You will not be terminated simply for filing a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy so states Winthrop Harbor bankruptcy attorney.  Bankruptcy law is federal law and you have an absolute right to exercise your federal right to file a bankruptcy and either get a fresh start or reorganize your debt under the Bankruptcy Code.  Your employer is strictly prohibited under the Bankruptcy Code from firing you simply for your desire to file a bankruptcy.  If you can show that your employer fired you were terminated you or demoted you were in any other way discriminated against you based on the fact that you filed a bankruptcy, then you may have a cause of action in either state or federal court.  

In many cases or most cases rather, employers will not even find out that you filed a bankruptcy.  The most common time that I have to notify an employer about one of my client’s bankruptcy filings is to actually stop a wage garnishment that is already occurring.  Once the Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy case is filed, I will fax or mail an automatic stay to the employer.  The automatic stay is a one-page document which contains the name, the case number and the date of filing as well as information advising the creditor or the payroll department from stopping any type of collection activity or garnishment activity.  So when you are actually being garnished on the job and then you file a bankruptcy, you want your job to know about your bankruptcy so they immediately stop the current wage deduction on your check. 

In a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case, your employer will find out about your bankruptcy if you go on payroll control.  Payroll control is where the Chapter 13 trustee payment comes directly out of your payroll.  Going on payroll control is the best idea and the best way to ensure that you are going to make your Chapter 13 trustee payment on time.  As long as you are working as you keep working and you are steady at your job, there is going to be income therefore the employer to pay over to the Chapter 13 trustee.  Once the Chapter 13 trustee is paid each month, you as the debtor only have to worry about your existing mortgage going forward and your normal utilities. 

So your job will find out about your bankruptcy if you are doing a Chapter 13.  Your job will find out about a Chapter 7 bankruptcy if we need to stop a garnishment on your behalf.  However, do not worry that your employer will terminate you.  Terminating you simply for your filing of a bankruptcy case is illegal and is not likely to occur.  Should it occur, you do have the right to file suit based on the Bankruptcy Code.

The truth is that you are typically going to lose all of your credit cards and other credit when you file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition states Zion bankruptcy attorney.  You are required under the bankruptcy code to list all of the people that you owe money to.  Thus, even credit cards that you do not carry a balance on will often find out about your bankruptcy.  If you do not owe a balance, they do not need to be listed, however, those creditors subscribe to a service that will advise them about bankruptcy filings.  If you do owe money on a credit card, it must be listed and there is a pretty good chance or a very good chance rather that you are going to lose your credit privileges. 

In some instances, there are clients of mine who have contacted a credit card company after the case was filed and the credit card company agreed to allow the continuing use of that credit card.  However, this is the exception and not the rule.  You should not plan on keeping any of your credit cards when you file for bankruptcy.  You can, of course, apply for credit after your bankruptcy case is filed and you will have a lot of offers for credit although those offers sometimes come with high annual fees and high interest rates. 

People always worry about credit after bankruptcy.  What I suggest to these clients is that they worry about getting out of debt first, getting back on their feet and then once they are stabilized and once they are bringing in more money than they are spending per month, then you can look to a credit card.  However, I still encourage them to only use the credit card for the convenience of credit and not to carry a balance.  Getting a credit card after bankruptcy is easy.  It will help improve your credit score provided you use the card widely and provided you don’t run any balances. 

You can also get a secured card at any time after filing a bankruptcy.  A secured card is where you put a certain dollar amount in a banking institution and then that institution gives you credit privileges or charging privileges up to the amount or 1 1/2 times the amount that you put on account.  The good thing about a secured credit card is that you are spending your own money that you have on account and you are not falling into debt.  You are also going to be reported positively to the credit bureau so by having a secured card, you are actually increasing your credit score every month that you have good credit and no negative credit on that card. 

So yes, you will be able to get credit after bankruptcy but don’t plan on being able to keep any of your existing cards when you are going through the bankruptcy process.

No, there is not a debtor’s prison in the United States claims Mt. Prospect bankruptcy attorney.  You will not go to jail simply for your failure to pay your bills.  An exception to this would be failure to pay child support if a divorce court judge feels that you have the ability to pay and that you are simply violating the law and being held in contempt.  Also in a civil case, you can be jailed or held in contempt for failure to disobey the court order.  Let me give you an example of someone who owes money on a credit card, let’s say it’s $10,000 and they get sued by that credit card company and that credit card company obtains a judgment. 

