When Should a Bankruptcy Case Be Filed?

• Bankruptcy Solutions
• Foreclosure Solutions
• Modification & Negotiation
• Credit Card Debt Relief

A bankruptcy case becomes an option when a person or family is unable to pay its bills as they become due. If this is a temporary problem and it is possible to catch up with unpaid bills, a bankruptcy case may not be necessary. But if the problem persists and the household is falling further behind, than the bankruptcy option should be considered. When credit cards and other bills are not paid for several months they start to call to demand payment. When they fail in resolving their debt they turn over the account to collection attorneys who start litigation to obtain a judgment. This process usually occurs between five (5) months to one (1) year.

Therefore if you are overwhelmed with bills, and if do not expect your finances to improve in the coming months, the bankruptcy option should be considered. If you have been in collections already and there are judgments threatened or already obtained against you, it is detrimental to your finances and to your credit rating to allow such difficulties to persist and a bankruptcy case to protect your wages, bank account, assets and credit rating becomes advisable in the majority of situations. The bankruptcy case will immediately protect you from your creditors and help you to discharge or eliminate the obligation to pay the vast majority of debts, such as credit cards, personal loans and hospital bills. In most cases you will be able to keep your cars and home.

Whether or not to file for bankruptcy is a personal decision. However, there are many ways in which you can tell whether it is a strong option:

1) Firstly, if your debts are overwhelming and clearly disproportionate to your income, bankruptcy should definitely be considered.

2)Secondly, if you are presently vastly behind with your debts and see no way to catch up, once again, bankruptcy becomes a strong option.

3)Thirdly, if you are barely current with your debts, but realize that you are juggling important bills, credit cards, mortgage payments, etc., bankruptcy should again be looked at as a possible option because you do not want lower priority debt, such as credit card bills, to interfere with higher priority debt such as mortgage and car payments.

4) Lastly, if you realize that your payments are merely buying you time, that in the long run there is no way to take care of all the debt, and that your payments are being wasted on debt that will with time go bad anyway, than bankruptcy again should be considered.

The best way to approach the issue is to seek a free consultation. Our office offers a free consultation by phone or in person at our Melville, Long Island law office, and we can certainly review with you your options and whether a bankruptcy case is the best way to proceed. Please consult us to discuss whether a bankruptcy case will help you with your financial difficulties.

Please call us at (631) 271-3737, or e-mail us at [email protected] for a free consultation to discuss such legal options in greater detail.