subject: What You Must Know Before Choosing A Bankruptcy Attorney [print this page] What You Must Know Before Choosing A Bankruptcy Attorney
The primary step you will want to take when selecting a personal bankruptcy lawyer in the Kansas City region is finding out practice areas of your lawyer. Some attorneys practice particularly in bankruptcy related matters. Other attorneys have a more general practice where they may cover several practice areas with personal bankruptcy being one of many.
The next factor a potential debtor will wish to know is which type of personal bankruptcy law the attorney practices. Again, there are some attorneys who focus particularly on chapter seven personal bankruptcy work. Those laywers might select to focus on chapter 7 work because it is much less complicated than the chapter thirteen work. Usually, chapter 7 debtors won't have substantial assets and they are procedurally less tenuous than a chapter thirteen. This does not mean that there are Kansas City Personal bankruptcy attorneys, who focus on Chapter seven personal bankruptcy law, who take chapter 13 instances.
Another valuable piece of information that a possible bankruptcy debtor will want to discover is regardless of whether the attorney will appear using the debtor at the meeting of creditors. Once the paper work has been completed and also the documents have been filed with the Bankruptcy Court, the Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Missouri will schedule what's known as a 341 meeting.
This meeting is also referred to as "The Initial Assembly of Collectors." It will likely be the first opportunity for the debtor to meet using the personal bankruptcy trustee and to confront any collectors who might want to stop the personal bankruptcy from occurring. The lawyer may not be privy to anybody wanting to challenge the discharge with the debtor prior to the assembly of creditors.
The next thing that a potential debtor will wish to know when potentially selecting a Kansas City bankruptcy attorney is what is included within the lawyer charge. This might vary from lawyer to attorney. Usually, the attorney fee will probably be a flat charge that will consist of the personal bankruptcy petition filing charge. Presently, this charge is $300. Nevertheless, the list of attorney duties could vary. Some laywers will cover every thing from start to finish using the fee that's paid.
Other laywers may charge an extra fee if the petition has to be amended or if the trustee requires meetings outside with the meeting of collectors. Generally these fees will probably be covered in the contract for legal representation. If they aren't, the possible debtor will wish to discuss these problems with the potential Kansas City personal bankruptcy lawyer.