Timing is a critical thing when it comes to bankruptcy filings states Vernon Hills Bankruptcy Attorney.  Before a case can be filed, you must complete some pre-bankruptcy filing requirements.  First, you need to take a credit counseling session which is a one-hour session done on the computer or over the telephone with a credit counselor approved by the United States Bankruptcy Court.  Secondly, you are going to have to provide at least one year of your most recent federal tax returns.  Third, you have to provide two months’ worth of pay check stubs or other evidence of pay or income to your attorney.  After your bankruptcy case is filed, your attorney will send to the Chapter 7 trustee copies of your federal tax returns and pay check stubs. 

This requirement is for the Chapter 7 trustee to review the information that you provided to make sure it corroborate the information on your schedules.  The trustees want to make sure that if you state you are making a certain amount on your schedules that is in fact the truth.  By the same token, they want to see on the Statement of Financial Affairs that if you listed your income for the last three years, it should corroborate the information on your federal tax return. 

If you are having problems finding an attorney, do more research online.  You will be amazed at how much information is out there in terms of videos, articles, helpful tips, frequently asked questions surrounding the topic of bankruptcy.  Last year, there were over 1.4 million bankruptcy cases filed throughout the United States.  You will find people on the Internet talking about their experiences, how their case progressed and how their life has improved since filing bankruptcy.  

You can be just like the many people who have filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy and have had success in their life with credit, with business, with relationships and with health.  You don’t have to feel that filing a bankruptcy is a death sentence.  In fact, filing bankruptcy might be the best thing you ever did to change your financial picture almost overnight.

To find a qualified Vernon Hills bankruptcy attorney, you will have to do some research.  There are plenty of attorneys out there who claim to be able to handle a Chapter 7 or a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case who really don’t have the requisite experience to help you get through a difficult case.  I recommend that you find someone who is a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute or other organization that deals with bankruptcy law. 

You also want to make sure that you meet with that attorney in person, not just over the telephone.  You want to go visit their office and see them; see their demeanor, how are they dressed, how do they talk.  What does their office look like, is everything in disarray or is it completely organized and running like a tight ship?  You want to make sure that you have the right attorney so that you don’t have problems with your bankruptcy case. 

If you are not feeling comfortable with the attorney that you start with, you may have the ability to change attorneys in mid-stream.  I am often asked to substitute in for other attorneys when the case starts heading in the wrong direction.  It is then my job to either save the case or recommend a second filing with me as the attorney of record from the start.

What should you look for in a Hoffman Estates bankruptcy attorney?  There are many bankruptcy attorneys that can help you file a case either under Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code.  The important thing for you is to find an attorney that 1) you are comfortable with and 2) has the requisite skill and knowledge to handle your case from start to finish.  There are many attorneys who purport to practice bankruptcy law who do not have significant experience and you are taking a risk when you hire one of those attorneys. 

I have been practicing for over 20 years.  I am a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute and I have made bankruptcy my life’s work.  I have helped thousands of people get out of debt through the help of Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy.  

Chapter 7 is the most common form of bankruptcy and that’s known as fresh start bankruptcy.  In a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, a client comes to me with very little in the way of significant assets and a time of unsecured debt.  Those people are entitled to a fresh start under the United States Bankruptcy Code while they can eliminate medical bills, credit card bills, personal loans and debts for different types of services.  There are some debts that are not eliminated in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy and those include student loans, recent taxes, parking tickets, child support, maintenance or debts incurred by some type of fraud.  However, the overwhelming majority of my clients receive a fresh start in approximately 110 days from start to finish.

When a case comes before the court, it must be either be recommended for confirmation or denied confirmation explains Rolling Meadows bankruptcy attorney.  If the case is recommended for confirmation, that means the Chapter 13 trustee is standing before the bankruptcy judge approving the proposed payment plan that you have tendered to the Chapter 13 trustee.  If the Chapter 13 trustee does not agree and does not recommend your case for confirmation, then you must make some type of amendment to get your case confirm or take it to a hearing before the bankruptcy judge.  

The Chapter 13 trustee’s opinion is very important to the judge but it is not the only opinion.  If you feel or if your attorney feels that you have proposed a plan in good faith that will satisfy all the requirements of the Bankruptcy Code and pay your creditors what they are entitled to under the Bankruptcy Code, then you can request that the matter be set for a hearing.  At this hearing, the bankruptcy judge will hear testimony from the trustee and from you and/or your bankruptcy attorney and the judge will typically make a decision on the spot as to whether or not your plan should be confirmed or not.  If the trustee denies confirmation of the plan, then you definitely have to go back and make some amendments, otherwise your case is going to be dismissed for your inability to propose a feasible, confirmable plan. 

