A recent post on the internet propagated one increasingly common myth – a blatant lie, many would probably say – about filing for bankruptcy, namely, that debtors can no longer even file for cheap chapter 7 bankruptcy without an attorney, let alone any kind of bankruptcy. bankruptcy. As the author of this article wrote in his caption, the article reproduced on Verizon.com is entitled, “Sorry You Can No Longer File Bankruptcy Without a Lawyer.”
In these bad economic times when consumers are showing increased sensitivity about the costs of bankruptcy, this is a common idea, or at least a similar variation, that is being heard more and more among mainstream bankruptcy law practitioners these days. Apparently, there’s a growing feeling among bankruptcy attorneys and bloated unemployed Americans asking about bankruptcy proceedings, that only in most cases with no-lawyer bankruptcy can a debtor file for cheap chapter 7 bankruptcy. Usually, the arguments of mainstream bankruptcy lawyers about the inability of debtors to file for bankruptcy without a lawyer, are made along the same lines put forward by the authors in the above-mentioned article, namely, since the new bankruptcy “reform” or BAPCPA law was implemented in October 2005, The “climate has changed drastically” with respect to the laws and procedures for filing bankruptcy, and that they have become so “complicated” now that it is almost too difficult, if not impossible, for debtors to file for chapter 7 bankruptcy without an attorney. Or for him to file for Chapter 13, or bankruptcy of any kind.
BUT IS THE NEW LAW REALLY COMPLEX?
However, this view could not be more wrong or wrong. In fact, nothing – absolutely NOTHING – could be further from the truth throughout the current administration of the bankruptcy system! In fact, what is absolutely TRUE, is that objective experts and knowledgeable people from all spectrums in the bankruptcy industry, including lawyers, trustees and judges, who specialize in bankruptcy, have considerable records that most bankruptcy is private. actually simple. In fact, they say, such work really doesn’t require the services of a lawyer to handle because it’s generally very basic and mostly clerical, and generally easy and simple to do. Most of these experts say that at least, with respect to Chapter 7, if not Chapter 13, debtors can easily file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy without an attorney.
They generally cite two basic reasons on which they base themselves for saying this: (1) that most cases of personal bankruptcy are termed “no assets” or “minimum assets” cases – that is, cases in which the debtor indebtedness actually has no or no assets. have ANYTHING that the creditor can claim or attach to, let alone the money to pay large attorney fees, and therefore have no basis for hiring a lawyer because they do not have any property or assets the attorneys deserve to protect from the creditor if they file for bankruptcy; and (2) the FACT that bankruptcy, they say (contrary to the common belief of the layman that bankruptcy is a complicated procedure), is actually a relatively simple matter that often involves filling out simple routine forms and submitting them to the local bankruptcy court. .
Janice Kosel, Professor of law at Golden State University, San Francisco, and a well-known author and expert on the subject of personal bankruptcy, explains:
“Do you need a lawyer to file a Chapter 13 (bankruptcy) payment plan? No. [Even] Filing a Chapter 13 plan is often easier than preparing your income tax return. If you can do it, you can probably handle… [bankruptcy] There’s no requirement (by law) that you have to have a lawyer (to file for bankruptcy)…You can choose to represent yourself.”
Stefan Elias, California lawyers, prominent writers and specialists in bankruptcy law, recently summed it up as follows:
“There is rarely a good reason to use an attorney in a consumer Chapter 7 bankruptcy case. The procedure is almost exclusively administrative – that is, no appearance before a judge… The forms are all (with few exceptions) pre-printed in plain English.. ..[But, in spite of that fact]The tragic thing is that people actually think that they should have a lawyer representative [to be able to do it].”
BUT MANY DEBTORS HAVE ALWAYS SUBMITTED PRO SE, EVEN WITH THE 2005 RESTRICTION LAW
However, in all of this, there is perhaps one piece of evidence that remains as the strongest evidence, the clearest, and most irrefutable demonstration, of the total fallacy of claims that bankruptcy is “complex” and beyond the ability of the average debtor to understand or perform. And here it is: CHEER STATISTICS!
Independent survey studies by these and other authors, as well as bankruptcy court statistics, show that in some parts of the United States, but more specifically in urban jurisdictions such as New York, Arizona and Los Angeles, both before and AFTER the draconian 2005 “reform” laws, large numbers of debtors who file for bankruptcy, in particular Chapter 7, still file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy without a lawyer. These debtors are referred to as pro se filers, meaning without using a lawyer! And, although their numbers may have been greater in the years before the BAPCPA law was implemented, they remain very high even today and are now growing gradually in the current state of the national economic recession.
For example, in the Central District of California, San Fernando Valley Division, the reported proportion of debtors who had filed for bankruptcy without using an attorney before the 2005 law came into effect, was far MORE THAN 50%, but then in June 2006 even AFTER that law the 2005 limit came into force, the number was about 27%. (That figure should obviously be much higher today than it was in late 2008 and after, when a severe economic downturn and high unemployment hit the country!).
Following the passage of the 2005 law, there has been a dramatic decline in the number of bankruptcy filings. But today, debtors who are increasingly burdened by debt due to the current economic recession, and increasingly concerned about the costs of bankruptcy, are now starting, once again, to return to the previous ways of filing bankruptcy, which means they are conducting bankruptcy themselves without a lawyer. And given the severe economic downturn and high unemployment rate since it hit the country in late 2008, and the fact that at the end of 2008, the official statistics for total bankruptcy filings, once again, surpassed the more than 1,000,000 filers for 2008, explain the analysts. American debtors are once again starting to troop into bankruptcy court for help, with lawyers or without lawyers, despite the obstacles and discouragements previously placed in their path by the new 2005 law!
LISTEN TO THIS FIRST HAND ‘expert’:
“When I found myself with no other option but bankruptcy, I did what most people do, I found a lawyer. Within weeks I became disillusioned with the attorney services I was getting and realized I could probably do this myself,” he wrote. SANDRA D. WEISNER of Ohio, recent bankruptcy filing.
“After much research I finally found this book…a guide explaining all the details of filing your own bankruptcy….when to use a lawyer and when to file your own, for a step-by-step guide to forms… ..This book was written without ” legalese” that lawyers use to confuse and keep us in the dark. Also, there are great resources for finding the forms I need online and getting the additional information I need to file for bankruptcy. I’ve saved a lot of time, aggravation, and money. would recommend this guide to anyone. You can do it yourself.” This statement by SANDRA D. WEISNER, a recent bankruptcy reporter in Ohio, was made by her after she used a competent independent legal manual to file her own bankruptcy (quite easy and it worked, she explained), and honestly wrote about it. it’s, for the record, on Amazon.com.
What more can be said, really? What other hard evidence or objective evidence cannot be argued, does it really exist, that the ordinary and average American debtor can, and DO, easily file for successful bankruptcy, specifically file for chapter 7 bankruptcy, without an attorney? They have been doing it ALREADY for decades now. They ALREADY do it now, as we speak! And this author (and many other objective students of the American bankruptcy system) KNOW that fact very well, firsthand, from most studies!
NEED FOLLOW-UP INFORMATION?
Want to join the army of financially struggling bankruptcy seekers across America today who are successfully filing for inexpensive chapter 7 bankruptcy without a lawyer, often perhaps resorting to the help of other inexpensive “non-lawyer” tools and assistance to get things done? Visit this site: http://WWW.Afford-Bankruptcy.Com/proSeBankruptcyTrend.html
