Once you have decided to file for Bankruptcy, you will understand that it is no easy process. Even after reading a lot about it, you could be unsure of which type of Bankruptcy you should file. Sometimes it’s hard to decide whether you should even file at all. And by then, you will have understood that Bankruptcy is really complicated.
You should hire a bankruptcy specialist to handle your case because of the following reasons:
- Every case is different and it takes an attorney to decide upon which type of Bankruptcy you should file.
- Laws change very often and only a qualified attorney can handle all the necessary paper work involved.
- Certain consumer debts can be discharged through Bankruptcy but with certain exceptions. An attorney can advice you about filing if you are looking to wipe off a particular debt.
- Your attorney can advice you which assets you are eligible to keep post-bankruptcy beforehand so you can be completely sure.
- Even if you can hire a Petition Preparer, he can only fill out forms and file them on your behalf for a fee and is legally barred from providing you with legal advice. Only a Bankruptcy attorney can provide you with proper legal advice on your case.
Once you get in touch with a Bankruptcy lawyer, he should be able to tell you if filing for Bankruptcy is the right option after studying your case. After that, he will work with the creditors on your behalf and should be able to stop all the abusive calls and threatening letters from your creditors and the debt collection agencies.
Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), debt collection agencies cannot involve in abusive, harassing or threatening behavior when attempting to collect on a debt. Filing for Bankruptcy with a Bankruptcy lawyer can be the most effective way to stop creditor harassment.
Once you have filed for your Bankruptcy, your creditors can only contact you through your lawyer and he will talk to them on your behalf. Therefore, a Bankruptcy lawyer does not merely act as a provider of information and is actually a problem solver who starts working your credit problems right away.
Most of the qualified and experienced Bankruptcy attorneys offer a free, no-commitment one-on-one consultation. There is no reason you shouldn’t take advantage of this opportunity if you are considering filing for Bankruptcy.
What is the different between a bankruptcy attorney and a bankruptcy preparer?
An experienced Connecticut bankruptcy attorney stands behind his advice. He’s there for you. However, with a ‘do-it-yourself’ bankruptcy preparer, who are ‘on your own’. There are ‘on-line’ bankruptcy preparers and the quality of their work is very uneven, to say the least. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN EXPERIENCED CONNECTICUT BANKRUPTCY ATTORNEY AND A BANKRUPTCY PREPARER?
ANSWER: An experienced Connecticut bankruptcy attorney stands behind his advice. He’s there for you. However, with a ‘do-it-yourself’ bankruptcy preparer, who are ‘on your own’. There are ‘on-line’ bankruptcy preparers and the quality of their work is very uneven, to say the least.
And I have seen many a ‘pro-se’ (‘by themselves or for themselves’ file bankruptcy petitions and the petition is granted. And they walk out of the hearing with smugness that they can do anything an experienced bankruptcy attorney can do. And then years later, it comes home to roost.
Their errors catch-up with them by the barracuda collectors. And, then, they come to my office for their ‘free consultation’. And many times, the errors which were made can’t be corrected because ‘the horse is out of the barn’. To me these people are ‘pennywise and pound foolish‘ because they attempted to handled a complicated matter on their own account.
And there’s a great siren out there on the Internet telling people, ‘You can do this yourself’ because you are going to pay us and ‘save money’. And don’t get me wrong, it’s good to save money. But it is very, very short-sighted to take complicated matters into your own hands.
And, yes, it’s good to understand the process but having the ‘old carpenter’ out there measuring and cutting the boards and consistently doing the job correctly, has its great value. And knowing that if there’s a problem, there’s someone solid and dependable upon whom you can rely.
Bankruptcy preparers realize you are a ‘one shot client’ and, therefore, they get paid and file papers and the rest is your responsibility . The reason there are bankruptcy preparers is because in California they had enough votes in Congress to support their practice of just preparing papers.
So they amended the bankruptcy code to allow anyone to become a bankruptcy preparer. Now if these people want to just type papers for Court, why don’t they go to law school and pass the bar exam and be sworn to uphold ethical obligations. Oh, no.
They were either not accepted in law school or want to take a short-cut and simply not go to law school. How would you feel if your doctor didn’t go to medical school but was the cheapest source of medical care on the block.
Yes, I understand that you would go to that person because they were ‘cheap’ but wouldn’t you feel that you were going to the ‘second’ or ‘third’ or even ‘fourth’ rate source for medical advice?
There’s the sad but true story of a person who was very mechanically gifted and he thought that he could give his friend ‘liposuction’ to reduce the fat contend of his body. He hooked up a compressor in his garage and then cut a slit into the person and proceed to suction away his friends excess fat.
Tragically, his friend died. He was charged with manslaughter. This actually happened. No one was a villain here. They were simply naive, stupid and reckless.
And a tragedy occurred. The same can happen when unqualified people on the Internet make outlandish promises and then they seem to work. But then several years later, the problems arise.