Bankruptcy

The Bankruptcy Court is Like a Jungle, and Filing is Like an Expedition into an Exotic Land. With Rhinos. To Bag the Elusive Discharge.

By Joseph McDaniel, Esq.

It wasn't Disneyland, but bankruptcy lawyers could always point to nice, loving, supportive language in the legislative history to the Bankruptcy Code (the "New Code" of October 1, 1979) that indicated it was supposed to be the land of the Big Mac. I mean Fresh Start.

Now things are somewhat different. The presumptions are changed. Debtors are subject to tests of various sorts to see if they are worthy of relief. And it is clear that the legislators who passed the laws actually intended that there be some poor folks who were not permitted to obtain any relief in Bankruptcy Court.

Tests of various sorts now determine who gets relief and who gets the boot. Or worse.

And the consequences of those who fail the multiple tests are potentially troublesome: dismissal of the case, conversion of the case, denial of the discharge, sustained objections to exemptions, or time in the Greybar Motel.

Previously, both the pity pitch and the stupidity pitch were used extensively in Bankruptcy Court, and probably more than reality would dictate.

Now, neither the pity pitch or the stupidity pitch are of much consequence in Bankruptcy Court. Made a mistake? Too bad! Forgot? Too bad! Got it rough? Too bad! Your numbers don't work, so out you go!

So if I didn't already have white hair, this job would give me white hair. While there are times that I don't worry about my cases, they tend to involve periods of REM sleep.

Or my infrequent trips to the gym, where I only worry about hydration, because my gym is temperature-controlled with swamp coolers.

I've previously used the metaphor that Bankruptcy is sort of like going off the grownup ski slopes without poles, so you better be aimed right on, because changing directions is hard, and there are trees on the slope.

Today's metaphor is the jungle.

The debtor is walking along with the local guide through the fetid, steaming terrain of Bankruptcyland at dawn, seeking the elusive Discharge.

Pith helmets abound.

Suddenly a crocodile darts out! The debtor loses a leg!

The guide and debtor barely make it alive back to base camp, where a Discharge is poised on the debtor's pillow, grinning up at him. The debtor, weak from loss of blood, shoots! After a side trip following the trail into the back country to put the badly-wounded Discharge out of its misery, the debtor departs (vowing never to return) from Bankruptcyland.

The debtor, sadder and wiser and now with the stuffed head of a Discharge on his den wall, talks about the experience for the rest of his life.

Okay, back to Phoenix, Arizona, and the District of Arizona Bankruptcy Court.

Bad things can happen in Bankruptcy Court. They are the exception, and not the rule. But even if you do everything right, things happen.

And don't even think about what happens if you do things wrong.

Because Here There be Tygers.

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 July 22, 2009 (boomark / email).