Bankruptcy

What's a Good Result in a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy?

By Joseph McDaniel, Esq.

Generally, what an Arizona bankruptcy lawyer wants to see in a case (at least, what I like to see) is a case in which the debtor (the "bankrupt") passes the means test, or is an exception to the means test, and gets to get rid of all the debt, and to keep all the assets. Pretty simple.

Except that everybody is different. Everyone has a different matrix of assets, liabilities, income, and preferences. And some people really need to wait to file, until the insider preference falls off, or the tax refund comes in.

Some folks don't care about optimizing a result; they just want to file NOW, regardless of the precise outcome. That's okay, but my experience is that if somebody pushes me to file for them regardless of the consequences, because they want emotional relief NOW, they still don't like the outcomes. Because they wanted the whole thing to be over, you know?

So I prefer trying to get as close to a good result as I can, since I know that emotions shift in fairly predictable ways before, during, and after a bankruptcy filing.

The other element I hope we can achieve in a bankruptcy case, which I have the least control over, is a debtor who becomes clean of all debt, who then has more dough than needed to live on a day to day basis, who is now able to contribute to some sort of retirement vehicle, so that someday they'll have the one-in-each-hand Margarita experience on white sands with the waves rolling in, after retiring.

Now, that's just me.

The client is the dog, and I'm the tail, you know?

So if a client really, really wants to stay in a house that's two hundred grand upside down, and really, really wants to keep paying on a car that's waaaay to much car, or just much too expensive, the client is right, and I'm wrong.

Because life is short, and you have to take happiness where you find it. Some people love their houses so very much, or their cars, that they will cling to them under any and all economic circumstances.

And who am I to stand in the way of love?

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 January 19, 2010 (boomark / email).