Filing Bankruptcy in San Diego County:

Filing for bankruptcy protection is a serious decision, but many who consider it as an option wrongly assume that it will affect the rest of their lives. Bankruptcy, like most other things, is eventually washed away as time passes, and most who file ultimately realize that they've received the gift of a fresh start in terms of their financial well-being and overall peace of mind.

However, if bankruptcy is an option you are considering, you will need the help of a bankruptcy attorney, as there are several technicalities, rules and little-known requirements that are in place to protect both the debtor and his or her creditors. Below is a brief look at a few of the prevalent issues that surround any bankruptcy filing, but for a complete set of answers, contact a bankruptcy lawyer today to schedule an initial consultation.

San Diego Bankruptcy Laws in General

Bankruptcy laws are set out and governed by the Federal Bankruptcy Code, which is a series of regulations that's generally way too complicated for non-attorneys to completely understand. When one boils bankruptcy laws down to their simplest form, these laws present an outlet for those who simply cannot meet their obligations to wipe their financial slate clean and to start over. Specifically, filing for bankruptcy protection will put an almost immediate stop to the harassing calls and letters from creditors that rob the debtor of his or her peace of mind, and they allow many of these debts to be forgiven.

Creditors Rights

While bankruptcy generally exists in order to provide an option for a debtor, that doesn't mean that the rights of the creditors are ignored - far from it. The bankruptcy code provides for the rights of creditors to protect them from having money that's owed to them wrongfully discharged, and generally speaking, these rights involve protection against any sort of fraud that's perpetrated by the debtor. One example remedy is a "Relief from Stay," which means that if a debtor has wrongfully included a debt on his or her schedule of liabilities, the bankruptcy trustee can allow a creditor's collection efforts to resume. A 'stay' is the term applied to the requirement of creditors to stop their collection efforts when a bankruptcy petition is filed.

Debtors Remedies

Bankruptcy laws not only provide an opportunity for debtors to climb out from under an unmanageable amount of debt, but also to protect them from creditors who may be violating the law in pursuit of the collection of the debts owed to them. For instance, if a creditor ignores a stay from collection order and continues to pursue a debt, that creditor could be found to have foregone its right to collect on any portion of that debt after a petition is accepted.

Of course, the most common and powerful remedy available to any debtor is the discharge, which in effect cancels debts owed to creditors once a petition is deemed to have been properly filed and affirmed by the bankruptcy trustee. This remedy is the very reason that many people choose to file for bankruptcy protection in the first place.

Of course, there are many other creditors' rights and debtors' remedies, but any bankruptcy case can be complicated, and unnecessarily so, if you attempt to handle it yourself. Before you make this mistake, contact a bankruptcy attorney today to schedule a consultation and to properly evaluate your options.