Bankruptcy

Did You Ever See a Potential Bankruptcy Client that You Thought Didn't Need an Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney? Well, Sometimes. But Not Often!

By Joseph McDaniel, Esq.

But besides having a creative hair style, she also had a problem.

Actually, she had about thirty thousand of them. And she was young. And disabled. And had a very, very small monthly income from her disability.

And when I asked how she could possibly live on such a small monthly income, she answered, "Very carefully. And besides, I stopped paying on my thirty thousand in credit card debt some time ago."

So I asked her about everything under the sun.

She owned essentially nothing whatsoever, except her clothes and a little mismatched kitchen stuff that had seen better days because of traveling. Her car had recently been repossessed, and she was looking at a substantial deficiency judgment because of that repossession.

And she had no savings, no furniture to speak of, no motorcycles, no firearms, no supply of food, no pets, no....well, you get the idea.

She had not paid any debt, much less any preferential payments to an insider, in forever. She had not transferred her car to her brother without getting paid.

She had not used her credit cards forever.

So I told her I couldn't bring myself to take her money, and she should buy food and medicine instead.

Mind you, I am a Bankruptcy Sherpa. I guide people through the high, trackless mountains of the bankruptcy process where the air is thin, and I love to do it because it provides a disproportionate benefit to the people I get to help, and they're (mostly) a lot happier than they were after the process than they were when they first dropped in to say howdy.

So I like what I do, and I like the results I get for my tourists (spelled "clients").

But the nice young lady didn't have a complex bankruptcy case. In fact, she had the simplest situation I'd seen in some years. She didn't need a board certified AV Martindale rated AVVO 10 bankruptcy specialist for her lawyer in Arizona.

A buncha debt. Tiny little income. TINY little assets.

So I told her I didn't want her money, and pointed her at the self-help center at the Bankruptcy Court, and told her to be first in line when they opened up, because it was first come, first served.

And I told her if she hit any roadblocks, she could feel free to come back and ask me about 'em, because she was very nice, and needed some help, and I like being helpful.

Now, back to working on cases that are, well, more complicated.

Especially those little business cases. Getting a little business to slide though the bankruptcy court process while the business owner is sliding through a Chapter 7 is, frankly, not so easy. And it doesn't always work perfectly, either, because the system isn't designed to work that way.

But it makes me feel good when it does, you know?

NOTHING HERE CONSTITUTES LEGAL ADVICE RE A CHAPTER 7, CHAPTER 13, CHAPTER 11, OR CHAPTER 12. FIND AN ARIZONA BANKRUPTCY LAWYER WHO IS BOARD CERTIFIED IN BANKRUPTCY LAW, AV RATED, AVVO 10 RATED, ON SUPERLAWYERS, OR JUST VERY EXPERIENCED AND A FORMER CHAIR OF SOME BANKRUPTCY SECTION OR COMMITTEE. NOTHING HERE MAY BE USED AS LEGAL ADVICE IN CONNECTION WITH ANY BANKRUPTCY, WHETHER THAT BANKRUPTCY IS IN PHOENIX, GLENDALE, TEMPE, MESA, SCOTTSDALE, OR ANYWHERE ELSE.

Full post as published by Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney Blog on June 03, 2010 (boomark / email).