Beach Park Bankruptcy Attorney Advises Against Filing Yourself

You have the legal right to file a bankruptcy case on your own which is known as filing pro se.  Personally, as a Beach Park bankruptcy attorney, I would never recommend that anyone try to file a bankruptcy case on their own, whether it is a Chapter 7 or a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case.  The bankruptcy laws were changed on October 17, 2005 and they have gotten much more complex and it is much more difficult to navigate through the bankruptcy system, the bankruptcy court and the Bankruptcy Code. 

Many, many years ago it was possible for someone to purchase forms at a local office supply company, fill them out even by hand, photocopy them and submit them to the court.  The clerks and the administration of the system would kind of make those cases go through not as well as if you had an attorney but in a low income, low asset case, it was not a problem.  You could get it done. 

Since the law changed, everything has changed.  You need to take credit counseling.  You need to take a financial management class.  You need to provide pay advices.  You need to provide tax returns.  You need to file your case typically electronically and you need to know how and where to appear at all of the events in a bankruptcy case. 

The price for filing a bankruptcy case has gone up as well.  The court costs have gone up and the attorney’s fees have gone up.  There is a reason why everything has gone up and that’s because it’s gotten much more complex.  So although you can file a bankruptcy case on your own, I would never recommend that you do it.  With any other legal procedure, anything else that is complex in life, I don’t recommend that you try to do things on your own but rather go through a qualified, skilled professional who is trained and who has made this area of the law his or her life’s work.