Should you try to declare bankruptcy on your own?
Depending on your specific circumstances, bankruptcy might be what you need in order to get a fresh financial start. However, you should be careful to avoid a do it yourself bankruptcy approach.
With so much at stake, you don’t want to treat this financial decision lightly. You need the help of a lawyer to help you decide if bankruptcy is right for you, and you’ll also need legal assistance to go through the process.
Your lawyer must consider your specific situation and not give you the same advice that he gives everyone else. After this consultation, you may discover that bankruptcy is actually not the best option in your case. If you had not taken the time to discuss this, you may have made the mistake of trying to file by yourself.
You might hear through word of mouth about someone who has declared bankruptcy without the help of a lawyer, but these days the law is only getting more complex. Some people may try to convince you that lawyers are not necessary for the bankruptcy process.
However, this approach has become much more difficult with the recent changes in the bankruptcy code made by Congress in 2005. Even if going alone was a real option in the past, things have certainly changed.
Even bankruptcy lawyers, who make this area of the law their bread and butter, may have to work extra hard these days to stay abreast of all the latest court rulings that interpret and shed new light on this complicated law.
If you worry about the legal fees, you might think that you simply cannot afford to pay for a lawyer. Keep in mind that declaring bankruptcy will put a hold on all of your accounts until your case is resolved, and your creditors will not even be able to contact you during this period.
Trying to go through the bankruptcy process by yourself is not a good idea for most people, and you should remember that this is an important financial decision that will have long-term consequences.
Tags: Bankruptcy, Credit, finances, financial, Personal Bankruptcy
This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 at 9:59 am and is filed under Bankruptcy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.