laz
10-28-2004, 07:21 PM
October 26, 2004
Art Epstein
Some years back, one of my best friends was living a great, gay life: eating out in nice restaurants, traveling as he pleased, casually buying plain black shoes and gleefully exclaiming, “They were $400, but I had to have them!” I always wondered how Kevin did it, since I didn’t think he was making that much money as an assistant to a film producer in New York.
And then I found out how he managed it: he simply and methodically racked up nearly $90,000 on his credit cards. His monthly payments just to pay the minimum would have nicely paid for a small mortgage payment.
Kevin claims – and I’m willing to believe this little self-deception – he never intended to get into debt and then, just a few years later, declare bankruptcy.
“I really had every intention of paying off all the cards, but I went through a few months of being in between jobs and I got overwhelmed, and realized I would never be able to dig my way out on my own.”
So, Kevin got himself a bankruptcy attorney and settled with a few creditors for a fraction of what he really owed them, and the rest of his debt seemed to vanish like tiramisu after a nice Italian meal.
While I don’t applaud what he did, living far beyond his means (he maintains it was in anticipation of a bump in income from the sale of one of his scripts, something he has yet to do), he did under the circumstances do something right: he hired an attorney who specialized in bankruptcy.
Legal experts tend to agree, the only thing worse than declaring bankruptcy is hiring the wrong attorney to handle it.
Unlike finding an attorney who specializes in any number of specific areas – real estate, tax, entertainment and so on – the area of bankruptcy is equally specialized and finding one isn’t as easy as asking your friends for a referral. That is, unless they have already been through a bankruptcy themselves.
So, Kevin went to the source – he spent a day in bankruptcy court.
“I just wanted to watch and see how the process worked in court and see how the attorneys handled themselves. I met a woman there who had a good experience with her attorney and found mine through her,” Kevin said.
Legal experts also suggest finding out who sits on local bankruptcy court panels and trustee panels. These are attorneys who are regularly in bankruptcy court and are, presumably, respected enough to be put on the panel.
You could also get the names of lawyers on the local bankruptcy court's debtor or creditor committees, people who tend to take their work very seriously.
Other places to sniff out a good bankruptcy attorney include the Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, and the American Bankruptcy Institute.
What to Ask
Once you’ve narrowed down your list of possible attorneys to represent you, you may want to find out some key facts to help you in your decision-making process:
How will the procedure work?
What time frame do they have for this bankruptcy?
How many of their bankruptcies are consumer or personal rather than business filings?
How much access will I have to an attorney during my bankruptcy filing?
Find out exactly what the costs of bankruptcy are, what's included in your lawyer's fees, and what isn’t.
You might also ask how many bankruptcies they handle in a month or in a year, but that won’t necessarily tell you about their level of competency. Even shysters tend to have a lot of unsuspecting clients … who just don’t know any better.
Your Role
Once you have your attorney, it’s vital you understand your role in bankruptcy, and pay scrupulous attention to which debts are handled and when. With your attorney, you must go over time frames and filing requirements, since you are the one who is ultimately responsible, because when everything is filed correctly, you will stand the best chance of a successful filing.
Art Epstein
Some years back, one of my best friends was living a great, gay life: eating out in nice restaurants, traveling as he pleased, casually buying plain black shoes and gleefully exclaiming, “They were $400, but I had to have them!” I always wondered how Kevin did it, since I didn’t think he was making that much money as an assistant to a film producer in New York.
And then I found out how he managed it: he simply and methodically racked up nearly $90,000 on his credit cards. His monthly payments just to pay the minimum would have nicely paid for a small mortgage payment.
Kevin claims – and I’m willing to believe this little self-deception – he never intended to get into debt and then, just a few years later, declare bankruptcy.
“I really had every intention of paying off all the cards, but I went through a few months of being in between jobs and I got overwhelmed, and realized I would never be able to dig my way out on my own.”
So, Kevin got himself a bankruptcy attorney and settled with a few creditors for a fraction of what he really owed them, and the rest of his debt seemed to vanish like tiramisu after a nice Italian meal.
While I don’t applaud what he did, living far beyond his means (he maintains it was in anticipation of a bump in income from the sale of one of his scripts, something he has yet to do), he did under the circumstances do something right: he hired an attorney who specialized in bankruptcy.
Legal experts tend to agree, the only thing worse than declaring bankruptcy is hiring the wrong attorney to handle it.
Unlike finding an attorney who specializes in any number of specific areas – real estate, tax, entertainment and so on – the area of bankruptcy is equally specialized and finding one isn’t as easy as asking your friends for a referral. That is, unless they have already been through a bankruptcy themselves.
So, Kevin went to the source – he spent a day in bankruptcy court.
“I just wanted to watch and see how the process worked in court and see how the attorneys handled themselves. I met a woman there who had a good experience with her attorney and found mine through her,” Kevin said.
Legal experts also suggest finding out who sits on local bankruptcy court panels and trustee panels. These are attorneys who are regularly in bankruptcy court and are, presumably, respected enough to be put on the panel.
You could also get the names of lawyers on the local bankruptcy court's debtor or creditor committees, people who tend to take their work very seriously.
Other places to sniff out a good bankruptcy attorney include the Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, and the American Bankruptcy Institute.
What to Ask
Once you’ve narrowed down your list of possible attorneys to represent you, you may want to find out some key facts to help you in your decision-making process:
How will the procedure work?
What time frame do they have for this bankruptcy?
How many of their bankruptcies are consumer or personal rather than business filings?
How much access will I have to an attorney during my bankruptcy filing?
Find out exactly what the costs of bankruptcy are, what's included in your lawyer's fees, and what isn’t.
You might also ask how many bankruptcies they handle in a month or in a year, but that won’t necessarily tell you about their level of competency. Even shysters tend to have a lot of unsuspecting clients … who just don’t know any better.
Your Role
Once you have your attorney, it’s vital you understand your role in bankruptcy, and pay scrupulous attention to which debts are handled and when. With your attorney, you must go over time frames and filing requirements, since you are the one who is ultimately responsible, because when everything is filed correctly, you will stand the best chance of a successful filing.