Tucson Bankruptcy Blog Tucson Bankruptcy Lawyer

Before filing your bankruptcy case, it is important to decide if bankruptcy is your best option. Depending on the specifics of your financial problems, we will gather and discuss a great many facts in your case. We will want to know all aspects of your financial situation and what your desired outcomes are. It may be difficult to discuss all the circumstances you are facing in bankruptcy. However, if you are to take full advantage of the protections offered you under the United States and Arizona bankruptcy laws, we must know everything, including who and what you owe, whether or not you are behind on your payments, and any other financial information.

Reaffirming a Debt in Bankruptcy
There are times when clients who have filed chapter 7 or 13 bankruptcy will ask whether or not they should reaffirm a debt that would otherwise be discharged in their bankruptcy. Reaffirmation is an agreement made with a creditor to continue paying off a debt even after bankruptcy. There may be legitimate reasons for wanting to reaffirm a debt or loan. However, before the changes in bankruptcy law in 2005, it was not uncommon for creditors to use coercive methods to try and get debtors to reaffirm a loan. Reaffirming a debt means that you will be legally responsible for repaying the debt after your bankruptcy even though the bankruptcy would have released you of any legal responsibility to pay it back.

When you hear “meeting of creditors,” you might imagine yourself having to face a room of people representing the banks and credit card companies. The reality is that the meeting of creditors is used by the trustee to ask you questions about your financial situation. These questions and your answers will help him or her carry out the responsibilities of the trustee. Creditors will rarely show up at this meeting. Bankruptcy judges are not allowed to attend the meeting of creditors.

Because there is additional proof needed to show undue burden, the majority of those individuals who file bankruptcy do not file the additional adversary proceeding necessary to receive a discharge. This accounts for very low number of student loan discharges given to debtors by bankruptcy courts each year.

A common question that comes up when clients are considering chapter 7 bankruptcy is what impact bankruptcy will have on IRAs and other retirement accounts. When we file your chapter 7 bankruptcy, we have the opportunity to use what are termed “exemptions” under the U.S. and Arizona bankruptcy laws.

In this next post we will be discussing the issue surrounding dismissal or conversion of bankruptcy and the role and mechanism of the means test and presumption of abuse