Coronavirus Bankruptcy: Should I Consider Filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy?
Coronavirus Bankruptcy Considerations
The coronavirus has changed the way we live, it’s changed the way we worked.
It’s taken any semblance of security that we have in our lives and thrown them out the window. On the one hand, it’s obviously affecting us physically, the way we leave our apartments, the way we travel, who we see and how. But on the other hand, it’s affected us financially.
How many of us have already been in situations where we barely can make ends meet? How many of us try and strategize how we’re gonna pay our commercial landlord this month’s rent? Or, how we can move money from one credit card over to another, to make sure that we have enough to put food on the table. This is where bankruptcy comes in.
Bankruptcy before coronavirus and after coronavirus allows people to get rid of many types of unsecured debt and start fresh. And when I say start fresh, I don’t just mean financially, I mean emotionally.
I’ve had the pleasure of, over the past 14 years, helping thousands of people get out of debt. And coronavirus is just another example of something that’s outside of your control that’s forcing a financial issue that may have already been there.
So, the question is should you file for bankruptcy? If you’re newly unemployed and you only have a specific amount of money left over to pay for bills, then yes, it’s possible that you should file for bankruptcy, because instead of throwing away money on credit card minimums, you can conserve that money and potentially exempt that money in a bankruptcy itself. In other words, you can keep it and pay for the things that you really need to pay for, for your family.
If you have small business, and it’s completely collapsed, and it’s been outside of your control, then yes, we should have a conversation about filing for bankruptcy.
If you have a scenario where you are employed, but you can’t make ends meet, and as a result of that you’re using credit cards more than you ever have before. Or perhaps your spouse became unemployed. Or, God forbid, somebody in your family got sick and you’ve been thrown into disarray because of medical bills. Then that’s a conversation that we should have.
One of the toughest parts of my job as a bankruptcy attorney is convincing people and really talking to people about why bankruptcy itself is probably one of the best ways that you can start your life anew. People seem to have this misnomer that bankruptcy is there to punish, that there’s some catch, that there’s a huge stigma attached. I can tell you that in all my years of practice, I’ve represented people that have been unemployed, that have earned $5000, and people that have earned $200,000, all of them have something in common, even the life circumstance. Here, a life circumstance has thrown their lives into disarray, where they can’t make ends meet, or they become unemployed, or something like coronavirus happens outta nowhere, that accelerates what was already there in the first place. What I can tell you is over this period of time bankruptcy has helped so many people, just like yourself, get out of a situation that they wouldn’t have been in, in the first place, or perhaps that they would have been in, in the first place.
There are a number of different things to consider when filing. Look, each case is different, and we need to talk about the specifics of your case to make sure that you qualify. But if you can get rid of a ton of unsecured debt, if you can get rid of obligations you have, and a commercial lease that you can no longer afford because your business has gone belly up as a result of the coronavirus, if you can literally allow yourself to sleep again knowing that a lot of this debt can be taken care off, then it’s something that we should talk about. I’m always here for you, and I will continue to be.
Questions about whether Chapter 7 bankruptcy is right for you? Let’s talk.