I recently attended a continuing education course that was presented by a group of Arizona bankruptcy attorneys that I am apart of. The presentation was given by three Phoenix bankruptcy trustees. In every bankruptcy case that is filed there a bankruptcy trustee assigned to review your documents and administer your case. The main point of the presentation was to give us attorneys pointers on how to help our client’s bankruptcy cases proceed more smoothly from the view point of the trustee. Bankruptcy trustees generally have a lot of cases. The information we were [...]
You made “the call”. I realize that by the time my clients actually call me to set up a bankruptcy consultation there has been a lot of internal (and external) debate. Now that you have taken the all important first step of setting up the bankruptcy consultation I thought I would share a few ideas of how you can make this meeting as productive as possible. #1 – Whatever You Tell Me is Confidential When you visit with me in my office about your debt problems those discussions are protected [...]
I usually try and come up with some clever title for my articles (rarely do I succeed), but with this article I just want to relay pure information. If you need to file bankruptcy, do it now, don’t wait. Delay will only cause you further grief. Yesterday I met with a handful of families that were looking into filing bankruptcy. In each of there cases it was apparent that they needed to file and in fact all of them had been talking about filing for bankruptcy for quite some time. But the [...]
One of the drawbacks to filing chapter 7 bankruptcy is that you may lose some of your stuff. Chapter 7 bankruptcy is a liquidating bankruptcy – meaning if you have assets that you own free and clear of any liens and that are not protected under one of Arizona’s exemption laws, then in chapter 7 you could lose them. For instance, in Arizona there is no exemption for ATVs. So, if you own a Yamaha Banshee (my favorite ATV), in bankruptcy the trustee could require that you turn the Banshee over, they [...]
When you file for bankruptcy here in Arizona your case will be assigned to a bankruptcy trustee. This person works under the Department of Justice and in a chapter 7 bankruptcy, their job is to review your bankruptcy documents, determine if there are any assets that can be sold, and then distribute the proceeds to your creditors. If your chapter 7 case is typical you will only see your bankruptcy trustee on one occasion – the Meeting of Creditors. However, despite not having much face time with your trustee, your bankruptcy trustee [...]
Should you seek out God’s guidance before filing for bankruptcy? Rev. Billy Graham says yes in a recent article when the question of the morality of bankruptcy was posed to him. After I have explained the nuts and bolts of the bankruptcy process to people I often get asked whether I think it is morally acceptable to file for bankruptcy. In a way it is a funny question to ask a bankruptcy lawyer. Either I feel that it is morally acceptable to file bankruptcy or I am encouraging people to [...]
Because you told me about it. That is my typical response when I have someone tell me about an asset they have and then ask me “how will the bankruptcy court ever know that I have this asset?”. During my bankruptcy consultations I always discuss with clients the fact that a chapter 7 bankruptcy is a liquidating bankruptcy. This means that if you own assets that are not protected under one of Arizona’s exemption laws that you could lose them. I discuss with people what their assets are and what the [...]
Earlier this week ESPN reported that NFL sports agent Leigh Steinberg filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy. Mr. Steinberg was the inspiration behind the movie Jerry McGuire and represented many high profile athletes including Steve Young, Troy Aikman, and Ben Roethlisberger. There are things that can be learned from any bankruptcy filing, but particularly a high profile chapter 7 bankruptcy filing shows us the following: Anyone Can End Up in Bankruptcy I recently met with one of my bankruptcy clients and she told me that one of the many things the bankruptcy process had taught [...]
Garnishments are a pain. Maybe the only thing that pushes people into bankruptcy more quickly than garnishment is a foreclosure. In Arizona, a creditor can garnish up to 25% of each pay check. If you are living payday to payday this can completely devastate your finances. Before I get into how bankruptcy can stop a garnishment, there are a lot of misconceptions when it comes to people understanding when their wages can be garnished that need to be debunked. First, your wages cannot be garnished until your creditor files a [...]
Hostess, the company that makes the Twinkie, is preparing to file for chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in the last seven years. The purpose of a chapter 11 bankruptcy filing is to allow a company to restructure and emerge from bankruptcy leaner, healthier company, a process that Hostess has felt necessary to do more than once. Which leads to the question, “how many times and how often can a person file for bankruptcy?” The answer is you can file for bankruptcy as many times as you like, however you will [...]