The Chapter 13 plan, if it is accepted, is binding and it will last for the length of your plan subject to some modification procedures.  For example, if your case is a 3 to 5 year payment plan and you make all of your payments and you don’t have any significant changes, then your case is going to and within that 3 to 5 year period.  At that time, you will receive a Discharge in Bankruptcy which is a one-page document stating that your case has gone through to completion and no creditors can bother you on those debts again. 

Several creditors might file an objection at the beginning of your case because they don’t like the way that they are being treated either through the plan or prior to the plan.  A typical objection would be from a mortgage company who states that the amount that you are paying through the Chapter 13 trustee is not sufficient to pay off your bills in time.

It doesn’t take much these days to fall behind on your bills.  With rising unemployment, high cost of food, high cost of housing, high cost of automobile financing, it easy to see why people do not have money today. 

If you are falling behind on your bills, you might have an option to reorganize under Chapter 13 of the United States Bankruptcy Code touts Des Plaines bankruptcy attorney.  Chapter 13 is a Chapter that’s commonly used to help people save property and repay either all or a portion of their debt over a 3 to 5 year period.  The amount of the payment plan is determined by a number of factors which include income, expenses, assets and liabilities. 

To start off on a Chapter 13, you need to meet with a Chapter 13 bankruptcy attorney.  The Chapter 13 bankruptcy attorney will have you fill out a bankruptcy questionnaire which contains personal information about the property you own, the people you owe money to get what you make and spend per month.  It is from this bankruptcy questionnaire that your attorney will be able to advise you as to whether or not Chapter 13 is a good idea for you and as to how much it’s going to take approximately per month to make your payments. 

Chapter 13 bankruptcy cases are mandated under the Bankruptcy Code and you will have a Chapter 13 trustee who will be in charge of administering the amount of money that you pay per month to that office.  Think of the Chapter 13 trustee as a dealer in poker.  The dealer in poker, just like the Chapter 13 trustee is going to make disbursements each month to your creditors in accordance to the Bankruptcy Code.  Typically, child-support arrearages, mortgage arrearages, and auto payments as well as your attorney’s fees are paid first in terms of priority.  The last thing that’s paid is typically unsecured debts such as credit card bills, medical bills, personal loans, past-due utility bills and debts for just about any other type of service provider.

Chapter 13 is a great way to save a home states Libertyville bankruptcy attorney.  Chapter 13 allows you to pay back the part that you fell behind on your mortgage over the next 3 to 5 years.  You get 3 to 5 years to repay the part that you fell behind.  The only requirement is that you continue to make your regular mortgage payment going forward.  This is a great way to save a home.  In fact, if you do a Chapter 13, you still have the option to do a short sale or a traditional sale while you are in your Chapter 13.  The only difference is the proceeds from the sale would first go to the Chapter 13 payoff.  But it is better to have that ability to reorganize and save your home and have your sale options still available to you than to lose it to the creditor in a sheriff sale. 

A Chapter 13 is available for someone who has steady income.  Your Chapter 13 bankruptcy attorney would be able to advise you or give you an estimate as to what it’s going to take per month by way of a Chapter 13 trustee payment to make your case feasible.  

Once again, Chapter 13 is a complicated area of the bankruptcy law and you want to seek an attorney who is experienced in Chapter 13.  You want an attorney who is familiar with the Chapter 13 trustees in terms of what the trustees are looking for to confirm cases.  In the Northern District of Illinois, there are three Chapter 13 trustees who handle all of the Chapter 13 filings throughout the district.  Each individual Chapter 13 trustee is different.  Each Chapter 13 trustee requires different things to get a case confirmed; particularly, one trustee allows you to keep all of your federal tax refund every year while you are in the plan.  A different trustee will let you keep anything under $1200 and anything over $1200 has to go towards your Chapter 13.  The final trustee in the district wants every bit of your federal tax return to go towards your Chapter 13 plan payment.  Thus, it pays to have an attorney who is knowledgeable on the different Chapter 13 trustees who practice in your jurisdiction. 

If you hire a competent, skilled Chapter 13 trustee, you are going to have the greatest chance of success not only in getting your case filed properly and getting it confirmed properly, but keeping it alive whenever there is a Trustee’s Motion to Dismiss or a creditor’s Motion to Modify the Automatic Stay. 

For more information, contact the local attorney in your area to interview that attorney.  If you feel comfortable with that attorney and you feel that that attorney can do an adequate job of representing you and helping you, then by all means take the first step forward and higher that attorney.

