Bankruptcy

Is This a Do-It-Yourself Bankruptcy? What am I Paying You for, Anyway?

By Joseph McDaniel, Esq.

I did all of the research in the world, and the doc I finally chose had more credentials than a dog had fleas. He may have been the most highly-credentialed eye surgeon in Arizona at the time.

He was very relaxed on the day of surgery, and I commented on that. He said, "On the one hand, I checked out your eyes very carefully. I wouldn't have taken you as a patient if you weren't a good candidate for this kind of surgery. And by the same token, this is the most sophisticated computer-driven laser known to mankind, and it does most of the work."

So why am I paying you, I asked the doc, mostly kidding.

I'm here in case something goes wrong, he answered, not kidding at all.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Flash forward ten years or so.

I'm talking to a grizzled veteran of the Bankruptcy Wars. He'd filed a prior bankruptcy some other place, and some other time (like before 2005), and as a result he was used to a much kinder, gentler Bankruptcy Code. And I told him that the Code USED to be easier to deal with. Then I asked him approximately a hundred questions designed to determine whether it was safe for him to file a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. Or any other kind of bankruptcy.

He asked how long the process would take, and I told him that he was my limiting factor, because I couldn't control how long it would take him to pull three credit reports, look at his bills, and go into our online program and type in all his creditors and all his assets.

He thought I was joking.

"Is this a do-it-yourself bankruptcy? What am I paying you for, anyway?"

I could have told him that the real work in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy wasn't typing; that was only typing. Or that the whole process worked better if he input the data himself, because that way a minimum wage typing pool employee or an overworked secretary couldn't transpose the addresses of creditors. Or I could have told him that the real work begins only after the data is typed into the program.

But I knew the real answer.

On the one hand, you're paying me because I worked for years to learn how to determine if you're a good candidate for the procedure.

But there's another reason you're paying me.

I'm here in case something goes wrong.

NOTHING HERE CONSTITUTES LEGAL ADVICE RE A CHAPTER 7, CHAPTER 13, CHAPTER 11, OR CHAPTER 12. FIND AN ARIZONA BANKRUPTCY LAWYER WHO IS BOARD CERTIFIED IN BANKRUPTCY LAW, AV RATED, AVVO 10 RATED, ON SUPERLAWYERS, OR JUST VERY EXPERIENCED AND A FORMER CHAIR OF SOME BANKRUPTCY SECTION OR COMMITTEE. NOTHING HERE MAY BE USED AS LEGAL ADVICE IN CONNECTION WITH ANY BANKRUPTCY, WHETHER THAT BANKRUPTCY IS IN PHOENIX, GLENDALE, TEMPE, MESA, SCOTTSDALE, OR ANYWHERE ELSE.

Full post as published by Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney Blog on June 11, 2009 (boomark / email).