The credit card company has the ability to collect a debt by doing several things including wage garnishment, bank citations or a citation to discover assets which is where you have to come into court and show where you bank, where you work, your tax return and other information regarding your financial affairs.  Should you fail to appear at the citation to discover assets, the court may set a second court date will as a rule to show cause court date.  If you miss this second court date, then the court can order a writ of body attachment.  A body attachment is where the sheriff will actually pick you up and take you into custody and you will have to post a bond.  

Sometimes the bond is known as an I-Bond which means individual bond where you don’t have to put up any money, just your signature and you will be given another court date that you must appear before the court.  In other cases, you will get what’s known as a D-Bond which means deposit bond and you will have to pay a certain amount of money to get out of the jail.  You will also be given a second court date on that offense and you will have to appear before the court and explain why you should not be held in further contempt for disobeying a court order. 

So when a client contacts me and they say well, I got something from the court regarding a creditor but I’m going to be filing a bankruptcy through your office or I’m in the process of filing and I’m almost paid, do I have to go to that court date?  My answer is always if there is a court date, then you need to appear at that court date up until the time when your case is actually filed.  If you miss a court date, you might run the risk that you will be held in contempt or even worse; you will be picked up by the Sheriff.  My advice is always to appear in court and follow the court order and maybe try to get your case filed a little bit quicker because the filing of the case will create the automatic stay which will stop most collection efforts.  In fact, if you have a court date the very next day, we can send proof of the automatic stay via fax so that law firm representing the creditor can advise the court that a bankruptcy case was filed and they have to stop.  If the creditor violates the automatic stay, then the creditor could be held in contempt of court or sanctioned by the bankruptcy court. 

The automatic stay is a very important item or document that gets created automatically when the case is filed.  It is basically a stop sign that says to creditors you cannot collect on this debt or make any attempt to collect on this debt.  The case is then in Chapter 7 status and the bankruptcy trustee is the one who can decide whether or not there is any assets to administer for the benefit of creditors. 

So in summary, you do not go to jail for failure to pay a debt; however, you can go to jail for failure to obey court orders when you are actually held in contempt of court.

Bankruptcy is for an honest debtor only claims Round Lake bankruptcy attorney.  Bankruptcy is something that people have to file to get out of debt once they find themselves strapped in debt with the inability to repay.  Bankruptcy is not something that should be gained or tried to win the system of getting as much bang for your buck if you are going to file a bankruptcy, run your credit cards up. 

The Bankruptcy Code specifically prohibits or discourages rather people from using their credit cards or getting cash advances or other types of debt too close to filing a bankruptcy.  The bankruptcy code provides for someone to file an adversarial complaint objecting to that particular debt that was incurred basically by fraud too close to filing a bankruptcy.  What I come across in my practice is I will get a situation where I meet somebody for the first time and I advise them that if they are thinking of filing, they should not incur any new debt.  They should not use the credit cards again.  They should stop making minimum payments but do not use the cards. 

Often times someone will take that information that I provide, leave my office and do the exact opposite.  What these people think they are going to do is run up a ton of debt, max out all of their credit cards, take cash advances, take payday loans, take other forms of credit and then quickly turn around and come back into my office and file a bankruptcy.  What they don’t realize is that anything incurred too close to filing can be held non-dischargeable.  This kind of takes away from the idea of a fresh start in Chapter 7 bankruptcy.  If a client of mine is not able to get a fresh start but instead is hit with two or three adversarial complaints inside the bankruptcy case, then they are going to have a problem because there’s going to be debt that will remain due and owing after the cases filed.  So you might think that you are getting away with something at the time that you are overcharging on the credit cards when you know you are going to be filing a bankruptcy but believe me, you were going to run into a greater problem when the creditor files an adversary and you are responsible for the fees and costs. 

So if you are thinking of filing a bankruptcy, do not use your credit cards again.  Do not make any minimum purchases.  Do not take any cash advances.  If you are thinking of filing a bankruptcy, do not go out and get a financed jewelry or finance furniture or financed electronics with the thought that you are going to be able to keep those items without making a payment.  The truth is, those items are secured items and if you wish to keep those items, you are going to have to continue to make payments by reaffirming the debt on those items. 

With regard to a vehicle, you can purchase a vehicle prior to filing a bankruptcy because you are either going to keep the vehicle by reaffirming the debt or you are going to have to surrender the vehicle back to the finance company.  So there is no fraud.  However, with unsecured debt such as credit cards and personal loans and cash advances and things of that nature, then you want to be careful that you are not using those cards or taking those advances with the knowledge that you are going to be filing a bankruptcy a short time thereafter. 

Once again, creditors can file an adversarial complaint and you could be held responsible for that debt due and owing after your bankruptcy case is filed.  What you are doing is hurting yourself in that you are not getting a complete fresh start.  You are not getting away with anything and you are going to be responsible for that debt that was incurred too close to the bankruptcy filing going forward.

