Getting Started With A Gurnee Bankruptcy Lawyer

Well, the first thing to do in order to file a bankruptcy is to consult a bankruptcy attorney, preferably somebody who has experience with bankruptcies.  Initially, you have to go into the consultation with a good idea of your income, your expenses, your assets, and your liabilities.  If you have a good sense of those things, then you should be able to go into the consultation pretty confident, and that will also help out the process of bankruptcy for your attorneys.   

In order to file a bankruptcy, one has to specifically know how much income and expenses are going out.  Not just any expenses but expenses regarding the reasonable living expenses, which the bankruptcy court sees fit and proper.  Also, those expenses are also found in the IRS’s guidelines for the expenses per median household of a family of one or two or three.  So a person should definitely know their expenses coming in, and once they do the consultation with their attorney and they decide they want to go through with it, with the bankruptcy, then they have to (1) they have to give the paychecks – two months of paycheck stubs to their attorney for both the – both spouses, even if one is not filing bankruptcy.  Bankruptcy still includes the income and expenses for both a filing spouse and a non-filing spouse.   

We also need income tax returns.  Those income tax returns are only for the federal level.  We do not need your state income tax returns, but for a Chapter 7 – also, this is all regarding a Chapter 7.  In a Chapter 7, you would need your income – I’m sorry – your taxes, federal taxes, for the previous year before filing the bankruptcy.  For example, if it is a 2011 case, one you file in 2011, you’ll need your federal income taxes for 2010.  For a Chapter 13, you will need your federal income taxes for the past four years.  So, for example, if you file a Chapter 13 in 2011, you’ll need your taxes from 2007, ’08, ’09, and ’10 in order to file bankruptcy.   

Also, everybody who files bankruptcy will have to complete a credit counseling class.  You have to take two classes regarding credit counseling.  The first credit counseling class is called the pre-petition class, and there are several providers that can give you that class online, over the phone, and generally this class is about an hour and a half.  Nobody can fail the class.  It is a tool that the bankruptcy court uses in order to educate the bankruptcy petitioners.  After you complete the first class, then they file the case.  You can only file the case after you complete that first class.  The second class is also another class that you have to take after you file.  It’s called the post-petition class, specifically the personal financial management instruction course.  This course can be done – can be completed with the trustees.