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Debtors Seek Cheap, Low Cost Affordable Bankruptcy With Rising Bankruptcy & Here’s How You Get It

June 10th, 2021

With the trend towards rapidly rising filings in bankruptcy becoming the norm once again in today’s dire American economic and unemployment climate, a growing number of consumers are increasingly seeking cheap, low cost affordable bankruptcy, usually meaning without the lawyer. They seek nonlawyer system of bankruptcy filing that provide them affordable, cost-effective bankruptcy, while yielding them the same end result as would using a high cost bankruptcy lawyer – having in hand the bankruptcy court document that shows you’re officially declared a BANKRUPT.

THE NEW REFORMED LAW: ITS BASIC MISSIONS & OBJECTIVES

On October 17 2005, amidst highly charged tense drama, robust promises and high expectations, the new “reformed” bankruptcy law enacted by Congress, the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse and Consumer Protection Act or BAPCPA, went into effect. Largely enacted at the instigation principally of the powerful, well-financed credit and financial industries, among other special interests, the law had been touted as something of a bankruptcy cure-all that was going to fix a “broken” bankruptcy system in America. Principally, it was going to reverse, or at least drastically reduce, the high volume of bankruptcy filings and the increased use of bankruptcy by American consumers in resolving their debt problem. The overarching argument and premise expressed by the banking and financial industry advocates and supporters of the reform law in urging the law’s enactment, had been that the steady upward trend at the time in bankruptcy filings was due primarily to “fraudulent bankruptcy filings” by consumers and the “excessive generosity” of the old bankruptcy system which, it was said, encouraged “abuse” and allowed a great many number of debtors to repudiate debts that they could quite well pay, at least in part. Ironically, almost in the entire debate about the enactment of the 2005 law, virtually no mention or discussion was made concerning the debtors’ being able to find, or to afford or to get, low cost or cheap bankruptcy filing, either with bankruptcy lawyers or without it.

The stated and yet unmistakable mechanism by which the new 2005 law was to pursue this primary objective of the new law, was essentially to force debtors who could supposedly afford to repay some of their debts, into filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy, in stead of Chapter 7. That is, filing the type of bankruptcy (Chapter 13) that requires one to repay his debt, or at least some of it. Briefly summed up, primarily by restricting access to eligibility for Chapter 7 – as primarily determined through the so-called “means test” calculation on a debtor’s income – the new law was to drastically weed out and curtail the number of debtors filing for bankruptcy.

Alright, today it is now going to 4 years since the BAPCPA law was put into effect, and has it attained its sponsors’ stated mission? And if so, to what extent so far?

In point of fact, for the first few years after the implementation of the law in October 2005, the original objective of that law at least in the area of drastically curtailing the number of bankruptcy filings, actually seemed not only to have been attained, but to have in fact been dramatically surpassed. Almost immediately after the law came into effect, there was a blunt, vivid dramatic drop seen in the number of bankruptcies filed in the system in the years immediately following the law – the filings went from 1,597,462 in 2004 (the last normal year of filings before the new law was enacted), to a mere 590,544 in 2006, and only 826,665 in 2007. No bankruptcy filings that were low cost or affordable to debtors, were largely available in this earlier post-2005 law, however, since most filers at the time were largely intimidated by the lawyers’ common talk about the supposed “complexity” of the new law, and simply used only the lawyers to do their bankruptcy almost exclusively.

Thus, clearly, a direct effect of the new law, at least in the immediate aftermath of the law, was that it did in fact definitely push, as intended, a great number of debtors out of the Chapter 7 option range altogether, forcing them exclusively into the Chapter 13 option in which they find themselves forced to pay at least some of their debts, thus substantially increasing the proportion of debtors who paid up some of their debts. For example, in years prior to the new 2005 law, Chapter 7 bankruptcy filings accounted for roughly 70% of all non-business or consumer bankruptcies (it was precisely 71.5% in 2004, the last year before 2005 when the new law took effect), while Chapter 13 bankruptcies accounted for approximately 30% or less. The post-2005 year bankruptcy filings for the earlier years after the 2005 law, showed, however, a marked increase in the number of bankruptcies filed under Chapter 13, to the extent of some additional 10%,. Thus, for example, the number of Chapter 13 bankruptcies filed in the 12-month period ending December 2007 (321,359), represented, not the usual 30%, but 39.1% of the total consumer filings for that year.

