Bankruptcy Indiana

Last time I highlighted a feature story about a clerk in a U.S. bankruptcy court whose specific job it is to help debtors who file bankruptcy with no attorney. More than half the time, according to the story in Marketplace Money, this clerk ends up telling her petitioners they’d be better off finding an attorney to help them, since she’s not allowed to offer legal advice.

You may be asking yourself what difference it could make to have an attorney involved in a bankruptcy.  An attorney can help clients decide whether it’s a good idea for them to file bankruptcy in the first place, or whether it would be worth trying other approaches before taking that step. Then, an experienced attorney can advise clients what type of bankruptcy best fits their situation.

Maybe the most important role the attorney plays is to make sure the financial disclosure process is done correctly.  That’s because, if mistakes are made, not only can the petition fail, but debtors could even expose themselves to criminal charges!  Now, debtors don’t necessarily set out to hide anything.  Often they just don’t realize what needs to be disclosed.  Maybe they received notice of a small inheritance in the last few months, but haven’t actually received anything yet.  Maybe their name is on a bank account for Mom.  It’s her money, but she thought it would be easier to settle her estate if something happened to her. Maybe the person filing bankruptcy isn’t sure what kinds of income need to be reported on the forms.  Maybe there was a mistake on the credit report that never got corrected.  Or, maybe the person went in on an investment or a piece of property with their relative years ago and the deal tanked.  The filer had written that one off years ago, but there’s still a record of it hanging out there.  Or…or…or.

In my close to 25 years of practicing bankruptcy law in Indiana, not only have I worked with tens of thousands of people, I’ve seen hundreds of thousands of details like these that, had they not been caught, could’ve really fouled up a bankruptcy case faster than you could say “I can’t believe I filed bankruptcy without an attorney!”.