Bankruptcy Indiana

"The certified attorney has met rigorous, objective standards and has demonstrated knowledge in bankruptcy," explains the American Board of Certification website.  As a debt consolidation lawyer offering bankruptcy services in Indiana, I'm very proud to be one of only 12 bankruptcy lawyers in Indiana to be a Board Certified Consumer Bankruptcy Specialist.  In fact, only last month, I received a letter saying that, for the tenth consecutive year, I had earned certification.

Last week, all my work providing bankruptcy information in Indiana was recognized in a different, very significant way, when I was invited to be on the faculty at the Southeastern Bankruptcy Law Institute.  This is a nationally known seminar for practicing bankruptcy attorneys, bankruptcy judges, along with university law professors.  The write-up about me in the program is shown here:
    
MARK S. ZUCKERBERG
Mark S. Zuckerberg is a Board Certified Consumer Bankruptcy Specialist practicing in Indianapolis, IN and has filed over 20,000 bankruptcy cases. He frequently lectures both locally and nationally on consumer bankruptcy law. He is past Chairman of the Bankruptcy and Creditors’ Rights Section of the Indiana State Bar Association….He was awarded Master Distinguished Fellow by the Indianapolis Bar Association.

It's interesting - one of the topics on which I lectured at the Institute is a topic I've been covering in these bankruptcy blog posts, which is fraudulent transfers. Back at the end of February, a blog reader asked about "lookback on assets" in bankruptcy. I explained that the bankruptcy court generally bases its rulings on assets the debtor owns as of the date of filing bankruptcy.

But (and there's a big, important "but" attached to that rule of thumb), if the debtor transferred assets within the two years leading up to the bankruptcy, the court needs to know about that. If any of the transfers are considered fraudulent, meaning the debtor transferred assets for the specific purpose of keeping them outside the "bankruptcy estate" ( when those funds could have been used to pay creditors), big trouble can ensue for the debtor, up to and including a prison sentence of as long as five years.

Now, all the Bloomington, Anderson, Indianapolis, and Columbus bankruptcy attorneys who work in the Mark Zuckerberg offices know about the principle of fraudulent transfers in the new bankruptcy laws in Indiana. The attorneys who attended the Southeastern Bankruptcy Law Institute were all doubtless familiar with the concept as well. However, that's where my many years of experience handling tens of thousands of cases came into play.

You see, in the real world, by the time people who file individual bankruptcy in Indiana or small business bankruptcy in Indiana (or in any other state, for that matter) seek our professional advice, they may already have done things and taken steps which they were not even aware might be considered fraudulent. These individuals, not being attorneys, are simply not familiar with bankruptcy law and are not aware they could be jeopardizing their own cases. That's the reason it's so important to seek professional counsel at the very first signs of financial trouble. That's also the reason attorneys and bankruptcy judges continue to study case histories of bankruptcy and learn how to recognize what might transfers are in danger of being ruled fraudulent by the bankruptcy court.

For the bankruptcy safety net to work, the court needs to see to it that creditors and debtors are each treated fairly. While bankruptcy can offer honest debtors a chance to recover from setbacks too big for them to handle without help, the court needs to protect the interests of lenders as well.

I felt privileged and honored  to have been invited to speak at the Southeastern Bankruptcy Law Institute.