Bankruptcy Indiana

Tracking Indiana employment statistics is like riding an emotional roller coaster. As a debt consolidation lawyer offering bankruptcy services in Indiana, I keep reading everything I can get my hands on about the job markets in our state.  And that has meant seesawing between "hot" and "cold", said and happy, hope and despair.  For every piece of news, it seems there's always what news commentator Paul Harvey used to call "the rest of the story"!

Just yesterday I quoted Ball State University's Michael Hicks saying he sees Indiana "starting to see the light of recovery." I reported new job opportunities coming in Columbus and Ft. Wayne.  All this is true and good news, because income from well-paying jobs is key to successfully emerging from personal bankruptcy in Indiana.

But, at the same time as the Columbus bankruptcy lawyers who work in the Zuckerberg bankruptcy law offices there are calling my attention to all the jobs being created by Cummins Engine and NTN Driveshaft, and at the same time the good bankruptcy attorneys in Indiana who work with me in Anderson are telling me about Saratoga Potato Chips coming to Ft. Wayne and hiring lots of workers, I'm also reading in the Indianapolis Star about thousands upon thousands of unemployed Hoosiers who have lost their jobless benefits in the last month.

In Indiana, the state pays unemployment benefits for a maximum of 26 weeks. Federal extensions have made it possible to receive benefits for a total of 99 weeks (almost two years).  But the way the system works, as a worker reaches the end of any one extension period, he or she can't move on to the next until Congress passes new legislation.   There are simply a lot of people looking for jobs.

What this has meant on a daily basis for me as a longtime bankruptcy lawyer in Indiana, is a lot more people needing help to stop foreclosure on their homes, a lot more people needing student loan debt help, and even a lot more people needing payday loan debt help in Indiana. The saddest situation, from my point of view, is when someone has filed under Chapter 13 bankruptcy law in Indiana and then, because of losing a job and then losing unemployment benefits, failing to keep up with the debt repayment plan.  Often individuals need to "redo" their bankruptcy as Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Unemployment definitely represents the sad, low, cold, and despair dips in the Bankruptcy in Indiana roller coaster ride!