A Bankruptcy Guide, Step-By-Step
Transcript:
Hi, Matt McArthur attorney at Clear Counsel Law Group.
Today I'm going to give you a step-by-step process of moving forward with a bankruptcy with our office.
Step 1: Make an Appointment
The first step is to call the number that you're going to see scrolling across the bottom of the screen there and schedule a consultation with our office.
Once you schedule that consultation, which is free, you will come in and meet with me and we will review your financial information together.
I'll have you fill out a little packet that tells me about what type of assets, what property you own.
Maybe you own a car, maybe a house, maybe you have a bank account is all.
We'll go over that information, we'll go over what debts you owe.
I don't need exact numbers and values for this initial consultation, this is just to kind of give us a rough bankruptcy guide on how to proceed.
Step 2: Bring the Necessary Documents
Once we've determined the rough guideline we will then chart a course for moving forward and actually filing your bankruptcy.
In order to file your bankruptcy I'm going to have to prepare a lot of paperwork for you.
These are detailed forms that are submitted to the bankruptcy court. In order to fill all these out I need some documents from you.
Typical documents that we need would be:
1. Six months of bank statements,
2. Six months of proof of income (like pay stubs),
3. The last couple years of tax returns, and
4. We'll need you to take a credit counseling course before you are able to file your bankruptcy.
I can give you all that information on exactly what you need.
I'll have a document checklist for you to go through and work on provided by my office.
Once I have those documents from you, I'll prepare the paperwork, we'll review it together to make sure that all the bankruptcy forms accurately list everything you own, everyone you owe money to, and all the details regarding your financial situation.
Step 3: I Will File Your Case and Assist You at Your Creditor Hearing
Once I file your case, about thirty days into the case, there'll be a meeting of creditors or a court hearing date that we'll need to attend.
I will attend this hearing with you. It's typically a pretty easy meeting.
There's no need to be nervous about this and I'll be there to guide you through every step of it.
From there, how long the bankruptcy takes or what course we go depends on what chapter you've filed.
If you filed a chapter seven bankruptcy, we typically just wait a couple months until a deadline passes for creditors in which a discharge would be entered soon thereafter.
For a chapter thirteen, you'll begin making your planned payments and you'll be in the chapter thirteen for about three to five years.
Once we get to the discharge the bankruptcy's basically over.
That's bankruptcy in a nutshell.
I hope to hear from you soon, and we can talk about getting your case started.