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.

After a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, you will be offered credit by several different lenders states Round Lake Beach bankruptcy attorney.  The most common is an auto finance company that wants to get you back into a vehicle immediately after your bankruptcy case is filed.  This type of financing is known as open financing or open bankruptcy financing in that they are not waiting for your case to go to discharge before they offer you the financing.  Several years ago, you were not able to get auto financing until your case actually went to completion.  Nowadays, immediately after your case was filed, there are aggressive lenders who are willing to take a chance on you and sign you up for financing before your case has even gone through to completion. 

By the same token, there are credit card lenders who are also going to try to entice you with their offers.  Be leery of credit card offers too close to filing bankruptcy.  These cards are going to often have an annual fee, high interest rates and other rules and regulations that someone who did not have a recent bankruptcy would have. 

I recommend if you could go on a cash basis for the next six months to one year after filing a bankruptcy, you will be doing yourself a good service.  For one, you will not fall under the trap of credit again.  Two, you will be able to actually see what you are spending.  Studies have shown that when people actually use cash for spending, they wind up spending less than when they use credit.  And that makes sense because it’s very easy to pull out the credit card and charge it and worry about paying it later.  It’s very difficult to actually pull out cash and see the money leave your hands on purchases that aren’t really that important to you.

It is advisable that you pull your credit report for free at www.annualcreditreport.com states Park City bankruptcy lawyer.  On this website, you can pull all three of your credit bureaus once a year without charge.  What I recommend is that you pull one credit report every four months so that you get to monitor your credit history and see if there is anything that’s coming on your report that shouldn’t be there.  If there is something on the report that shouldn’t be there, you can dispute that in writing or online with the credit bureau.  The credit bureau will then investigate the truth of the matter and if the information is not verified by the creditor, it will be removed from your credit report after 30 days. 

Another advantage of having your credit report in hand is when you actually see your bankruptcy attorney; you will know who in fact you owe the money to.  Countless people come to me with one or two bills and do not know who they.  Thankfully for them, I help them pull their credit report for free.  Other law firms do not go through the trouble to do that for them.  Other law firms will only list the creditors that are actually provided by the client.  You want to make sure that all of your creditors are listed so that they stop collection efforts and they stop reporting negatively on your credit bureau.

People wonder why people are struggling financially in this country states Park City bankruptcy attorney.  The truth is, there is a lot of overspending that goes on with credit cards.  Additionally, there are a lot of people that are not insured medically and they wind up having some type of catastrophe which causes them to incur extreme medical debt.  When you combine extreme medical debt with overspending on the credit cards, you can see how someone could be overwhelmed in debt in a matter of months or years. 

The best advice that I could give is to meet with a qualified bankruptcy attorney to discuss your personal situation.  Most attorneys are offering a free initial consultation to see if you could be helped.  Not everybody would qualify for Chapter 7.  There are some people who have significant income and/or assets in which Chapter 13 is going to be the best Chapter of choice. 

A Chapter 13 allows for the repayment of all or a portion of the debt over a 3 to 5 year period.  The amount that you pay in a Chapter 13 is dictated by your income, your expenses, your assets and your liabilities.  Not every Chapter 7 bankruptcy attorney can handle a Chapter 13 bankruptcy.  There are many attorneys who will only file Chapter 7 bankruptcy cases and will refer out Chapter 13 bankruptcy cases to attorneys who are more qualified in that area.  Chapter 13 is a 3 to 5 year payment plan so it is a very long, complex, difficult case for both attorneys and clients alike.  Chapter 7 is a more simplistic case which lasts approximately 110 days from start to finish, if everything goes smoothly.

The Chapter 7 case will commence with the filing of the Chapter 7 petition and it will conclude with the receipt of a Chapter 7 discharge order which comes directly from the clerk states Gurnee bankruptcy attorney.  The amount of time between a Chapter 7 filing and the Chapter 7 discharge is approximately 110 days.  There are certain circumstances where that timeframe might be extended either by the trustee or the US trustee on a motion for court.  However, if nobody files a motion and nobody objects to the debt, then there will be a discharge within 110 days. 

If you are like most people, you probably think that filing bankruptcy is the end of the world for you.  You probably think that you will never get credit again.  You probably think that you will never be able to own a home or even finance a vehicle.  You probably think that your credit is going to be messed up for the rest of your life.  You may even wonder if you are going to be able to rent an apartment.  Let me put all your fears to rest with regard to filing for bankruptcy. 