The situation described so far was what obtained with respect to the EARLIER period of the time after the new 2005 law came into effect. But now, fast forward to the LATER period, however – to today, in July 2009. And what we find is that the American debtors, once again, are fast returning to the same high rate of bankruptcy filings as the pre-2005 levels. In deed, informed expert projections are now that we’ll land right back pretty soon at the same old “square one” heights in bankruptcy filing – back to the old “bad” high pre-2005 bankruptcy filing levels which the 2005 “reform” law just enactment by Congress had been meant to cure and reverse.

According to data from the Automated Access to Court Electronic Records (“AACER”), there were over 120,000 U.S. bankruptcy filings in May 2009 or 6,020 for each of the 20 business days in May, marking the first time that daily bankruptcy filings have topped the 6,000 mark since the 2005 bankruptcy law was adopted. According to one widely respected expert at bankruptcy filing figure crunching, Professor Robert Lawless of the University of Illinois School of Law whose calculations place the average daily filing rate for 2004 (6,339) as the “benchmark” for the pre-2005 filing rate, what America is currently seeing is a filing trend which is already hitting the high pre-2005 mark, and right now the long-term trend is directly towards the same filing rate as before the 2005 bankruptcy law was adopted.

Thus, the returns from the May filings on an annualized basis, keep us on track for a projected filing of 1.45 – 1.50 million bankruptcies this 2009, depending on how closely the current trend adheres to, or deviates from, the bankruptcy filing trend for the remaining part of the year.

THE 2005 LAW HAS FAILED ON TWO FUNDAMENTAL COUNTS: FAILS TO STEM THE GROWTH IN BANKRUPTCY FILING RATE & IN KEEPING BANKRUPTCY AFFORDABLE

Clearly, then, the “reformed” 2005 BAPCPA law has woefully failed in its FIRST avowed fundamental objective of drastically curtailing the upward trend in bankruptcy filings by the American debtors. But, in addition to that, there is another very important way, in deed even a more profound way, in which that law has woefully failed for the American debtor: it has made the bankruptcy system far more difficult and cumbersome, and far more expensive and even unaffordable for debtors. For example, among the primary anti-debtor provisions of this new law, this current law:!

== now makes it harder for debtors to discharge certain types of debts

== now forces a greater proportion of debtors to repay their debts

== now imposes special responsibilities and restrictions that are uncommon, even upon bankruptcy lawyers and bankruptcy document preparers (e.g., lawyers are now required to personally vouch for the accuracy of the debt and financial information their clients providing, and to do more unnecessary paperwork) thereby giving the lawyers more excuses for jacking up their fees for bankruptcy even higher

o now imposes tremendous restrictions and undue scrutiny upon the Bankruptcy Petition Preparers
(the name given by the Bankruptcy Code for nonlawyers who help debtors with their
bankruptcy paperwork, as generally far lower costs), the net result of which has been to discourage affordable assistance for bankruptcy filers and thus chase them into the offices of bankruptcy lawyers who charge some 50 times the fee of the BPPS to do basically the same thing for the debtor

o now imposes a new requirement (and additional expense) which requires debtors to undergo credit and budget counseling, and

o subjects bankruptcy filers to a mountain of paperwork, documentation and procedures that could be quite daunting for anyone in order to file for bankruptcy.

EXORBITANT LAWYERS’ FEES FOR BANKRUPTCY FILERS AS THE BIGGEST ANTI-DEBTOR CONSEQUENCE OF THE NEW LAW!

But perhaps the biggest anti-debtor consequence brought about by the new law – the consequence which, by most expert opinion, is precisely what had been intended by the banking and credit industries which were principal sponsors of the new law – is that by introducing far more paperwork and unnecessary extra complexity and protocols in the way the bankruptcy process is undertaken, it has enabled the lawyers’ to find an excuse by which they have been able to jack up and to justify the fees and the costs of filing for bankruptcy. Consequently, the costs of filing for bankruptcy since after the 2005 law, have become prohibitively high, in deed unaffordable, for the average bankruptcy filer. The average lawyers’ fee for a simple bankruptcy in parts of the country today, has shut up to a whopping sum of $2,500 for a simple Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and about $4,500 for a Chapter 13, among other new complications now to be confronted by the debtor who wishes to file for bankruptcy. For many debtors, this therefore leaves the low-cost nonlawyer bankruptcy method, as the ONLY real remaining, practical, but affordable and effective alternative to the use of lawyers for their bankruptcy.

But Don’t Despair. There are Still Some Open Avenues of Cheap, Low Cost Affordable Bankruptcy Remedy For Debtors!

