Hiring A Bankruptcy Attorney For Peace Of Mind
Using The Chapter 7 Automatic Stay Wisely
Gabriel Freeman
When your financial situation has become difficult to handle, you may consider filing for bankruptcy. Consumers that don't pay their bills in a timely manner usually begin to receive all manner of threatening letters and phone calls from their creditors. As if that were not bad enough, you may also begin to be threatened with loss of a place to live and other important property. With a federal filing, you can put in place a powerful legal block to prevent those things from happening. Read on for more information about bankruptcy's automatic stay.
The Automatic Stay
This legal action is triggered automatically by you filing your bankruptcy in federal court. Creditors must immediately cease certain actions, but in some cases you might encounter a trickle of calls and letters immediately after the filing. It sometimes takes a bit of time for all your creditors and collection agencies to get word of the filing. You can simply provide the creditor with your bankruptcy case number and your attorney's contact information and you will very likely never hear from them again. An automatic stay is extremely helpful, so take a look at some of these benefits.
Wage garnishments will stop: When a creditor takes action against your income, you will find your paychecks minus a few bucks. An automatic stay will cause all wage garnishments (with one exception, child support payments owed) to cease. You should be warned that the debt that led to the wage garnishment may not be discharged with your bankruptcy, so you may still be responsible for it once the bankruptcy is complete.
Utility disconnections can be delayed: It's extremely distressing to deal with having your much-needed utilities cut off, so the automatic stay will allow you 20 more days to bring your accounts up to date before your phone (landline), gas, power and water are shut off.
Temporarily delay foreclosure proceedings: Your home mortgage makes your dwelling a secured property, and the banks have the right to take that home back if you fail to pay as agreed. Fortunately, the automatic stay gives you a break on foreclosure activity until the bankruptcy is complete. If you are behind on payments, you may still be in danger of loosing your home eventually, however.
Temporarily delay eviction proceedings: As long as your landlord has not actually filed for an eviction yet, you can forestall this procedure.
Speak to your bankruptcy attorney about these benefits and more that come with the automatic stay and your chapter 7 bankruptcy filing.
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Hello, my name is Kiley, and if you have major debts and you're thinking about filing for bankruptcy, this is the blog you need to read. Two years ago I was very much in debt, and then I was laid off from my job. The only alternative I had was to file bankruptcy. I was very nervous about filing bankruptcy until I spoke with a bankruptcy attorney. The attorney explained the bankruptcy process with me in terms that I could understand. After the consultation, I felt much better. If you're considering filing bankruptcy, this blog explains the process so you'll know what to expect. I wanted to write this blog so that I could help other people who are in the same situation and to let them know how the process works.