If you are someone who is struggling financially, help is available.  If you have been going from year to year or month to month or week to week, struggling financially to make ends meet and you just don’t know where to turn, please don’t give up.  Help is available; you just have to seek out a qualified Palatine bankruptcy lawyer to learn your rights.  

In the overwhelming majority of cases, Chapter 7 is going to be the Chapter of choice to eliminate credit card bills, medical bills, personal loans and other unsecured debt.  The process takes approximately 110 days from start to finish and your attorney will guide you through the process.  You simply provide the information that the attorney is seeking and the attorney will then advise you as to how the process works and guide you every step of the way. 

If you are someone who is trying to save a home and you may be in foreclosure or you are about to go into foreclosure, think about Chapter 13 as a viable option to save your home.  Throughout the foreclosure crisis, you didn’t hear anybody in the government talk about Chapter 13 as a remedy to save your home.  You heard plenty about modification and other types of reorganization and contacting your lender for lost mitigation options and things of that nature.  However, you did not hear the president or anybody from the Treasury Department or the Housing Department get on and grandstand about Chapter 13.  For some reason, Chapter 13 doesn’t get the credit that it deserves. 

I strongly suggest if you are considering either a Chapter 7 or a Chapter 13 bankruptcy that you seek an experienced Palatine bankruptcy lawyer in your local area.  There are many attorneys who can help you file either a Chapter 7 or a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case.  Keep in mind there are different levels of experience and different levels of skill with regard to the different attorneys. 

I have been practicing bankruptcy law for over 20 years.  I believe that I have a great understanding of the bankruptcy code and the processes of Chapter 7 and Chapter 13.  Not every bankruptcy attorney has the same experience that I do.  Not every bankruptcy attorney has made it their life’s work like I have.  In fact, many attorneys are coming back into bankruptcy because they think that is where the action is.  Many attorneys who used to practice in criminal law and real estate law and business law are taking on bankruptcy cases without the requisite experience. 

The laws changed October 17, 2005 and there were many changes made in the bankruptcy code so many attorneys who used to practice bankruptcy simply did not want to keep up with the existing laws and are no longer handling cases.  On the other hand, attorneys who used to practice in other areas of the law are moving back into the bankruptcy area even though they don’t have the requisite experience.  So I caution you, if you are seeking bankruptcy protection, make sure you interview your bankruptcy attorney and find out his level of skill, find out if he knows how to handle cases in both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13. 

You may want to ask that attorney for recommendations or referrals of other people that he or she has helped.  You want to see if that attorney has written anything on the subject.  You want to make sure that that attorney is a member of certain organizations that specialize in bankruptcy law. 

I am a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute which is the largest organization known on the planet for dealing with all aspects of bankruptcy law.  The American Bankruptcy Institute is a collective group of attorneys, accountants, judges, trustees and creditor practitioners in all phases of bankruptcy law. 

Being a part of the American Bankruptcy Institute gives me a unique advantage in that I have an access to a wide array of knowledge and people and skills by being part of this organization.  I keep abreast through their writings and through their website on current events that are happening particularly with Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy laws.  Without the assistance of the American Bankruptcy Institute and the other organizations that I am a part of, I would not be the attorney that I am today.

The first main requirement is that of a credit counseling session.  The credit counseling session must be completed just prior to or within 180 days of filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case.  The credit counseling session is typically a one hour session on thecomputer or over the phone with a credit counselor approved by the bankruptcy court. 

The second requirement is to provide your most recent federal tax return.  The last requirement is to submit the last 60 days of paycheck stubs or other evidence of income. 

Once all of those prefiling requirements are satisfied and once you have paid or worked out an arrangement with your bankruptcy attorney, your case can then be filed.  Your bankruptcy attorney will file your case online through the Internet electronically.  Immediately upon filing the bankruptcy case, the clerk of the United States Bankruptcy Court will issue a case number as well as a date, time and meeting room for the meeting of creditors which is your court date. 

If any of your creditors have been taking action against you such as a bank citation or a wage garnishment or other form of harassment, possibly a utility shut off; then your attorney will want to send a copy of the Automatic Stay immediately to that creditor.  Once the creditor receives the Automatic Stay, they are prohibited from contacting you and must cease all collection efforts. 

Approximately 4 to 6 weeks after your cases filed, you will appear in front of a bankruptcy trustee to answer questions under oath based upon the information that you provided in your bankruptcy petition.  The Chapter 7 trustee’s role is to administer assets, nonexempt assets, for the benefit of creditors.  In 99% of all Chapter 7 bankruptcy cases, there are no assets with which the Chapter 7 trustee can administer.  Thus, the Chapter 7 trustee will make a finding of no assets.  

