MORE BANKRUPTCY DEBTORS WITHOUT LAWYERS, SHOWS A NEW SURVEY. DEBTORS CAN ONLY SAVE THEMSELVES ON BANKRUPTCY FEES BY DOING PRO SE WITHOUT AN ATTORNEY
Not surprisingly, emerging national statistics show that a growing number of Americans across the country have filed for personal bankruptcy at astronomical levels. Even more interesting, however, perhaps, is a recent national random sample by one researcher of Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy cases filed by American debtors during the two-month period of July and August 2010, which did this significant finding: that overall, slightly more than 1 in 9 cases (11.3%) filed in US bankruptcy courts were filed by debtors WITHOUT using an attorney. The extraction, conducted by Professor Robert Lawless of the University of Illinois Law School, a national expert on personal credit and bankruptcy, showed that, in fact, the rate of filings by debtors without attorneys was higher in cases of the chapter 13 (13.8%) that was in chapter 7 (10.1%).
In short, today with bankruptcy attorney costs still on the rise, more debtors are filing for bankruptcy without an attorney to save fees. rather, they get a cheap rate in bankruptcy at a low cost to save.
This is interesting information, no doubt!
However, note another detail here. That while the specific figures of 1 in 9 people who file for bankruptcy given here may sound impressive to many of us, in reality these statistics merely represent a current “national average” and may have only scratched the surface in terms of the actual number. of filers filing pro se. Lawless himself is quick to point out that while clearly significant, this figure probably won’t strike many experts and others knowledgeable in the field as being particularly dramatic or anything out of the ordinary. This is because, as Lawless himself points out, actually a long-established fact in bankruptcy administration has been that in some judicial districts in the United States, the rate of people filing pro se, in fact, it has hovered as high as 30% to 45%. Or more! Like in major urban areas, for example, like California, New York City, etc. In such districts, debtors file for bankruptcy without an attorney and save on bankruptcy fees by using the petition preparer.
BUT WHAT DOES THIS MATTER WITH THE LAWYERS’ ARGUMENT THAT BANKRUPTCY IS SO “COMPLEX” THAT ONLY EXPERIENCED LAWYERS CAN OR SHOULD DO IT?
IMPORTANT: Keep this in mind, though: that there is, for a fairly obvious reason, one fundamental way in which this Lawless survey result is particularly more noticeable and meaningful, both to debtors and bankruptcy attorneys. AND THAT’S THIS: Clearly, just this mere POSITIVE EVIDENCE showing that this large number of American bankruptcy filers, and such a significant proportion of them, actually file for bankruptcy WITHOUT using an attorney, immediately throws a huge wrench in the main basic argument historically used by the organized bar and attorneys to discourage and prevent American debtors from exploring low-cost, non-attorney alternatives in bankruptcy filings. In fact, this proven FACT immediately “disproves” that historic basic argument of bankruptcy attorneys.
A common claim and argument from lawyers is that the task of doing what is essentially a FINANCIAL business of filing for bankruptcy should be left absolutely and exclusively to the exclusive domain of “lawyers” to do it alone, and not someone else. And in making this claim, a favorite argument often heard from them is that, according to them, the process involved in filing for bankruptcy is a “complex” undertaking for anything other than the technical assumptions of the law. In a word, according to them, doing bankruptcy work is an unusually prohibitively difficult task for anyone except the “highly trained and educated” attorney, and if you are a debtor, even with any thoughts of filing for bankruptcy. yourself, you might as well reconsider that again, because, they say, nothing could be a dumber or more “risky” undertaking for you to try! Just of course you should hire a “lawyer” to guide you like a baby they say!
NOW THIS QUESTION: However, now comes this newly released latest reminder! Now, if (according to lawyers) bankruptcy work is supposedly such a “complex” task that only a person with presumably the special skills and training of a “lawyer” can carry it out, then how is it possible that such a large number and such a large proportion of debtors (around 10, 20 or 30% or more of them, depending on which districts) who are not “lawyers”, really do so on a daily basis? And do it largely as successfully and as well as the lawyers themselves?
But, with the rising costs of bankruptcy in America today, is there really such a thing as a low-cost bankruptcy attorney? Get cheap bankruptcy attorney fees at low cost
“It is very interesting that the pro se rate for converted/dismissed chapter 13 cases is the same as the overall rate,” Professor Lawless noted of his survey findings. Adding that “That would suggest that being pro se in chapter 13 is not significantly associated with one’s case being dismissed or converted.” Consequently, more debtors are filing for bankruptcy without an attorney as they seek to save on bankruptcy fees with a petition preparer.
DONE: Actually, the reason the TRUTH has ALWAYS been, even long before this Lawless poll, what the poll revealed, is quite simple. According to many experts (lawyers, trustees, judges, etc.) who specialize in bankruptcy law and procedures, in reality this latest report is just the most recent documentation confirming what has always been the fact and reality for a long time. a long time, regarding bankruptcy filings. Actually, they say, the truth of the matter is that most personal bankruptcies have always been, and are, in fact, quite routine and simple. So much so, in fact, experts say, that you’ve never really needed the services of a lawyer to handle ordinary personal bankruptcies, since they’re generally too simple, they say, and too elementary and largely administrative to undertake.
Many experts who make such a point generally cite two basic reasons on which to base this claim: First, that an overwhelming majority of personal bankruptcy cases are so-called “no assets” o “minimal asset” cases, meaning cases where debtors have literally nothing or absolutely NOTHING for creditors to claim or garnish, let alone money to pay high attorney fees; and second, the FACT that the bankruptcy process, they say, is actually inherently a simple administrative matter (contrary to the common layman’s belief that it is a complicated procedure), often actually involving the mere completion of simple forms routinely and submit them to the local bankruptcy court, much like completing and filing normal annual income tax returns. Clearly, American debtors would prefer to get cheap attorney fees in low-cost bankruptcy.
IN SUM
In short, given this now established FACT that at least 1 in 9 debtors (and an even much higher number than in certain parts of the nation) who file for bankruptcy across the United States today do so WITHOUT using an attorney, it becomes crystalline. Of course, as a debtor who is probably contemplating filing for bankruptcy, you do NOT need to, as bankruptcy attorneys often tell you to do, you always necessarily have to use a person titled “attorney” to do it for you. . And that to file for bankruptcy, you do NOT necessarily have to pay exorbitant legal fees of the kind usually associated with involving an attorney in business. But rather, you actually have an alternative and a real legitimate option that you may well choose to exercise in doing so, namely the use of specialist non-lawyer assistance by, say, a competent Debt Relief Agency or a Bankruptcy Document Preparer, to file your own bankruptcy.
These special assistants who are not lawyers in the trade (at least the best among them), are generally well-trained and experienced paralegals who specialize in preparing bankruptcy documents and proceedings, but offer their services to debtors at a cost. much lower and AFFORDABLE. And therefore, it is not surprising that more and more debtors are using this option and filing for bankruptcy without using an attorney, as they seek to obtain cheap bankruptcy attorney fees at low cost.
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