Bankruptcy Lawyers in Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33311

If you're going to pay for a bankruptcy lawyer, make sure you get a good one. Just because someone is a lawyer does not mean they are knowledgeable about bankruptcy law. Do your homework before you hire someone.

Someone claiming to be a bankruptcy lawyer should be able to point to experience and deep knowledge of the specialized law of bankruptcy, and specifically, your local court. Like tax law, bankruptcy is a specialty.

Most bankruptcies are routine for someone who has done many of them. Chances are very good that an experienced bankruptcy attorney has seen your situation many times before. The lawyer you choose should be able to advise you on the best way to proceed with your bankruptcy given your assets, your debts, your secured debts, whether there are cosigners, and other issues.

Legal Aid in Florida

If your income is low, you may be able to get bankruptcy representation through your local legal aid organization.

Listing of free legal services in Florida

(Current income guidelines to qualify for legal aid.)

Listings of Bankruptcy Attorneys serving Fort Lauderdale, FL

 

Nolo Lawyer Directory

Nolo offers lawyer profiles and asks the attorney whether they're open to the idea of working with people who have read up on the subject of bankruptcy.

 

 

Google Maps / Local Search

Click the link below to show a map of the Fort Lauderdale area with pointers to the offices of bankruptcy attorneys.

Google Map of bankruptcy attorneys in the 33311 area

 

 

FindLaw (West) Lawyer Directory

This service features advertisements by lawyers in the West Legal Directory.

FindLaw.com (West/Thomson)

 

Lawyers.com (Martindale Hubbell)

This directory is from the Martindale Hubbell lawyer directory. This website offers profiles of listed lawyers and lets you select several and compare their listings.

Lawyers.com (Martindale Hubbell) (listings for all of Broward County)

 

Limited Lawyer Help for a reduced fee.

Another option is limited help from a lawyer combined with the services of a bankruptcy petition preparer. If you live in California, see www.bankruptcylawproject.com for more information about their "Affordable Attorney Advice" service, which, for a flat rate of $100 for anyone using Nolo’s book How to File for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, will answer all questions that may arise in the course of your bankruptcy, but not actually file bankruptcy for you.

Using Non-Lawyers to help you

See this blog post on Using Non-Lawyers to Help You With Your Bankruptcy.

 

Other Bankruptcy Services

Credit Counseling ::Bankruptcy Petition Preparers 

Credit Counseling

Before you file for bankruptcy, you must get credit counseling, and get a certificate proving that you have done so. You MUST use one of the approved counseling agencies for your court district.

There are many shady credit counseling agencies that advertise heavily on TV and other media. They call themselves non-profit, are really just fronts for profit making businesses and are designed to funnel people into dead-end payment plans that do little for the consumer. Indeed 40% of the industry has been targeted by the IRS to remove their non-profit status [NPR Report] [SFGate article].

The FTC has published a "Consumer Alert" pamphlet for debtor thinking about bankruptcy warning about shady credit counselors and how to protect yourself from falling victim to one. You can download the pamphlet here.

Again, be sure to use only a credit counselor that is on the approved list of counselors for your court district.

Even assuming you're using a legitimate credit counselor, many bankruptcy lawyers consider the credit counseling requirement a scam, because "it so seldom produces any meaningful settlement, provides no protection to the consumer while the money is accumulating, and lines the pockets of the organization in the meantime."

A recent GAO report to Congress stated that:

"The value of the credit counseling requirement is not clear. The counseling was intended to help consumers make informed choices about bankruptcy and its alternatives. Yet anecdotal evidence suggests that by the time most clients receive the counseling, their financial situations are dire, leaving them with no viable alternative to bankruptcy. As a result, the requirement may often serve more as an administrative obstacle than as a timely presentation of meaningful options."
- source: Government Accounting Office tesimony before the House Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, May 1, 2007

Form Preparation Services (BPPs)

Bankruptcy Petition Preparers are non-lawyers paid by consumers to prepare bankruptcy documents, for filing in court.

Anyone can be a BPP, provided they comply with the rules governing BPP practice contained in the bankruptcy code.

Customers who use a BPP are representing themselves in the bankruptcy court. This means they are responsible for making the choices required of them in their case. They must also provide the BPP with complete and accurate information to be entered in the documents.

Because BPPs are not lawyers, their customers must obtain necessary legal information and advice from an independent source such as a self-help law book or a lawyer.

Think of it this way, A BPP's customers are their own lawyers and the BPP is their legal secretary. The customers have to be sufficiently informed to tell the BPP what to do.

To find a BPP near you, try the National Association for Legal Document Preparers. Their searchable list of providers can be found here.

 

Online Bankruptcy Filing Advertised to Consumers

These are listing only, provided for comparison purposes. They are not recommendations for any particular service.

So-Called "Full Service" Companies

The following companies tout themselves as "full service" to distinguish themselves from companies that only offer forms preparation. But they do not appear to be lawyers, so, by law, all they can do is forms preparation.

Note that similar services to these have been found by courts to be BPPs and therefore subject to BPP fee limits and service limitations. To the extent that these services charge more than such limits, and the "advice" they give (by deciding where your information should go on the bankruptcy forms), may exceed what is allowed in your court district.

Bridgeport Bankruptcy Company ($249 and up " full service" bankruptcy filing with fill in the blank, web interface for collecting information) More information

Easy Bankruptcy Services ($200 to $289)

USA Bankruptcy ($249 to $299)

Forms preparation only (not 'full service')

Guaranteed Bankruptcy Services ($115) - For do it yourselfers who know what they're doing,

Software for consumers

Standard Legal ($49). This "software" is actually a zip file of MS Word and PDF forms that you can use or fill in. The merchant's website does not say whether local forms are included and whether or not forms do any calculations. This does not appear to really be "software" but rather a package of MS Word and PDF forms. (Note: before you pay for bankruptcy forms, remember that PDF, fill-in bankruptcy forms are downloadable for free from the government and here .) So what you're really paying for is the instructions that come with the forms.

Reviews

Vendorhound.com is a description and comparison online bankruptcy filing options designed for consumers. The site acknowledges that it has affiliate deals with sites it has reviewed. Even so, their summary reviews are handy for quick feature comparisons if not objective analysis. They are strong advocate of so-called"full service" online bankruptcies but do not explain what "full service" includes (for example, does it include filing motions to avoid judicial liens or does that cost extra?).