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All I Want For Christmas is My Bankruptcy Discharge!

By Joseph McDaniel, Esq.

Sadly and softly, the Arizona bankruptcy attorney said, "Bah, Humbug!"

No Discharge for you this Christmas, Tiny Tim! 

Remember the sequence of events in your Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in Arizona, and just about everyplace else.

First, you file. And that's a process and a half, now that we have the BARF Act in place (the 2005 Amendments; and BARF is the polite version, so you know). You need to take your waste-of-time-but-absolutely required pre-bankruptcy consumer credit counseling, and that's time you'll never get back again in this life!

And you have to fill out your forms after you retain the firm and we give you the "Keys to the Kingdom" so you can start filling out the forms at home, at your convenience. Along with a huge post explaining how to fill 'em out. And backstopped by Heidi the Bankruptcy Angel.

After you file, you get The Trustee Letter, asking for copies of all the documents in the world (okay, not all the documents, but that's what you'll feel like after you make the three copies of everything, and mail one to the trustee ASAP, put one in permanent storage, and bring one set to your First Meeting of Creditors as a safety measure; don't ask me if you should give the trustee what the trustee is asking for. Let the Wookie win! Give the trustee the copies, and be quick about it!).

Then, about sixty days after the First Meeting of Creditors, if nothing funky has happened in your case like a Complaint filed by a cranky creditor, and if you gave the trustee the copies demanded in the trustee letter on a timely basis, and if you took the boring-waste-of-time-consumer-credit-counseling-class and if you showed up at your First Meeting of Creditors with both your social security card and your driver's license, and if you took your post petition waste of time consumer credit counseling class, then you should get a Discharge Order entered in your file, and you'll know about that when it gets mailed out to everybody on your master mailing matrix.

So as you can plainly see, you won't have a bankruptcy discharge under your tree this year, because you haven't even filed yet!

But don't despair, because that's a Mort; instead, get a call or email into your personal favorite board-certified, Martindale AV Rated, AVVO 10.0 Rated Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney, and get the process started if you're serious about filing a bankruptcy, and you can frame your Bankruptcy Discharge above the mantel when Christmas comes next year!

And I may forget, so if I do, Merry Christmas to one and all! If you're a Buddhist, I know you won't be offended, because you'll simply and benignly hope that I find a way to lose my desire for Christmas. If you're an atheist, you won't be offended, because I'm just wishing that on a particular day, you'll be happy! If you're a Jew, well, we worship a Jew in my religion, so that ought not be a particular barrier (but feel free to "Happy Holiday" me if you feel the need!).

And so it goes. If you are a Bokononist, you'll do fine with "Merry Christmas"!

By the way, if you would be offended by my "Merry Christmas", do not come visit me for a bankruptcy consultation.

Bankruptcy is tough enough if you don't have a sense of humor!

It is, however, perfectly okay if you sob your heart out at our first get-together; that's why I have the box of tissues on the corner of my desk, facing my clients.

p.s. you are not a bad parent if you give few, and small, toys this Christmas. It's a depression, after all. And unemployment, real unemployment, is still running at 20%. And if they have a lean Christmas, the kids will play with the boxes (small children almost always prefer the packaging to the toys themselves; they get over that in time, which is unfortunate).  And the important thing about Christmas isn't the presents, after all.

It's the love.

p.p.s. Remember to do the Arizona Bankruptcy Homework before you come in to visit with me the first time, so that there's at least a chance that I can help you! 

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Full post as published by Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney Blog on December 09, 2010 (boomark / email).