To get the most out of a consultation with a bankruptcy lawyer, you need to come with some basic information and an idea about your goals for a possible bankruptcy filing. After all, you want to know how your situation lines up with the available bankruptcy relief.
Every bankruptcy lawyer is different and each one has their own format for an initial consultation. Know, going in, that the shorter the time allotted, the more general the information you will depart with. That general information may be subject to revision as your lawyer gets more facts.
Here’s my outline of what I want to know, first thing, about your situation.
What are your bankruptcy goals
Give some thought to what you want your financial situation to be after bankruptcy. Do you just want the phone to stop ringing or a garnishment to stop? Do you want to keep a house or vehicles? Or, do you want to ditch some or all of those current obligations?
Recent income
Your recent income shapes your bankruptcy choices
Bankruptcy’s means test claims to determine who really needs a bankruptcy discharge. It applies to those whose debts are “primarily consumer” debts. (If more than half of your debt is business and/or taxes, the means test doesn’t apply.)
The relevant income is your gross income from all sources for the six months before you file. So bring a paystub or other evidence of your gross income to the consultation.
Assets
Bankruptcy allows you to keep certain assets despite filing bankruptcy. Each state has its own exemption law that measures what you keep. So, we’ll want to know what your major assets would sell for, in their present condition. At first, I want to know roughly what house and car are worth, and the outstanding balance on any loans secured by those major assets.
Debts
Generally, the debts that are critical, in the first analysis, are the amounts owed on debts secured by your assets, and the total of unsecured and secured debts owed. The balance on secured debts (along with value) control whether the collateral is fully exempt, and thus you get to keep it if you wish. The total of secured and unsecured debt drives whether you qualify for a Chapter 13.
If you owe taxes, whether those taxes are dischargeable in bankruptcy or not. The best way to analyze that is to get an account transcript from the IRS for each year for which you may owe taxes.
Threatening events
If some sort of deadline or event, like a foreclosure, repossession, garnishment, divorce or lawsuit brings you to my office, I want some basic information on that threat, ideally a copy of the relevant document. That may tell me something about the creditors involved and the speed at which a bankruptcy needs to happen.
Homework helps
Get some basic information about bankruptcy before you come to an initial consultation. The less time I have to spend telling you how bankruptcy works in general, the more time we can focus on how bankruptcy relief can affect you.
Bankruptcy information online varies wildly. Pick a resource from a reliable source, not the personal experiences of random people on the internet. Shameless plug: This site of some 750 posts is written by a certified bankruptcy specialist with 45 years of experience; I’d be tickled if you read up on the law here or at my companion site, Bankruptcy In Brief. Here are links to other reliable resources.
Come with your questions
Write down your questions before the consultation so that you get input on the things you’re concerned about. There are no stupid questions in this context. If it worries you, I want to know about it.
And, if the lawyer is unable, unwilling, or less than gracious about answering your questions in a way you understand, consider interviewing another lawyer.
