Filing Emergency Bankruptcy

If your financial situation is causing you some stress, you may have considered filing for bankruptcy.  In many situations, it’s a good way to relieve yourself of crushing debt and get some peace of mind.  But thinking about filing and actually doing it are two different things—and if you put it off for too long you may find yourself in a truly dire situation, requiring an emergency bankruptcy filing.

What is an Emergency Bankruptcy Filing?

When there is an urgent need to streamline your bankruptcy filing, it is referred to as an emergency bankruptcy filing, or a skeleton bankruptcy filing.  Some situations in which an emergency filing might be necessary include:

• Your wages are about to be garnished by a creditor, which will leave you short on cash to pay your living expenses;
• You are about to be evicted from a home you are renting;
• Your home is about to go into foreclosure;
• Your vehicle is about to be repossessed, leaving you no way to get to work.

Getting Started

Although it is an expedited process, an emergency bankruptcy filing has no shortage of paperwork!  If you fail to meet the deadlines or provide everything necessary, your case will be dismissed, so having an experienced bankruptcy attorney working on your behalf is often essential to getting it right.

Once you get started, you have just 14 days to complete the voluminous task.  Included will be relevant contact and identifying information, along with a list of the creditors and others who are chasing you down for payments. You’ll also need to provide documentation stating that you’ve completed a consumer credit counseling course within 180 days of filing, or request a waiver for this requirement. Once these basics are filed with the court, all collections, creditor harassment, foreclosure actions, and wage garnishments stop.  But you’re far from finished.

Additional Paperwork

Now comes the lion’s share of the work.  You will need to provide the court with all kinds of documentation relating to your property, which items you wish to exempt from the process, creditors whose claims are secured by property, and those who have unsecured claims.  The court will want to know the identities of your co-debtors, expenses you have, and any income you have. There are dozens of different multi-page forms that must all be completed and submitted within the 14-day time period.

Getting it Right

Sound overwhelming? It can be!  But at The Law Office of Julia Kefalinos our experienced Miami bankruptcy attorneys know what they’re doing, and can make the filing process quick and relatively painless, giving you the opportunity for a fresh start from a financial standpoint.  You likely have many questions.  Please schedule a confidential consultation in our office today so we can discuss your situation in depth.

Source:

uscourts.gov/forms/bankruptcy-forms