Here’s the good news, though. True, filing for bankruptcy under the new 2005 law has become considerably more cumbersome and certainly more expensive as compared to what had been the case previously. Nevertheless, however, even under the new law, filing for bankruptcy, especially Chapter 7, is still a fairly straightforward process for a large number of filers. This is so more especially when you (the debtor) do it using basically one unique alternative system to traditional use of lawyers in bankruptcy – namely, using a nonlawyer, self help system, or one which uses a competent reliable Debt Relief Agency or Full Service Bankruptcy Document Preparer, in doing your bankruptcy paperwork. This kind of service, which utilizes skilled persons possessed of great skill and competence in the process to prepare the required bankruptcy papers for a debtor for a mere fraction of the lawyer’s fees, could often be one of the wisest, most cost-effective and yet simple alternative in getting one’s bankruptcy done.

For more on the methods for obtaining a cheap, or low cost, affordable bankruptcy but with high level quality and reliability, or of finding some of the oldest and most reliable agencies that specialize in providing such service and objective, visit: http://www.afford-bankruptcy.com

Benjamin Anosike, Ph.D., has been dubbed by experts and reviewers of his many books, manuals and body of work, which dwell largely on self-help law issues, as “the man who almost literally wrote the book on the use of self-help law methods” by America’s consumers in doing their own routine legal chores – in uncontested divorce, will-making, simple probate, settlement of a dead person’s estate, simple no-asset bankruptcy, etc. A pioneer and intellectual and moral leader of the 1970s-based “you do your own law” movement and a lifelong vehement advocate and veteran of historical battles for the right of the American consumers to perform their own tasks in the area of routine legal matters, Anosike was one of the pioneers who fought and survived (along with many

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Cost of Filing Bankruptcy Using Attorney – Why Debtors Can Better Afford Bankruptcy Without Attorney

March 10th, 2021

Bankruptcy Petition Preparer.

Under the current U.S. Bankruptcy Code or law, the system provides essentially TWO basic categories of outside assistance that a debtor filing for bankruptcy may use – assistance provided by an attorney, and assistance provided by a non-lawyer. And both of these parties come under what is called “Debt Relief Agents or Agencies.” Basically, the non-attorney assistance provider, who also goes by a name such as Bankruptcy Petition Preparer (BPP), preparers the documents upon which bankruptcy is filed with the Court for bankruptcy processing, while the attorney (or, more accurately, the help he hires that does such work) prepares the same set of documents, EXCEPT that the lawyer assistance-provider can supposedly give a debtor “legal advice,” and can appear, on the debtor’s behalf, in the administrative hearing on the bankruptcy case administered by the Court “Trustee” (who is not a Judge, but a court-appointed administrator) that will oversee the bankruptcy case.

Alright, How Do the Services and Fees Compare, Between the Bankruptcy Attorney and those of the Full Service bankruptcy petition preparer?

But what are the Costs of filing Bankruptcy using Bankruptcy attorney? Can debtors afford bankruptcy without lawyers? And, is there really any real, tangible, legitimate difference for the DEBTOR, both qualitatively and nominally, between the Full Service bankruptcy assistance that online-based non-attorney BPP agencies provide debtors, and that which is provided by online bankruptcy attorneys to debtors?

One view of it, popular in certain quarters among non-attorney online providers of bankruptcy filing assistance, is simply that there is “no difference,” or “little to none,” in terms of the actual or qualitative value of their work products for the debtor. The principal argument is that for each side, the actual, principal work that each side does or turns up for the debtor – the relatively simple but time-consuming, paperwork required to be prepared for the debtor’s use in filing for bankruptcy – is more or less basically the same content and quality for the non-lawyer prepared document, as it is for the lawyer prepared. In each case, the argument goes, the same set of documents are turned up by people who are seemingly experienced and trained or skilled in document preparation, and, in deed, in many real instances, are one and the same paralegals who work, or might have previously worked, for the bankruptcy lawyer’s office or the non-lawyer document preparer’s company. Or for both.

But, in any event, in the final analysis, the finished bankruptcy documents that both sides, the lawyer as well as the non-lawyer, provide the debtor, are generally the same and of the same quality. The Bankruptcy Courts generally accept them, process them, and act on them, just the same! In deed, it is a specific provision in the Bankruptcy Code that authorizes and sanctions that such persons may prepare such documents, and not just lawyers!

