The Real Effect of Bankruptcy

But, because you have never experienced that court hearing before, you will have the stress of what will happen at the court hearing.  Your  Bankruptcy Attorney in Miami or Ft. Lauderdale can tell you all the questions that will be asked and tell you that everything will be fine, but until you have experienced the actual hearing you will have a lot of stress.  I remember my first time at one of these hearings.  My partner at the time told me the hearing was no big deal.  At that time I knew very little about bankruptcy.  I was very nervous for my client.  When the hearing was over, I couldn’t believe how simple the questions were and how well my client answered those questions.  Although everyone was able to sit in the hearing room and could listen to the questions being asked, it was difficult to hear the questions being asked as well as the answers.  Now however, the hearings are conducted on the phone.  Your phone must be on mute as well as your  Bankruptcy Attorney in Miami or Ft. Lauderdale’s phone.  Once your case is called, the trustee, whether it is a Chapter 7 bankruptcy or a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, will ask mostly the same as the questions asked of everyone else who is there to answer questions.  For Chapter 7 Debtor’s, after that hearing, you will be done in most cases.  If you have an experienced and qualified  Bankruptcy Attorney in Miami or Ft. Lauderdale, you will not have to appear before the court again, and you will get a discharge.  There are many unqualified and inexperienced Miami or Ft. Lauderdale Bankruptcy Attorneys.  You will be able to figure out if they are qualified and/or experienced from the initial consultation.  Listen to the questions they ask you.  They should be able to easily tell you about the risks and/or benefits of filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.  A qualified Miami or Ft. Lauderdale Bankruptcy Attorney is easy to find after talking with them.  Once that hearing is over, the stress of all of the financial hardships you have, and the stress of going through the bankruptcy hearing with your Miami Bankruptcy Attorney should be over.  The whole process should take about six months from beginning to end.  You should get a discharge, the end result in a bankruptcy, after that six month period.  

Chapter 13 bankruptcies take longer than a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.  Your Miami or Ft. Lauderdale Bankruptcy Attorney needs to be even more qualified and experienced for a Chapter 13 than a Chapter 7.  It is a much more complex type of case.  For a qualified and experienced Miami or Ft. Lauderdale Bankruptcy Attorney, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy is not difficult.  After the initial court hearing, which is the same hearing you have in a Chapter 7 case,  the trustee will tell your Miami or Ft. Lauderdale Bankruptcy Attorney what documents are necessary to get the Chapter 13 repayment plan confirmed.  Proofs of claim are sometimes filed by your creditors.  Many times a qualified  Bankruptcy Attorney in Miami or Ft. Lauderdale will need to object to those claims.  If the statute of limitations has run we can object.  If the objection to claims of unsecured creditors, like credit cards and/or medical bills, are sustained, those claims will not have to be paid.  The biggest and most meaningful objection to claims comes if you have a mortgage.  Many times, mortgage lenders add a significant amount of attorney fees or costs that they feel they should get.  They also may have forced placed insurance which changes not only the arrearages but the regular monthly payment on your mortgage.  The objections filed will require the mortgage lender to prove to the penny how much is actually owed by the Debtor.  Once all objections are resolved, and all documents required to be provided to the trustee are submitted, Your Chapter 13 repayment plan will be confirmed.  For the Debtor, that only means that you no longer have to produce documents to the trustee.  The main benefit to a Chapter 13 repayment plan being confirmed is that your Bankruptcy Attorney in Miami or Ft. Lauderdale will no longer have to attend confirmation hearings.  That process can take between six to twelve months.  Your only obligation is to provide the documents requested by the Chapter 13 trustee and to make your monthly payments to the Chapter 13 trustee.  Those payments begin 30 days after you file the Chapter 13 bankruptcy case and every 30 days after that.  The payments must be made by cashier’s check or money order or from your employer to the Chapter 13 trustee.  Keep receipts of every payment made because if the trustee misapplies the payment, it can always be found by the number on the cashier’s check or money order. 

Every year in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy case, your Bankruptcy Attorney in Miami or Ft. Lauderdale will contact you so you can provide your tax returns for that year.  If your income has gone up or down significantly, your plan payments may have to be increased or decreased depending on the situation.  Even if your income has increased significantly, your payments may not have to increase.  An experienced and qualified Bankruptcy Attorney in Miami or Ft. Lauderdale has ways to possibly increase your expenses to correspond with the increase of your income.  So if your income has increased but you had a new child that year, your expenses will obviously increase significantly.  If you can show this, your repayment plan will not have to change.  These are only a couple of things an experienced and qualified Bankruptcy Attorney in Miami or Ft. Lauderdale can do it for you.  The Chapter 13  bankruptcy repayment plan must last at least three years, except under certain circumstances, and can last as long as five years.  The reason you would want to have a five year repayment plan is that you are paying the same amount of money, but you will have longer to pay it.  That will reduce your Chapter 13 repayment plan payment.  An experienced  Bankruptcy Attorney in Miami or Ft. Lauderdale will be able to determine what is best for you, and help you decide which type of bankruptcy, if any, is best for you.