Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Guide To Filing A Chapter 13 Oakland CA

By Elizabeth Turner


Getting legal protection from your creditors is easy if you have the right legal adviser and representative by your side. A bankruptcy attorney can advise and guide you every step of the way to ensure that your bad debts are written off in a legal way. There are three main bankruptcy options that you can file, so you should hire an experience bankruptcy attorney to help you pick the right one. When thinking about filing a chapter 13 Oakland CA residents need to work with an attorney who has handled many similar cases in the past. This will ensure they get the best results possible.

This option provides for restructuring of debt to resolve the debt problem reported by individual consumers. Basically, all qualifying debts are listed alongside the monthly income of the debtor. To have their debts written off, applicants only need to make monthly payments for a couple of years.

The beauty of this bankruptcy option is that the debt repayment plan is drafted by the debtor. The monthly payments used to offset the debt in question depend on their disposable income, not their outstanding debts. Since the repayment period is fixed under the law, consumers can have a large portion of their debt written off without losing a single asset. This is the main reason why many people always choose this bankruptcy option.

The main advantage of chapter 13 over liquidation is that people who have accumulated a considerable estate get a chance to pay off their debts without having to worry about their property being auctioned off by the court. With liquidation, assets are normally liquidated, so a person who has a large estate but is unable to service their debts will find this option punitive.

Hiring a competent bankruptcy attorney to help you during the process of debt management is important. This is because bankruptcy is not necessarily the best option. Your lawyer will explain all the available options to you and help you pick the right option. They will also help you understand what you are getting yourself into.

Some debts can never be written off whether you are bankrupt or not. These include; child support payments, spousal support payments, student loans and taxes. These debts must be settled even if you are declared bankrupt. You should know this before hand because many people have made the mistake of assuming that their student loan debts will also be written off.

When drafting the repayment plan, the debtor must be prepared to defend it in front of creditors as well as the trustee. Creditors will ask questions, which the debtor will have to answer. After the presentation, creditors will be required to vote on the plan. Votes are usually based on the amount of debt a creditor has.

Like all other forms of bankruptcy, this option comes with a number of negative effects. For one, the debtor will be blacklisted by lenders. The bankruptcy will also appear on their credit report for a number of years. This means that any person who runs a credit check on the debtor will learn about the bankruptcy. This includes, lenders, employers, car hire firms and landlords among others. This can make life more difficult for the debtor. The good news is that they will get a chance to start life afresh.




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