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The Bankruptcy Process - All About Bankruptcy

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

By Frank Miller


Now days, with the wide availability of bankruptcy form processing services on Internet, filing bankruptcy online has now become easier and the good part of the story is that the process is very easy and time saving. If you understand the legal requirements associated with filing bankruptcy and you know what are the forms that you need to fill and submit in this regard, you do not even require hiring a bankruptcy attorney to help you with the procedure of filing bankruptcy.

To assist with this it is important that you come prepared to this meeting with a list of this information. Now while preparing this information remember it is not essential that this information is exact, the trustee doesn't need to know the amounts down to the penny, but they will need to know roughly where you sit in general. The reason this information is important is that the bankruptcy and how it will transpire is dependent on the specifics of your situation. So if the trustee is aware of what is happening in your life they will be in a better position to discuss what you can anticipate from the filing of a bankruptcy. In this consultation you will find that the trustee will discuss a number of things. This is both from a practical and a legal standpoint, so your trustee will do more than just review your situation, they will make sure you understand all aspects of the Canadian bankruptcy system, including what a discharge is, the duties and responsibilities that you will have as part of the bankruptcy, the specific impact on credit and some of the options to a bankruptcy.

One interesting thing is that a trustee is not just about bankruptcy. Often, as a trustee is conducting this review they will help you to determine that a bankruptcy is not going to be beneficial to your situation and perhaps there is a better way (i.e. consumer proposal). This typically occurs if you have higher income and/or substantial assets or some other unique aspect of your situation. This is part of the reason that a trustee is required to review things and explain not only about bankruptcy but all the options to bankruptcy as well. That way you are aware of what different choices are available and the ramifications of those different directions. This is a part of the process that most people find surprising; if you are not a good candidate for bankruptcy your trustee will tell you that. A trustee does more than simply file bankruptcy or suggest that people file for bankruptcy, a trustee is a licensed professional who's duty it is to help you understand all the options that exist and make recommendations based on what is best for everyone. So if you are a better candidate of a consolidation loan, a debt management plan or a consumer proposal, your trustee will make sure you not only understand this, but will assist you in finding the help that you need.

Janice Kosel, Professor of law at Golden State University, San Francisco, and a recognized author and expert on personal bankruptcy issues, explains: "Do you need a lawyer in order to file a Chapter 13 (bankruptcy) repayment plan? No. [Even] Filing a Chapter 13 plan is often easier than preparing your income tax return. If you can do that, you can probably handle your... [bankruptcy] yourself...There is no requirement (under the law) that you have to have a lawyer (in order to file for bankruptcy)...You can choose to represent yourself." Stephen Elias, California Attorney, prominent author and specialist in bankruptcy law, most recently summed it up this way: "There is seldom a good reason to use an attorney in a consumer Chapter 7 bankruptcy case. The procedures are almost exclusively administrative - that is, there is no appearance before a judge...The forms are all (with very few exceptions) pre-printed in plain English....[But, in spite of that fact], What's tragic is that people actually think they have to have attorney representation [to be able to do it]."

While there are a number of duties and responsibilities that must be completed during a bankruptcy, they are easier than most people think. The first major part is assisting with assets. As part of filing a bankruptcy the first thing you have to assist with is the disposition of any non-exempt assets. This will be explained in much greater detail to you when you first meet with a local trustee, but the idea is that your province has legislated a list of property that is protected when a bankruptcy is filed (i.e. exempt property). So if you own any property over and above your provincial exemptions this may be lost as part of the bankruptcy process and you would have to work with your trustee to have it property disposed of. In most situations we find that the provincial guidelines have been set wide enough so that most of the things in an average household don't become an issue, but it is something you must be aware of. If you have any specific questions about the exemptions in your province you can review the details through the link at the bottom of this article.

Once they approve everything, on your request, they will even file a court petition for bankruptcy for you. This way, we can see that filing bankruptcy online will take away the pain out of the complicated proceedings.




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