subject: Debt And Bankruptcy [print this page] Debt And Bankruptcy Debt And Bankruptcy
The first step in filing personal bankruptcy is to contact Springfield bankruptcy lawyers. With your help, Springfield bankruptcy lawyers review your financial situation and decide how best to proceed. Many will set you up with a credit counseling program. According to federal law, 180 days, or at least 6 months, before you file for personal bankruptcy, you must receive budget and credit counseling from an approved agency. Different agencies offer different methods of going through the program. You can go in person, via telephone, or even by email. The agency provides you with a certificate once you have completed the program that you file along with your other bankruptcy forms. Like Springfield bankruptcy lawyers, credit counseling goes over your financial options and helps you determine if you even should be filing for bankruptcy. While filing for personal bankruptcy is a right provided by the constitution of the United States of America, it is meant to viewed as only a last resort when all other financial options have been exhausted. In some bankruptcy cases, a more modest repayment plan will suffice and you then don't have to go through the hassle of filing for bankruptcy. Other times, renegotiating with your creditors and creating smaller payments at different schedules works better. However, for some people, bankruptcy is the only way out of a hard situation. Still, while bankruptcy might wipe out most of your debts, it will not wipe out all of your debts. Bankruptcy will not wipe out the debts for: some taxes, child support, alimony, debts not listed on a bankruptcy petition, and mortgages and other liens not paid in the bankruptcy case, but if the property is taken by a creditor bankruptcy does wipe out your obligation to pay additional money. Most of the time, bankruptcy cannot wipe out student loans owed to a school or government body. However, after an expensive trial, you might prove that such payment would be an undue hardship to a court.
