Dean W. Feldman, Esq.

Lemoore Bankruptcy Attorney

Free Bankruptcy Assessment in Hanford

When you call our law firm, you may look forward to having your call put through to an actual attorney. We will gear our consultation toward determining whether we’ll be able to help you with your debts.  Here are some questions you may expect from your attorney:

• Have you ever filed bankruptcy before?  Because the law limits how often you can file Chapter 7 bankruptcy, we must determine if you had filed before. If you had filed bankruptcy before, we must know when you last filed and under what chapter you filed. Also, we’ll want to know precisely where in the United States you last filed bankruptcy. This is information that you may or may not know.  There is no need to worry, however. Once we know the general region where you were living when you last filed bankruptcy, we’ll be able to find out through our resources exactly which district you filed in and the exact date that you last filed bankruptcy.
• Are you married or single? When determining the costs for our clients, we must know whether they’re married or single. If you’re married, your spouse is not obligated to file bankruptcy together with you. It can sometimes be helpful for just one spouse to file bankruptcy. Though a spouse may not be filing bankruptcy, you are still obligated to disclose information about your spouse to the court through the forms that get filed with your bankruptcy. Whether both spouses are filing bankruptcy, there is substantially more work that’s required when a married person is filing bankruptcy than when a single person files.
• Do you own real estate? When a bankruptcy debtor either owns real estate or has previously owned real estate, there are additional considerations to best counsel a person that is considering filing bankruptcy. In California, there are two sets of exemptions that may allow you to protect your assets. There are limitations to the dollar amount of assets you may maintain when filing bankruptcy. If you are trying to protect your equity in the home, you live in, you may need to make hard decisions regarding holding on to all of your vehicles. This is something that will be part of our discussion with you.
• How much rent are you paying? Ultimately, we must know in depth what all of your ongoing monthly expenses are. Eventually, as an example, you must disclose to the court your expenses for such things as doing your laundry every month and your estimate for what you’re paying for entertainment.
• Are there judgments against you? Are there ongoing lawsuits against you? If there are judgments or lawsuits against you, it will require additional research to get information that the bankruptcy court will require.
• Do you have any lawsuits or potential legal claims against anyone? If you have a legal claim against any entity that may result in an award of some asset, the bankruptcy court will need to know. The consequences involved in this issue can be far-reaching, and it’s something that you’ll want to discuss with us to find out more of what you may expect.
• How many cars, trucks, motorcycles and recreational vehicles do you possess? This will allow us to determine whether we’ll need to file additional documents with the court to work toward allowing you to keep your vehicles that you may want to hold on to. It’s possible, however, that you may just want to surrender a vehicle when you file bankruptcy so that you can discharge any expenses from the lease or loan. A discussion about your vehicles will provide us with further insight into your assets.
• What is your household income? This is one of the most important lines of questions that are part of our initial assessment. We’re looking for you to give us a clear understanding of your household income. Along with this question, we must know how many people are living in your household. Your household income and the number of people in your household is a determining factor regarding whether you’ll be able to file under Chapter 7 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.
• Do you expect to inherit any assets? If you’re in line to inherit any property or money, the bankruptcy court will expect you to disclose this information. All or a portion of the assets you inherit may be used to pay off some of your debts.
• What is the nature of your debts? Do you owe credit card companies? Do you owe on student loans? Do you owe child support? Not all debts can be discharged in bankruptcy. We’ll want to advise you on what you can expect from filing bankruptcy. You will not want to file bankruptcy only to discover that you won’t be able to wipe out a debt that you were hoping to have discharged by the court.

Lemoore Bankruptcy Attorney

Learn more by scheduling a time to talk with an experienced Lemoore bankruptcy attorney who will assess the details of your case with you. Talk with a bankruptcy lawyer today by calling us at (559) 964-9800.