About Bankruptcy Lawyers
Bankruptcy lawyers represent individuals or businesses in court and provide their clients advice and counsel on how to protect their assets during the court proceedings. They are specialists in commercial, consumer and foreclosure law. The number of bankruptcy filings has increased recently and with that the need for more bankruptcy lawyers.
Other People Are Reading
-
Significance
-
According to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court (www.uscourts.gov), all bankruptcy filings must be done in the U.S. federal court system. A bankruptcy lawyer, once admitted to practice before one of the 94 U.S. federal district courts, is automatically admitted to practice before the bankruptcy court.
Types
-
A bankruptcy lawyer specializes in three areas of the law: commercial bankruptcy, consumer bankruptcy and foreclosures. In commercial bankruptcy, the lawyer represents a business or corporation in Chapter 7 (complete liquidation) or Chapter 11 (reorganization) proceedings. For consumer bankruptcy, an individual is in a dire financial position so the lawyer will help her work with her creditors to find an acceptable solution. A bankruptcy lawyer can also represent the individual's interests against foreclosure of her home if her mortgage is in default.
-
Function
-
In bankruptcy court, a lawyer is responsible for understanding the bankruptcy code and federal procedures. An individual could file his own bankruptcy action, but it is not recommended because of the complexity of the law.
The lawyers who work at some of the larger law firms are established experts in finance, corporate governance and tax law. Single-lawyer firms (as long as they specialize in bankruptcy law) are also well positioned to assist an individual or small business with any bankruptcy filings, due to the fact that they are business owners themselves.
Size
-
A bankruptcy lawyer can open a practice as an individual in a small town. This type of firm might be the most affordable option for a person facing a foreclosure on her home. A large firm that employs hundreds of bankruptcy law specialists would be more of an appropriate fit for a Fortune 500 corporation that is facing the prospect of a corporate restructuring and reorganization affecting thousands of employees and costing millions of dollars.
Effects
-
According to the Consolidated Credit Counseling Service (www.consolidatedcredit.org), Chapter 7 bankruptcies increased 36 percent over the one-year period ending March 2008. This dramatic increase in bankruptcies shows the importance of this type of lawyer. Due to the specialized knowledge that bankruptcy lawyers attain through advanced and continuing education as well as on-the-job training, they give a filer a better chance of coming out of the bankruptcy court proceedings in a more favorable economic position than if the filer had done the work themselves.
Warning
-
Before retaining any type of lawyer to represent you in court, ensure she is a member in good standing of your local and/or state bar association and have not received any egregious complaints against her. You can also look up their Martin-Hubbell Peer Review listing on lawyer.com (www.lawyer.com) to evaluate their performance. This listing only rates lawyers with three or more years of experience.
-