The Prices the non-attorney helper charges and what the attorney charges for Bankruptcy work

To a hard pressed and destitute debtor, the vexing, bothersome issue, is what justification, then, is there for the great disparity that exists in the prices the bankruptcy lawyers charge for bankruptcy work, relative to what the non-attorney bankruptcy document preparers charge for turning up essentially the same work for the debtor? Bankruptcy lawyers would, of course, advance all sorts of convoluted arguments and conceive all kinds of fancy justifications in defense of their extremely higher and disproportionate charges. That aspect, however, is a matter for another place and another day for us.

But is it a matter of no bankruptcy attorney, and cheap, low-low cost bankruptcy? For the benefit and information of debtors contemplating bankruptcy, just so you’ll at least have an idea, here are the differences in prices between what the non-lawyer assistance-provider charges, and what the attorney assistance-provider charges.

NON-ATTORNEY BANKRUPTCY HELPER’S SERVICES & PRICES

Service: In full Service bankruptcy work, the service of the non-lawyer debt relief agent or agency basically involves their staff gathering the various documents and required tons of papers and information together, and orderly arranging them and preparing all the legal forms and paperwork required by the debtor to file for bankruptcy with the bankruptcy court. For the better ones among them (they are not at all equal, some are far better than others, and quite a number of them are just about worthless!), these agencies use workers who are often highly trained and experienced paralegals (they average several years of work and/or training in the industry), and who are skilled at the preparation of legal documents and bankruptcy papers, and are often well versed and knowledgeable in bankruptcy filing law and procedures. With the Full Service bankruptcy petition preparers (at least those of them who are of the reputable and better categories), the debtor tends generally to get a better service and greater attention, and more one-on-one interaction for his or her case, along with the obvious far lower prices.

The Charges. There is usually a ONE-Time PAYMENT ONLY amount. One of such agency’s charge, for example, is $239 for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy; and $359 for Chapter 13. The price charged by these agencies tend strictly to follow an honest, upfront pricing that’s based ONLY on “per project,” rather than on “per hour.” (That’s in contrast to the attorneys’ charges, which are frequently based on “per hour” hourly rate).

This means that, once a reputable Bankruptcy Petition Preparer (BPP) takes any case from a debtor, you pay the BPP Agency, assuming it’s, say, a Chapter 7 case, just $239, and NOT a penny more on it, ever – no matter how many creditors you have (whether they’re 10 or 20, or 200), or you happen to start out with 10 creditors, but turn up 100 or 200 more later. Or, you have to file some additional papers to get some of your secured debts “affirmed” so you can keep, say, your car, etc. YOU JUST PAY THEM NOT ONE PENNY MORE. PERIOD! Thus, for most debtors, bankruptcy with no bankruptcy attorney assistance, offers the debtor low-low affordable costs and rates and is the only way to go.

The Time line. For the credible BPP, it takes an average of roughly one to two days to crank out the prepared, almost completed package of bankruptcy documents for, say, a Chapter 7 case filing (in a case, that is, where the debtor has hastened and substantially provides them the required financial information and documents necessary to do the papers). As a matter of policy, however, the BPP will hold off furnishing the papers to the debtor right away just so that the finishing touches, corrections and proper checking can be made before the debtor gets them. Bankruptcy, file with no bankruptcy attorney?

THE BANKRUPTCY ATTORNEYS’ SERVICES & PRICES

Service: What the bankruptcy lawyer (that is, the one who is competent and knowledgeable in bankruptcy, as not all attorneys are so equipped) does, is essentially akin to the Full Service bankruptcy type of work that the non-lawyer assistance-provider provides. Here, this involves the lawyer – or, more accurately, a staff of paralegals the he or she might have hired to actually do the work – gathering the various documents and required tons of documents and information together, and orderly arranging them, and preparing all the legal forms and paperwork required to file for the debtor’s bankruptcy with the bankruptcy court. As with the case of the non-attorney Full Service paper preparation providers, these workers who directly do the papers (the ones who are the persons that actually do the work in the lawyers’ the lawyers), are often highly trained and experienced paralegals (average several years of work and/or training in the industry) who are skilled at preparation of legal documents and bankruptcy papers, and often, well versed in bankruptcy filing law and procedures.

