Bankruptcy Indiana

 Last week in Bankruptcy in Indiana I shared some thoughts from a new book by an Indiana author called Failure; the Secret to Success, explaining that one of my missions as a debt consolidation lawyer offering bankruptcy services in Indiana is to help debtors focus on the future rather than on their own past failures.

In order to provide the latest Indiana bankruptcy information to clients and readers, I read a lot - newspapers, professional journals, books websites, and even blogs. The interesting thing is that, a day or two after I finished reading the Robby Slaughter book on failure that I mentioned earlier, I found an article from Inc. Magazine, written 12 years ago, with almost the same name as the Slaughter book.. This article tells the story of Jeff Schwartz, whose business, Remarkable Moments, had failed, and it brings out the idea that sometimes a business failure teaches lessons that lead to future success.

As a lawyer for small business bankruptcy in Indiana,  I really related to the opening paragraph of the Inc. article:  "There are three things to know about failure:

1. It happens.
    
2. It can be destructive in ways you've never imagined.
    
3. Believe it or not, there's a right way to do it.
   
   The point of the article is that Jeff Schwartz should have pulled the plug on his business long ago.  He should have dealt with the realities before he had gone three years without a salary, before he'd burned through all his personal savings, before his wife quit the PTA and community activities because of the business' demands, before he raided his children's college funds."

Every one of the Columbus bankruptcy lawyers who works in the Zuckerberg bankruptcy law offices has heard stories like this.  Every one of the good bankruptcy attorneys in Indiana who are my colleagues in Anderson, Bloomington, and Indianapolis has  worked with individuals and small business owners who waited too long to file bankruptcy in Indiana, and who lost assets they might have kept had they sought legal advice earlier in the game.

Having helped write the exemptions portion of the new bankruptcy laws of Indiana, I find it particularly sad when I find that, in order to put off facing bankruptcy, small business owners have gone into their retirement plan assets (which are exempt from creditors' claims in bankruptcy in Indiana), and spent money they might have preserved for their family and for their own support in later years.

Whether it comes to filing personal bankruptcy under bankruptcy Chapter 7 in Indiana, Chapter 13 bankruptcy law in Indiana, or whether we're talking about small business bankruptcy in Indiana, I have to agree with two of the three Inc. Magazine statements about failure:

1. Bankruptcy happens.
    
2. Believe it or not, there's a right way to do it.

As far as the remaining statement about failure being destructive, I believe the bankruptcy process - and in particular the process of successfully emerging from bankruptcy can be constructive in ways most people haven't imagined!