I CAN'T AFFORD AN ATTORNEY!
Many people do not want to talk with an attorney about bankruptcy because they think they cannot afford to pay an attorney. Understandably, they try to find a typing service which they think will be cheaper. At least two things are wrong with this conclusion:
- Gold and Hammes does not charge for the initial consultation. During that free consultation, Norma Hammes will give you a preliminary idea of what bankruptcy options are available to you. She will explain about both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 and how they would work in your situation. Although there will still be alot more work to be done to complete your case analysis, she will probably be able to give you a fairly good idea of the cost.
- During the initial consultation, we may develop a filing strategy or plan that may not require you to pay much or all of the attorneys' fees at that time or even before filing the case.
- Many people think they do not want to file a Chapter 13 because they think they will have to pay back all of their debts in full in a Chapter 13. In most cases that is not true. In most cases, most or all of your debts can still be wiped out and sometimes a Chapter 13 helps you more than a Chapter 7 would. One advantage of a Chapter 13 is that court's filing fee is cheaper than in a Chapter 7 case. Also, the attorneys' fees can be paid through low monthly payments in the Chapter 13 plan.
- Typing services never provided very good service to bankruptcy clients. However, under the old bankruptcy law if you had a simple case the mistakes they made probably wouldn't cause your case to be rejected by the bankruptcy court. That is diffent now. Congress has made filing bankruptcy so complex and the legal knowledge to prepare a case is so important that typing services just cannot do the job anymore. In fact, a large percentage of the cases prepared by typing services and filed under the new law have been rejected by the bankruptcy court for the San Jose Division (Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito Counties). If a person's case is rejected and they try to file a new case, the new law takes away many rights they would have had in the first case. Therefore, it is very important to get the advice of an experienced bankruptcy attorney for your first case so that you will have all the rights and protections possible in that case.
(c) 2006 Gold and Hammes, Attorneys
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