San Mateo Bankruptcy Attorney

When you call our law firm you may look forward to having your call put through to an attorney. Our initial interview will be geared toward trying to determine whether we’ll be able to help you.  Here are some of the questions you may expect from your attorney:

• Have you ever filed for bankruptcy before?  Because the law limits how often you can file Chapter 7 bankruptcy we’ll need to determine if you had filed before. If you had filed bankruptcy before we’ll need to 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 your bankruptcy was filed.
• Are you married or single? When determining the costs for our clients we’ll need to know whether they’re married or single. If you’re married your spouse is not obligated to file bankruptcy 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 or not 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 that will be required in order 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 be allowed to hold on to when filing bankruptcy. If you are trying to protect your equity in the home you live in you may need to make difficult 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’ll need to know in-depth, what all of your ongoing monthly expenses are. Eventually, we’ll be disclosing 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 obtain 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 about 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 as well.
• What is your household income? This is one of the most important questions that are part of our initial assessment. We’re looking for you to give us a clear idea of your household income on the high end. Along with this question, we’ll need to know how many people are living in your household. Your household income and the number of people in your household are determining factors regarding whether or not 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 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 want to be able 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.

Learn more by calling us now at (650) 538-7575. In San Mateo we’re the best law firm for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.