Wednesday, 14 November 2018

How To File For Bankruptcy Oakland

By Roger Reynolds


Becoming bankrupt is always an option for debtors with a lot of unmanageable bad debt. While this legal option can help debtors to get rid of their debts, it also comes with a number of adverse side effects. When thinking about bankruptcy Oakland residents need to spend some time looking for a competent lawyer to advise and guide them throughout the process. Fortunately, there are many competent lawyers that local residents can hire.

This legal option basically provides for debt forgiveness. The debt can be personal debt or business debt. Whatever the case, a large portion of the debt can be written off once the debtor has been declared bankrupt. Before this can happen, however, the assets of the debtor will have to be liquidated or the debtor will be required to come up with a repayment plan.

When you want to do a comparison of the lawyers you find, there are several key factors to consider. For starters, you have to compare the amount of experience that different lawyers have. The most experienced lawyers should be given preferential treatment. Therefore, you should take your time to analyze the experiences of the different lawyers on your list before making a decision.

The most common types of bankruptcies are chapter 7 and 13. The former, however, is the most common because both individual and business debtors can use this option. It provides for auctioning of assets by the trustee to recover money to offset the outstanding debts.

Chapter 13 is commonly referred to as personal debt reorganization. This legal option allows personal debtors to retain ownership of all their assets as they service their debts over a period of several years. It is important to note that some personal debts, such as student loans, child support back payments and alimony cannot be written off through this chapter.

Chapter 11 is a bankruptcy option that is meant for corporate debtors. Business owners, schools and companies can use chapter 11 to get rid of their bad debts over a period of several years. It basically provides for debt reorganization, so the managers of the business or organization will have to come up with a repayment plan that spans several years.

It is important to note that if a debtor fails to honor the terms and conditions of their debt repayment plan, their assets will be liquidated through chapter 7. To avoid losing your property, therefore, you have to submit the monthly payments to the trustee in a timely manner. In case you are not able to make timely payment in a given month, be sure to inform the trustee well in advance.

In business, a chapter 7 can be a death sentence. After all, all inventory, furniture, intellectual properties, vehicles and any other valuable item that is owned by the business will be sold. This means that you will not have anything to conduct business with, so you will have to close shop. Be sure to keep this in mind before filing the petition.

Bankruptcy can either be voluntary or involuntary. For instance, if you are unable to service your debts, or you have refused to do so, your creditors can go to court to have your assets liquidated under chapter 7 to ensure they recover their funds. This means that you will become bankrupt involuntarily. If you decide to go to court to have your debts written off and get protection from your creditors, on the other hand, you will become bankrupt voluntarily. Whatever the case, you will enjoy all the benefits that come with this legal option. That said, there are many pros and cons of bankruptcy that you should be aware of.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment