Bankruptcy Without Lawyer
Re-printed With Permission Original Article Written By: Cynthia Fowler
What Happened When I Filed Bankruptcy Without a Lawyer
My biggest concern back in June last year when I filed bankruptcy was whether I could file bankruptcy myself without a lawyer. I knew I had to file bankruptcy soon because it was all closing in on me fast and if I was going to avoid foreclosure I had to dump all the credit cards and signature loans that were eating all my pay check. But for the longest, I kept going back and forth about using a lawyer or filing bankruptcy without a lawyer.
I read a blog on a lawyer's web site saying that you should not file bankruptcy without a lawyer because they could represent you in court but I also read testimonies from people who had filed without a bankruptcy lawyer and it all worked out okay for them. And then there was the money aspect. Here in Memphis the bankruptcy lawyers wanted $1,600 and up and one lawyer who said that you could file with him for only a $100 deposit wanted $1,750 in total. I found out that the deposit was only to get started typing the bankruptcy forms, not for filing the papers.
I had no legal background so the last thing I was going to do was to do it myself with no one helping me. I had thought about using bankruptcy software but I chickened out after I read a horror story of one woman who got a virus on her computer after she installed a bankruptcy program. In the end I chose Miller Bankruptcy.
I chose Miller Bankruptcy over USA Bankruptcy Associates because Miller Bankruptcy had connections to lawyers and if I was going to file bankruptcy without a lawyer, I liked the idea that if I had a question I could ask one of their recommended lawyers for a small fee instead of hiring them out right.
My experience with Miller Bankruptcy was a lot better than I had expected. From the get go I had no problem getting answers to my questions. In the end I did not need to talk to a lawyer since they made it so easy to understand. I had one question though that no one at Miller Bankruptcy seemed to answer. They did not seem to know if I qualified for the fee waiver even though they had all of my information. That kinda made me doubt but in the end they included the application for fee waiver and I got the filing fee waived. After I got the court fee waived, I understood why they didn't want to answer my question. They knew I made too much money to get the court fee waived, at least that is what the court clerk told me, but they did not want to give me the bad news. The court clerk put it in to the judge anyway with a hand written note from me saying that I was caring from my sick mother. The judge said yes and I was so glad that I did not have to pay them the $300. I found out afterwards that it helped that I was filing bankruptcy without a lawyer. When I was leaving, the clerk told me that if I had filed with a lawyer, the judge would not have waived my fee since I could afford to pay the lawyer.
Now that I had passed the filing and so far so good, my only remaining concern was the creditor meeting. Also I was wondering how I was going to stop the collection companies from bothering me since I was filing without a bankruptcy lawyer. But about a week or so after I filed, they just stopped calling. They must have found out from the court that I filed.
I am a worry bug so on the morning of the trustee meeting, I went there hours early to see what it was like before my time which was in the afternoon. I noticed that about half of the people had lawyers and the others filed without a bankruptcy lawyer like me. My biggest surprise was the people without a lawyer seemed to have it easier than the people with lawyers. All in all everybody sailed through and so I felt good that it would be easy for me too. I noticed that a couple of people who had lawyers were asked to come back again. The trustee was not happy that this one lawyer did not file the full bankruptcy and he had charged the customer too much.
When it came my turn, it was over before I knew it. He asked me if I was sure I wanted to file bankruptcy and I said yes and then he said dismissed. So I am standing there wondering why I was dismissed and then when he saw me still standing there he smiled and said he that my bankruptcy was good and that I would get the discharge in a few weeks. It was as if I had won something big. I tried to thank him and then they called the next person. For them it was like no big deal but for me, it was the end of a long struggle.
As I left the room, I broke down in tears. I had been suffering years not being able to sleep and fearing I was going to lose everything and now that was all gone. Now I could afford to take my kids out to the amusement park and I did not have to tell them no each time they wanted me to buy something for them.
I am just so thankful that we live in a country where miracles like this can happen. That is why I decided to write this so that others can know that they do not need to be afraid to file or think that they have to have a bankruptcy lawyer.
Our Recommended Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Picks
There are lots of good bankruptcy preparation companies that debtors can choose from but our pick is USA Bankruptcy Associates for online bankruptcy preparation. Here are our reasons for picking this company.
USA Bankruptcy Associates is the oldest bankruptcy preparation site around. They began as a regular attorney support company in California back in 1990 and then branched into the internet starting around 2000. Since then they have prepared more than 30,000 bankruptcies. I like that they have been around for such a long time and were the first to offer real-time online bankruptcy preparation. I also like the positive feedback that I get from readers of the blog who have used USA Bankruptcy Associates.
A close pick is Miller Bankruptcywhich is also a full-service bankruptcy preparation company. I have seen a lot of reviews where Miller Bankruptcy has been picked over USA Bankruptcy Associates but in my opinion, it still comes down to price verses features. Miller Bankruptcy is more expensive and though they have more after-bankruptcy features, I do not know if it justifies the significantly higher price. The Miller Bankruptcy claim to fame is their Labyrinth which they claim can help you hide or block your bankruptcy from the credit bureaus but that is nothing new.
More than ten years ago, USA Bankruptcy Associates pioneered that concept and I recall that it was so successful that many bankruptcy courts began to instruct their clerks to watch out for debtors using this USA Bankruptcy Associates technique. Just about everyone who used the company back then was able to hide their bankruptcy from the credit bureaus. That was until the court clerks began to intervene in what was obviously not their damn business and what was clearly a legitimate loophole in chapter 7 bankruptcy law.
To make a long story short, USA Bankruptcy Associates stopped offering that service and instead, focused on just preparing good bankruptcies and helping people to remove the bankruptcy from the credit bureaus, rather than blocking it from entering the credit report in the first place. While Miller Bankruptcy is a well regarded bankruptcy preparation company, they probably missed the memo on the bankruptcy hiding thing. Or it could simply be that they have found a way around the court clerks. In fact I have it on good authority that they use a better technique than the original one introduced by USA bankruptcy Associates but I am generally skeptical about new and improved things.
My opinion anyway is that if you want to file bankruptcy, use a solid company and for me, that is USA bankruptcy Associates. If they can help you with your credit after bankruptcy, then great, but who wants credit after bankruptcy? Credit was what got you in the mess in the first place so when they offer to help you get back on your credit binge, say thanks but no thanks.
Some of the other companies to consider are Bridgeport American Bankruptcy and Easy Bk services. They too are good full-service companies and you cannot go wrong with them. Stay away from bankruptcy software because there are no bankruptcy software designed for individual consumers. There are web sites claiming to sell bankruptcy software but they do not really sell software. Bankruptcy software is very difficult to develope so what a few sites do is take the same free bankruptcy forms that anyone can get from the court web sites and they repackage and call it software. They usually cost about $49.95 but it is a waste of money since it is the same free forms.
Our Pick:USA Bankruptcy Associates
A lot of people ask us if they can file bankruptcy for free and the answer is yes. It is possible to file bankruptcy for free and we can show you how. Find the article in the left navigation bar.
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