Bankruptcy

I Hate It When That Happens! Losing Tax Refunds, Losing Cars, Losing Real Estate Commissions!

By Joseph McDaniel, Esq.

She had a friend who had filed a pro-per bankruptcy (without a lawyer, and without even talking to my very knowledgeable former-paralegal buddy).

So she lost a tax refund she didn't have to lose; and she filed without her husband, which is seldom a good idea, because although filing a bankruptcy with an experienced Arizona bankruptcy lawyer costs money, defending the lawsuits against hubby is going to cost a bundle more!

And my paralegal buddy told me that the amount of the tax refund the pro-per debtor lost to the bankruptcy trustee was more than enough to have paid an established bankruptcy specialist attorney in Arizona.

Oh, well.

A lot of people think that the statutes are written in English, so they can do everything themselves; and the reality is that they're written in Bankruptcylawish, which is very different indeed from English.

Mind you, the champs among sad debtors are those who lose real estate commissions by filing pro-per or with newbie bk lawyers in Az; those are really post-graduate work in consumer bankruptcy cases in Arizona. The trustees understand the concept of real estate commissions that are "in the pipeline".

But people get to pay their money and take their choices; on the other hand, there are so many things that can go wrong in consumer bankruptcy cases in Az that it would scare me blue to try to do it myself.

I'd hire a board certified bankruptcy lawyer with an AV rating and a lot of reviews on AVVO, just to reduce my blood pressure a bit during the process!

But that's just me; I've always been a little risk averse, you know?

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 July 15, 2010 (boomark / email).