Bankruptcy Lawyers in Woodland Hills, California 91367

Ten Ways a Bankruptcy Lawyer Can Help You

There is no requirement to use a lawyer to file for bankruptcy. However, some people decide to hire one to help them get through the process.

Although I write self-help law books, I realize that -- when it comes to complex forms, tight deadlines, and piles of details -- not everyone is cut out for do-it-yourself law.

Whether you're a good candidate for doing it yourself, depends on the complexity of your financial situation, and your willingness to take the time to learn the rules of bankruptcy and complete work carefully, and on time, and meet all filing requirements and deadlines. (If you're not the type of person that is willing to follow instructions carefully, then self-help bankruptcy is probably not for you. For more discusion, see the help topic: Do I Need Lawyer?)

Indeed, there are many ways that a lawyer can help you in filing for bankruptcy. Here are at least ten ways that come to mind:

1. Help you classify exempt property.
2. Help answer issues about debt and expenses on the means test.
3. Help decide whether bankruptcy is the best solution for your particular situation.
4. Help you organize all of your relevant financial details into the appropriate forms.
   
5. Help you meet all filing requirements and deadlines.
   
6. Help you analyze whether you qualify for lien avoidance (and decide when to use it)
   
7. Help you untangle complicated property ownership issues with jointly-owned property and divorce.
   
8. Help decide if a Chapter 13 bankruptcy is the right option for you.
9. Help you write a Chapter 13 plan that the local trustee will accept.
   
10. Give you local knowledge about what your trustee generally allows when it comes to "reasonable" expenses.

Like tax law, bankruptcy is a specialty. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 testimony 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

There are several software products designed for lawyers that will prepare full sets of bankruptcy forms, but these programs assume you already know bankruptcy law and are designed for filing multiple bankruptcies. In short, they're not appropriate for first-time bankruptcy filers.
There are also a few packages purportedly offered for consumers. Proceed with caution. Some of these packages are little more than PDF versions of the forms, which are are available free from the courts themselves.
If you are not a lawyer, the only value of these products would depend on the quality of the instructions they provide. You'll need instructions on how to complete each form, as well as a good understanding of how each form fits into the larger process of filing for bankruptcy.

A relative newcomer to online bankruptcy form preparation is a service geared toward self-helpers, called BKParaDox. It has licensed the Nolo bankruptcy book to be used as a resource in conjunction with their online bankruptcy form filling tools. One unique aspect to their product is that they've got an agreement with LegalHelpers, promising to credit the $200 cost of the online form preparation service if, after you've started, you decide you'd rather turn over your case to a lawyer retained via their affiliation with LegalHelpers.

So-Called "Full Service" Companies - Proceed with Caution

Some 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. Therefore it is unclear what "full service" actually includes, or what it CAN include under the strict guidelines preventing non-lawyers from providing bankruptcy advice.

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.

"Software" for consumers -- or is it?

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 PDF bankruptcy forms, remember that PDF, fill-in bankruptcy forms are downloadable for free from the government, your local bankruptcy court website, and here .) So what you're really paying for is the instructions that come with the forms.