Chapter 7 bankruptcy is not the end of your life; in fact, it might be the best decision that you ever make in your life.  Picture this scenario, you are overwhelmed with debt.  You have thousands of dollars’ worth of credit card bills, medical bills, personal loans and other debts for other kinds of services.  You are barely getting by with what you are bringing in from your job after you pay your regular monthly expenses such as rent, car, food and utilities.  Every single month you are not able to catch up on your debt and you are forced to make minimum payments.  You are also forced to endure creditor harassment via the phone, via letter, via lawsuits, garnishments, make citations and other collection mechanisms.

In the matter of 24 hours, you can find a bankruptcy attorney who can turn your whole financial life around.  You can go from being in debt to being out of debt practically overnight.  The minute your Chapter 7 bankruptcy case is filed, there is something called an automatic stay which is created by operation of law.  What is automatic stay is a one-page document that basically states that your case has been filed and that creditors cannot take certain actions against you.  If a creditor violates the automatic stay and attempts to collect a debt, then that creditor could be sanctioned by the bankruptcy court. 

Think of the scenario where someone is tremendously in debt one day and completely out of debt with a fresh start the very next day.  How in the world can that be a bad decision in someone’s life?  How in the world cannot be a decision that they are going to regret when they just got out of debt and got a fresh start?  The truth is, it’s not a decision that they are going to regret.  Most people who file bankruptcy through my office state that they wished they would have done it sooner.  They wish they didn’t waste months or years trying to pay back debt which was impossible to pay back.  They languish over the fact that the creditors did not work with them.  The creditors did not lower the interest rate or help move some of the late fees to the back.

Chapter 7 bankruptcy involves the filing of a bankruptcy petition claims Schaumburg bankruptcy lawyer.  This bankruptcy petition contains all types of information regarding the finances and liabilities of the individual debtor.  The bankruptcy petition starts with Schedule A which has to do with real estate.  If a person owns any type of real estate, whether it be a single-family home, a townhome, even a timeshare, it must be listed in Schedule A.  The state of Illinois allows for a $15,000 exemption per person for real estate; thus, if it’s a joint filing, the two parties can protect up to $30,000 worth of equity in their real estate.  In reality, they can protect more than $30,000 worth of real estate because a Chapter 7 trustee would have to pay administrative costs to sell that property.  So there has to be more than $30,000 worth of equity for a trustee to even seek to try to administer that asset. 

Schedule B deals with personal property such as checking accounts, savings accounts, household goods, jewelry, furniture, electronics, life insurance, tax refunds, animals and any other type of contingent or liquidated assets.  Schedule C provides for the exemption which is where you keep the property and protect it was some sort of exemption provided for under state law.  In the state of Illinois, you can protect up to $15,000 per person in real estate.  You can also protect up to $4000 per person in miscellaneous personal property.  100% of your clothing is protected in the state of Illinois as is 100% of your 401(k) or other ERISA qualified pension, profit-sharing or retirement benefits. 

Schedule D deals with secured creditors such as real estate, vehicles and other items that are secured such as furniture, jewelry and electronics.  Schedule E deals with amounts owed to the government for state and federal taxes.  Schedule F is the most common schedule and that’s where you list all of your miscellaneous unsecured debt.  Schedule F is the place where you would put all of your credit card bills, medical bills, personal loans, past-due utilities and any other debts for some type of service.  

Schedule I deals with your income.  If you are filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, you must provide paycheck stubs to your attorney who will then turn those over to the Chapter 7 trustee.  The information provided in those paycheck stubs must be listed on Schedule I as well as any other type of income that you receive.  For example, some of my clients have rental income.  Other clients have Social Security income or income from a pension, profit-sharing or retirement account.  Schedule I is the place where you would list all of your client’s income. 

Schedule J deals with monthly expenses.  This is where you would list everything from rent, utilities, food, transportation, auto payment, mortgage payment and any other debt or monthly payment that the client makes on a regular basis.  The difference between Schedule I and Schedule J determines whether or not there’s income available to fund a Chapter 13 plan or whether or not the client is eligible for a Chapter 7 fresh start. 

If the client has a surplus of income per month above and beyond his expenses, then there is a possibility that that person should really be in a Chapter 13 repayment plan.  On the other hand, if a debtor is either breaking even each month or losing money each month, that’s a sign that Chapter 7 is the appropriate Chapter and that person needs to get out of debt because they don’t have the ability to repay on a monthly basis. 

The Statement of Financial Affairs is another part of the bankruptcy petition where we list a series of information including income during the last three years from a job, income from other sources other than a job, whether or not there’s been any lawsuits over the last two years, whether or not the person has closed a bank account or had a bank account close on them, whether or not the person has lived at the same address for three years, whether or not the person has engaged in a business and whether or not the person has a safety deposit box. 