Furthermore, in terms of quality of service, with the lawyers, within the ranks of the lawyers who do bankruptcy work in the current times, those who file the bulk of the bankruptcy cases seem to be what one practicing bankruptcy lawyer, Jonathan Ginsburg, the Atlanta Georgia, calls “high volume filers.” These lawyers file 100 to 500 or more bankruptcy cases per month, using largely paralegals and some younger lawyers to do the paperwork, and for one thing, such high volume filers have a reputation for not offering much in the way of personal attention, but charge somewhat smaller fees relative to the “boutique” bankruptcy lawyers (those who file more limited number of cases) – a “smaller” amount of fees which Attorney Ginsburg admits, however, often still “appear to be too expensive” for some people “even [with] the lower fees and generous terms” that such volume filers think their charges represent.

Lawyers’ Charges: For Chapter 7, there’s the “initial” charge of $2,000 – 2,500; and for Chapter 13, the “initial” charge of $4,000 – $4,500. Unlike the BPP’s prices which strictly follow an honest, upfront pricing that’s based ONLY on one-time-only “per project” basis, the attorneys’ charges are frequently based on “per hour” hourly rate. (For example, the attorneys’ “per hour” hourly rate charge, was given as $228 (per hour) for their services in 2002, according to a respected independent research study, the 2002 Survey of Law Firm Economics, made by Altman Weil Pensa Publication).

Further more, as a rule, the lawyers’ fees for bankruptcy (the same, as well, in other issues) vary from lawyer to lawyer, and from one location to another location, even from a lawyer in one block to another lawyer just in the next block. The original charge (it’s usually referred to as the “initial” charge) you’re quoted by the lawyer, is often only for the run-of-the-mill, routine kind of case – the simplest, most ordinary kind of bankruptcy there is. So, if it turns out that you have, say, more creditors than the “average” (say, above 15 or so, depending on which lawyer or what part of the country), it will mean additional charge slapped onto your “initial” quoted charge. And, it can cost even more if it’s a “complicated” case in the lawyer’s opinion.

And further, God-forbid if there’s “litigation” or some creditor challenge to a debt, that means additional cost for you, a BIG one. If you are in a high-priced urban area, that alone will almost certainly guarantee more cost for you in filing for bankruptcy. Also, your lawyer will generally want his payment made IN FULL and upfront before he’ll represent you, especially if it’s a Chapter 7 case.

The Time line. Lawyers generally take an average of 2 to 3 weeks (if not more) to do the bankruptcy paper work for Chapter 7.

BOTTOM LINE:

In sum, for you as a debtor, what you should know is that bankruptcy lawyers’ generally make the allowance for themselves so they’d be able and in a position, after the “initial” fee shall have been paid them, to tack on additional fees beyond the “initial” fees you are quoted when you first signed on. The fee you are quoted by a lawyer in a bankruptcy case (even if you view it as excessive, already), may not be – and is often not – the final charge; you may still have to pay more. And probably will, generally!

Not so, though, with the non-lawyer bankruptcy assistance provider. Here, in contrast, that same very EXACT amount you’re quoted on day one, is the final and ONLY charge you’ll get, almost always, from them on the case – ever! PERIOD! The motto seems to be, no bankruptcy attorney & cheap, low-low cost bankruptcy!

Do you do your bankruptcy filing using the no attorney bankruptcy assistance, or the attorney?. What do you think?

FURTHER INFORMATION
For more on the details of the fundamental differences between the bankruptcy lawyer’s differential services, costs and benefits to the debtor, as compared to those provided the debtor by the non-lawyer helper’s services, or to find out how you or any others may use the services of one of the major non-attorney Debt Relief Agencies in the field of bankruptcy filing to file for your own bankruptcy, please visit this website: http://WWW.Afford-Bankruptcy.Com

Benjamin Anosike, Ph.D., has been dubbed by experts and reviewers of his many books, manuals and body of work, which dwell largely on self-help law issues, as “the man who almost literally wrote the book on the use of self-help law methods” by America’s consumers in doing their own routine legal chores – in uncontested divorce, will-making, simple probate, settlement of a dead person’s estate, simple no-asset bankruptcy, etc.

A pioneer and intellectual and moral leader of the 1970s-based “you do your own law” movement and a lifelong vehement advocate and veteran of historical battles for the right of the American consumers to perform their own tasks in the area of routine legal matters, Anosike was one of the pioneers who fought and survived (along with many others of courage) the lawyers’ and organized bar’s stiff war of the 1970s and ’80s against American consumers and entrepreneurs who merely sought, then, to use, write, distribute or sell law-related self-help books and kits for non-lawyers to do their own law, upon the lawyers’ claim then that such was purportedly “unauthorized practice of law” or “practicing law without a license.”

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