When you get completely down and out on the financial front, and are ready to file for bankruptcy, what can pull you even lower is the thought of shelling out more money to hire one of the bankruptcy lawyers. Against what most people believe, there certainly are ways by which you can afford these services without digging deep into your already scarce resources.
It does seem like a catch-22 when you file for bankruptcy. On one side, you need someone who can represent you or your organization legally to make sure the entire process becomes smooth, while on the other, you are out of money, and if you weren’t, you wouldn’t be filing in the first place! It often feels impossible to hire a lawyer for bankruptcy as it gets terribly difficult to find financial resources for paying the legal fees.
So, here are some tips that may help you in the tedious process of bankruptcy.
“Punch bankruptcy in the face!”. Baby REBEL, “Bailout is BABBLE!” by eyewashdesign: A. Golden, on FlickrThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Attorney Fees Can be Added to Repayment Plan Under Chapter 13
If you go for Chapter 13, your attorney fees can be added to the repayment plan. This way there is no upfront payment that you make for the attorney’s services, instead you pay while you are working your complicated debt situation, which is protected by the respective courts. In case you need to file for Chapter 7, you may get exemption from paying for certain kinds of debts such as credit card bills. This money can be easily paid to the lawyer you hire. A good attorney will always give you the details of the kinds of debts you should be fine not clearing.
Seeking Help from Non-profit Organizations
Another way of finding such lawyers and be able to afford them is to connect with someone who is willing to take your case at a very less rate or even for something like pro bono. If you are surrounded by extenuating circumstances, you’re likely to fall prey to predatory lending or even if you belong to the class of people who are below the line of poverty, searching for an attorney who can help is definitely not impossible; having said that, in such cases a good word or a referral from any non-profit body or debt help organizations can work better and quicker compared to directly contacting them.
Few attorneys extend partial help in cases of bankruptcy. For example, they will give few tips and advice before you file or they will take care of digging into the forms. These services are very affordable and often don’t cost over few hundred dollars, rather than paying thousands of dollars for hiring a full-time professional lawyer for the entire process.
An Oakland bankruptcy lawyer can help you in dealing with your bankruptcy issues if you are in Oakland and planning to file for bankruptcy.
Of course, not all types of attorneys provide such limited service deals, but if you are able to find one of them, it would save you a good deal of money.
There also are few alternatives to going for a lawyer, but in this case caution is of prime importance. In some states, there are help desks in local courts who advice those people who file for bankruptcy on their own. You can always take their help.
This article is written by Ashley Hawkins. A freelance writer from Salinas. She loves to write articles about business proposal and legal issues. You can follow her on twitter: @itsmeashley2013.
This article is a guest post. If you would like to write for Money Soldiers, you may visit the Write for Us menu for details.
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In the UK you can turn to the citizen advice bureau, they offer free help and a listing of paid services depending on your needs (since they don’t earn anything they are neutral in their recommendations).
Pauline recently posted..Creating a website as an extra source of income.
Hi, Pauline. That’s great to know. It’s good to have options like that, such as access to unbiased legal advice about filing for bankruptcy. I’m not so sure about how it is though, here in the Philippines, when it comes to bankruptcy procedures.
it’s really worth considerable thing what should anybody have to do if he is already Bankrupt, you have added an interesting article here. it may be helpful for many people, i want to say thanks for sharing this great post.
You’re welcome.