These documents comprise the majority of the Chapter 7 or the Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition and must be signed by the client under penalty of perjury.  Once the bankruptcy case is filed, the petition is submitted to the court and the creditors are listed and received a notice of the bankruptcy filing.  In addition to the creditors receiving a notice of the bankruptcy filing, the debtor and the debtor’s attorney will also receive such notice.  This notice contains the case number, the date, time and location for the meeting of creditors which is known as the court date as well as information regarding objecting to the debt or filing an adversarial complaint upon the debt.

Chapter 7 cases also involve reaffirmation agreements on items such as jewelry, furniture and electronics that are purchased prior to the bankruptcy case being files.  If a person does not wish to reaffirm on those types of debts, then they have an obligation to either return those items or they can be sued in a replevin action and owe the fair market value of those items.  

I personally like to give my clients the best fresh start available.  I like to see my clients eliminate the most debt that they can.  I discourage somebody from reaffirming debt if it’s going to cause an undue hardship on them going forward or if the market value of the item is way below what the amount of the reaffirmed debt is. 

With regard to real estate in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, a client has the unique ability to continue to make the mortgage payment without signing for a reaffirmation agreement.  What this means is a debtor can technically surrender the house at any time in the future and the lender cannot pursue the debtor for any financial liability.  The lender does have the ability to foreclose upon the home and eventually affect the homeowner from the home; however, they cannot seek any dollar amount provided the debtor has not reaffirmed the debt. 

Many mortgage companies will send a reaffirmation agreement in the hopes that the debtor and the debtor’s attorney will sign the agreement.  In some parts of the country, this might be a common practice.  In the state of Illinois where I practice, reaffirmation agreements on mortgages are not something that I would recommend.  Firstly, the Bankruptcy Code does not provide for the debtor to sign a reaffirmation agreement on that particular item.  Secondly, I consider it malpractice if you hook a debtor back up on a debt that they can simply agree to pay voluntarily on their own.

There is no guarantee that a debtor will be able to keep debt after filing states North Chicago bankruptcy attorney.  If the court feels that the debtor does not have the ability to make those payments comfortably, then the court could throw out the reaffirmation agreement and find that it has an undue hardship on the debtor to allow it to go forward.  In other cases, the judge will see that there might not be significant income to pay the debt but the presumption of undue hardship is rebutted.  Whether or not the reaffirmation agreement is going to be accepted by the court is up to the individual judge, however, in 99% of the Chapter 7 bankruptcy cases that I handle with reaffirmation agreements, they are ultimately approved by the bankruptcy court. 

Once you reaffirm a debt, you have to be aware of the fact that that debt is going to survive the bankruptcy.  What this means is if anything happens to that vehicle a few months after the bankruptcy case is closed, you as the debtor are going to be responsible for any outstanding balance on that item; so if you are questionable on whether or not you have the ability to afford that vehicle or whether that vehicle is worth what the creditor wants you to sign on the dotted line for again, you might want to consider giving up the vehicle and getting a fresh start.  By filing a Chapter 7, you as the debtor have that option as to whether or not you want to reaffirm the debt, surrender the debt or redeem the debt. 

To redeem the debt means you are going to make a lump sum payment for the fair market value of that item in exchange for the creditor giving you the title to that vehicle.  In a redemption situation, the debtor typically gets financing from a third-party and this has to be done on motion of the court, motion to redeem the item.

You have to eliminate the bulk of your debt before you can reaffirm on a particular debt claims Streamwood bankruptcy attorney.  The process starts with the client coming in for a free initial consultation.  During this consultation, we will go through a bankruptcy intake questionnaire which will list all of the assets, liabilities, income and expenses of the debtor.  During the course of this intake questionnaire, I will point out to the debtor any issues that I see such as non-dischargeable debts, transfers that can be undone or other purchases that might have to be repaid.  For example, if somebody purchases a TV, furniture, jewelry or electronics within a certain number of days prior to filing, then those debts are typically going to have to be repaid through what’s known as a reaffirmation agreement.  

A reaffirmation agreement is an agreement that survives the bankruptcy case, putting the debtor back on the hook for that debt in exchange for the debtor being allowed to keep that item.  The most common form of a reaffirmation agreement relates to an automobile.  Most people want to keep their automobile and continue to make their payments on that as they get out of other debt.  The auto lender will allow that individual debtor to reaffirm the debt provided they are current on the obligation and agree to make payments going forward.  The agreement has to be signed by the attorney and by the client and must go through the scrutiny of the bankruptcy judge.

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.