Bankruptcy | The Truth

4)  There are fees when filing bankruptcy – It’s a given that paying attorney’s fees is difficult.  You are at the bankruptcy attorney’s office for a reason.  Many attorneys will tell you that they offer payments plans and so forth.  However, what you should keep in mind is that the attorney will not (or at least should not) file the case until the fees are paid in full.  This includes the attorney’s fees and the filing fee for the court.  Make sure you know what you are getting for the price you are paying.  Ask about the bankruptcy process and what the fees include.  For example, will the attorney file the documents for you, or will they attend your court hearing with you.  Other things to consider is whether the attorney will represent you when dealing with your car or reaffirming certain debts.

5)  You must have your financial documents in order – the second most difficult part of the bankruptcy process is gathering the documents.  Your attorney cannot get all the documents for you.  If they do, the fees might be extremely high.  These documents are your own personal financial documents such as bank and pay statements, tax returns, insurance declarations, 401k records etc.  A number of these documents need to be provided to the bankruptcy court or trustee.  If the attorney does not have all of the documents, they may not file the case until everything is updated.  You can end up going around in circles if you do not provide anything.

For example, if you provide your pay statements to your attorney but you are missing last month’s pay statement.  If it takes you a month to get last month’s statement, then you will need to provide statements for that month and the current month.  Therefore, review the requested documents and bring everything to your attorney.  You must be proactive even though you have an attorney.