Approximately 60 days after that meeting of creditors, you will receive a Discharge in Bankruptcy.  A Discharge in Bankruptcy is the final document that you get from the Clerk of the US Bankruptcy Court stating that your case has gone through to completion and no creditors can bother you on those discharged debts once again.  The Discharge Order or Discharge in Bankruptcy is the equivalent of the fresh start going forward.  Thus, if any creditors in the future try to collect on a debt that was discharged, you can contact your lawyer or just send that creditor a copy of your discharge paper.  If a creditor tries to collect despite the fact that you have filed the bankruptcy, you should notify your attorney immediately because you may have a Cause of Action or a lawsuit against that creditor for violating the Bankruptcy Code.

When people are struggling with debt, what they really want is a fresh start.  Chapter 7 bankruptcy provides that fresh start in over 75% of the bankruptcy cases that are filed throughout the United States.  Chapter 7 is the perfect case for someone who has very little in the way of assets and who may have a time of unsecured debts such as medical bills, credit card bills, personal loans, utility bills.  That person can eliminate the debt, keep whatever miscellaneous, minor property he or she has and get on with their life with a fresh financial start. 

Now, there are some debts that are not eliminated in a Chapter 7 and those include recent taxes, student loans, parking tickets, child support, alimony, maintenance and debts incurred by fraud.  However, for the overwhelming majority of people who filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the debts are illuminated. 

The way to start under a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case is to schedule an initial consultation with a bankruptcy attorney in your local area.  The bankruptcy attorney will ask that you fill out a bankruptcy questionnaire which lists all of your information concerning your assets, your liabilities, your property and your debt.  The bankruptcy questionnaire also lets the bankruptcy attorney know what you have in terms of property, what you have in terms of debts and what your overall financial picture looks like.  It is from that questionnaire that the bankruptcy attorney can then advise you as to whether or not a Chapter 7 is a good option for you or whether Chapter 13 is a good option for you.

Joint debt is never eliminated simply because one party files for bankruptcy relief.  Since the debt is joint, the creditor has every right to seek to collect from the non-filing debtor.  This is often the case when couples are divorcing and each party is a signatory to the debt.  If one spouse files for bankruptcy relief, the non-filing spouse is not off the hook.  This is why it is critically important to address allocation of debt issues in divorce cases.  The creditors do not have to abide by the divorce decree.  However, one spouse will have the right to seek redress from the divorce court if a former spouse does not follow the Judgment. 

If you are joint on a debt and the other party files for bankruptcy, do not think for one second that you are off the hook.  Quite the contrary in fact.  Now the creditor has only one party to collect from and that is you.  If you have too many creditors that you are unable to pay, then you may wish to consider filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection to end your debt.  My office can assist in that filing and get you on the way toward your fresh start.

The chapter that allows for repayment of a portion of the debt would be Chapter 13.  Chapter 13 is bill reorganization through a Chapter 13 trustee.  Chapter 13 is typically used to save a home that’s in foreclosure or to pay a vehicle over time or to reorganize other debts such as non-dischargeable debts: student loans, recent taxes, parking tickets, child support, alimony, debts incurred by some sort of fraud.  

Chapter 13 involves the filing of a Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition, which is filed with the Clerk of the United States Bankruptcy Court. There is a meeting of creditors approximately three to four weeks after the case is filed whereby a Chapter 13 trustee will attempt to make sure that you’re putting all of your disposable income towards a Chapter 13 plan each month.  The Chapter 13 trustee will then either recommend or not recommend your case for confirmation and the case will proceed accordingly.  

Provided you make your current mortgage payment outside of the bankruptcy as well as your Chapter 13 bankruptcy payment, your case will have success.  At the end of three to five years, you will receive a discharge and, technically, your arrears will be reinstated, your vehicle will be paid off and the rest of your debt will be eliminated and they will receive a portion of the debt over those three to five years. 

If you are thinking of filing either a Chapter 7 or a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, I recommend that you strongly meet with a bankruptcy attorney in your local area that practices bankruptcy on a daily basis.  Many attorneys came back into the bankruptcy field thinking that that’s where the gold was.  Make sure that you hire a bankruptcy attorney that’s been practicing bankruptcy for a number of years and who has the requisite experience to handle your case. 

Whatever you do, do not think that you can file bankruptcy yourself.  If you file bankruptcy yourself, you are likely going to have a problem because the law is complex and you need the guidance and assistance of counsel who does this on a daily basis.    

