When you first meet with me, you should bring with you information on your debts (including your credit card debt, any lawsuits, foreclosures or repossessions, tax, student loans, or medical bills) and about property you own (bank accounts, real estate, cars, retirement accounts, etc.). I will review your financial situation with your and discuss the benefits of various options including bankruptcy.

If you decide that you want to file for bankruptcy, I will prepare all the necessary documents including the Bankruptcy Petition. We will then meet again so that you can carefully review these documents before I file them with the Bankruptcy Court.

After the Bankruptcy Petition is filed, your creditors must stop harassing you and all lawsuits, foreclosures, garnishments and attachments are stopped immediately. The Bankruptcy Court will then sets a date for a creditors meeting and mail a notice of this meeting to you and all your creditors. This creditors meeting occurs about one month your Bankruptcy Petition is filed. The creditors meeting usually lasts only 5 to 10 minutes and I will attend with you. At the creditors meeting, the trustee assigned to your case will ask you questions about your assets and your outstanding debt. Your creditors are invited to attend although, in most cases, they usually do not.

A Chapter 7 bankruptcy is usually complete in about three months. When you complete your Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the Court will issue your Discharge and close your case. The Discharge prevents your creditors from ever collecting discharged debts.

The process is very similar if you file a Chapter 13 reorganization, except that the Discharge is not issued until you complete all the payments required under your reorganization plan (usually between three to five years). For more information on the differences between a Chapter 7 bankruptcy and a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, click here [link to Which Chapter]