition and it is approved by the bankruptcy court, knowledge of this fact is not known to your creditors automatically. So the next time they call after your bankruptcy has been approved, keep track of the information. Write down the date and time of the call, which creditor it is, the name of the collections agency, and the name of the individual calling. Let them know that you have filed bankruptcy. By federal law, that stops calls from that creditor.

The reason for keeping a notebook handy where you record this information is so that if a creditor calls again who has already been told that you have filed bankruptcy, again write down the name, phone number, name of the person and name of the creditor as well as date and time of the call. With that information in hand, you can inform the creditor that they are now in violation of federal law. The ball is now in your court. There have been cases where a creditor continued to call after being informed that you had declared bankruptcy, and as a result, the consumer filed a countersuit against that creditor for their continued calls, and the debt from that creditor was wiped clean!

Another bright side to bankruptcy is your potential ability to start over with a clean slate and no financial obligations. Getting new credit is going to be difficult and you will have to spend time getting things like a personal loan, car loan, or even a mortgage, but it can be done. But since your credit report will show your bankruptcy filing clearly, be aware that it will be a longer row to hoe than it previously was.

If you file bankruptcy under the Chapter 7 regulations, you will need to demonstrate and prove that you are unable to pay even a portion of your outstanding debts. If this can be proven to the court’s satisfaction, your slate will be wiped clean.

The decision to file bankruptcy is not an easy one to make, and again, you are encouraged to examine all your options and alternatives. But if bankruptcy is your most viable option, make sure you understand the bankruptcy laws and have a bankruptcy attorney who understands them, because you don’t want to risk making a bad situation worse.

In recent years, the rate of filed bankruptcies has been closely tracked. From the recent high in 2005 of bankruptcy filing, the year 2006 represented a significant drop in the reported number of filings, but after the end of 2006, the rate of bankruptcy filing has started to increase again.

One of the factors for this may be the new bankruptcy ruling laws that requires consumers to attending financial management and credit counseling sessions before they can file bankruptcy. But since that law was put into effect, numerous studies have shown clearly that such counseling does little good for the consumer. The big problem with this law is that it makes the assumption that the consumer who is filing bankruptcy is doing so out of excessive financial mismanagement or credit abuse. Anyone who has spent any amount of time studying the underlying causes for why someone would file bankruptcy can tell you, almost after a casual glance, that this is not the case at all with the majority of consumers who file bankruptcy.

The studies bear this fact out. In fact, out of more than 400,000 consumers that were counseled via these mandatory classes before filing bankruptcy, more than 95% of them continued their bankruptcy filing after completing the classes. The biggest problem here is that by the time a consumer is in a situation to need to file bankruptcy, they have typically exhausted all other viable options, and it is too late to make any significant difference for almost all of them.

The following can be considered early warning signs of possible future bankruptcy that consumers should be aware of:No/little savings cushion

Most consumers in the US have little or no savings to rely on in case of an expected huge necessary expense. Most Americans spend more than they earn, and they finance their greater lifestyle on credit cards and borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. Although saving is hard, a shift needs to occur in the minds of most consumers about putting a higher emphasis on savings instead of always “living for today”.Consistently living paycheck to paycheck

Many people say they do not enjoy it but find themselves living from paycheck to paycheck, such that when something happens to prevent that next paycheck from showing up, like a job layoff, they are already in deep sneakers. Some reports have indicated that more than 60% of Americans are in this situation.Higher than 20% non-mortgage debt to income ratio

If you are spending more than 20% of your net income to pay your credit cards and financial obligations outside of your mortgage, this is a problem, and a warning sign that financial troubles could be near.Always making only minimum payments on credit cards

Almost half of all people who have credit cards carry a balance forward from month to month. If you pay only the minimum payment due each month, it will take you three or more times as long to pay off the balance, even if you don’t charge anything more to the card. Inadequate insurance

Many people consider insurance to be a ripoff – until they need it. Many bankruptcies are due to very high cost of medical treatments or car accidents, where the consumer was inadequately insured to allow the insurance company to carry the burden of the majority of the expense.

If you find yourself in these situations, you should take action to straighten things out so that you do not become the next bankruptcy statistic. In addition, consider your alternatives to bankruptcy such as personal loans or debt consolidation, which offer some financial breathing room without the long-term negative effects of bankruptcy.