Bankruptcy

So Can I Save the Family Farm from Snidely Whiplash?

By Joseph McDaniel, Esq.

Turns out that Chapter 12 Bankruptcy cases are capable of being filed here in Arizona, although they often are not because our farms tend to be a bit too big, and the debts a bit too big, for jurisdictional limits.

The Good Ol' Boy, who is about as decent a guy as you'd ever want to meet, may be able to get out of his fix by feeding Snidely his favorite meal: interest, sprinkled with money. With a little cash on the side, hold the mayo. You know, a #3 combo.

We'll see if that does the job; some cases, even after all these years, make me a little more intense than others.

I told the trustee in one case recently that my client was now on dialysis, and was dying, and that if the trustee wanted to object to his tools of the trade exemption, I'd be happy to fight with the trustee on that issue until I was dead.

He was just funnin' with me, because the time had come and gone for objecting to the tools of the trade in that case. And I took the bait, and frothed like a lunatic.

I try hard NOT to get emotionally involved in any case, because it makes it much harder to use the professional objectivity that lets a lawyer do a better job than a debtor at negotiating a deal.

It's much, much easier to snivel for somebody else than it is for yourself. Try it!

But back to Good Ol' Boy: I have a potent weapon in that as-yet unfiled case. A smart lawyer on the other side. I LOVE having a really smart lawyer on the other side. That lawyer may well teach me something new, and usually a smart lawyer is going to try to avoid the multiplication of legal fees that happens in a dogfight.

So I'll wait until the lawyer for Snidley Whiplash gets back to me, and I have a pretty good feeling about it; even if I have to file, working with smart people on the other side generally makes the range of outcomes better.

NOTHING HERE CONSTITUTES LEGAL ADVICE RE A CHAPTER 7, CHAPTER 13, CHAPTER 11, OR CHAPTER 12. FIND AN ARIZONA BANKRUPTCY LAWYER WHO IS BOARD CERTIFIED IN BANKRUPTCY LAW, AV RATED, AVVO 10 RATED, ON SUPERLAWYERS, OR JUST VERY EXPERIENCED AND A FORMER CHAIR OF SOME BANKRUPTCY SECTION OR COMMITTEE. NOTHING HERE MAY BE USED AS LEGAL ADVICE IN CONNECTION WITH ANY BANKRUPTCY, WHETHER THAT BANKRUPTCY IS IN PHOENIX, GLENDALE, TEMPE, MESA, SCOTTSDALE, OR ANYWHERE ELSE.

Full post as published by Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney Blog on June 30, 2009 (boomark / email).