In the state of Illinois, you, as an individual debtor, can protect up to $15,000.00 worth of equity in real estate.  If you are filing a joint bankruptcy case, you and your spouse can protect up to $30,000.00 worth of equity in real estate.  As far as vehicles go, you can protect up to $2,400.00 worth of equity in one motor vehicle as an individual.  If you are filing jointly, you and your spouse can protect up to $4,800.00 of equity in one motor vehicle. 

In addition to the real estate and the auto exemption, you also have in the state of Illinois a $4,000.00 wild card exemption which can be sprinkled over any type of personal property.  In a joint case, this amount doubles to $8,000.00 worth of wild card exemption that could be sprinkled over any personal property. 

Thus, people typically keep their house and car and all of their personal property when they’re filing a bankruptcy Chapter 7 to get out of debt.  They simply have to continue to make the mortgage payment and the car payment.  Otherwise, those items would either be foreclosed or repossessed just as if there wasn’t a bankruptcy case in the first place. What bankruptcy will do is eliminate the unsecured debt from your life in full forever, such as medical bills, credit card bills and personal loans and other services. 

Bankruptcy is probably the only thing that I would recommend for someone who is struggling financially and who needs a fresh start.  There are alternatives to bankruptcy, such as working out a payment plan with a creditor or going into some sort of debt consolidation plan.  However, in my experience as a bankruptcy attorney, I have seen too many clients who have come to my office after a failure with a debt consolidation company.  

Debt consolidation companies attempt to pay your creditors less than what’s fully owed in exchange for a release of the debt.  However, debt consolidation is not mandated under any federal law and creditors do not have to accept the payment plan.  If you get into a situation where some of your creditors are accepting the payment plan while others are not accepting the payment plan, the ones that are not accepting the payment plan have the right to sue you. 

Many people have seen their balances not go down even though they’ve been in debt consolidation for several years.  A lot of their fees got eaten up by the debt consolidation company and it didn’t go to the creditor.  In other cases, one creditor opted out and started a lawsuit or a garnishment to the point where the client couldn’t make the payments anymore to the debt consolidation company. 

In recent years, the debt consolidation companies have been sued by different states’ attorneys because they were taking their fees prior to paying out anything to the creditors. 

What bankruptcy does is it eliminates the debt in full under Chapter 7.  There is no option to pay back a portion of the debt under Chapter 7.  It is just simply eliminated in Chapter 7 in full. 

If your case is dismissed, you will have an option, in most cases, to re-file the bankruptcy.  By re-filing a bankruptcy, you are going to have to submit to the credit counseling session, the providing of tax returns and the providing of pay advices as well as pay another filing fee with the Clerk of the United States Bankruptcy Court.  You will also have another 341 meeting of creditors and you will have to start paying the trustee once again. 

If you have had a case dismissed within the last year and you re-file under Chapter 13, then the automatic stay will only extend for 30 days.  What you have to do or what your attorney has to do is bring a motion to extend the automatic stay as to all creditors and that motion must be brought and heard within 30 days after filing the case.  In most cases, this motion to extend the automatic stay is being granted by the court.  

According to the court, you must show a change in circumstances as to why this case is going to work where the last case did not.  Some of the reasons for change in circumstances have to do with increased income or lack of an issue before that caused it to dismiss.  And basically the courts are pretty lenient on allowing the motion to extend stay as they are pretty much going unopposed.

The truth is most debtors have all the information that they need to provide to their attorney or they can readily ascertain that information. For example, a lot of creditors throw out bills from creditors, and they throw out the collection activity and the donning letters; however, that information is accessible if they take the time to run their credit report.  

A debtor can receive all three of their credit reports for free, once per year, at www.annualcreditreport.com.  It’s amazing how many debtors do not take the time to pull each of their three credit bureaus for free, every year, especially in anticipation of filing a bankruptcy.  Provided you can provide all of your information regarding your debts to your attorney, then you have provided just about 95 percent of all the information that you need to provide.  The other information that you need to provide is your most recent Federal tax return for a Chapter 7 case, the most recent four years of tax returns if it’s a Chapter 13 case, and two months’ worth of pay check stubs; whether it be a 7 or a Chapter 13 case. 

So the information is readily ascertainable.  And often cases we’ll have a client who sought medical treatment from a certain facility, and will state that they don’t have a bill from that facility.  There’s no excuse these days for not being able to go onto the internet and look up the name and address of the medical provider.  Once you have the name and the address, all you really need is an estimate as to the dollar amount; you don’t need the exact amount for Chapter 7 or for Chapter 13. 

So, with a little research and a little homework and a little effort, you as a client can provide all the information that your attorney is requesting without much work on your part.