Saturday, January 8, 2011

Trying to Make Sense of Bankruptcy in Arizona: Chapter 7 and Chapter 13

Making Bankruptcy Simple in Arizona

Now, just so you know, I've been working to make bankruptcy simple for my clients for about thirty years.

It's not as easy as you might think.

While at some levels, bankruptcy is simple, at some levels it's...not. Not very simple at all.

Because while I can say that bankruptcy is a Federal Remedy, and that the Federal Government has exclusive jurisdiction over bankruptcy relief in Arizona, then I have to talk about the fact that a goofy compromise meant that Arizona was able to "opt-out", so that those filing in Arizona usually don't get to use the Federal Bankruptcy Exemptions located at 11 USC 522.

Except sometimes.

And no matter how much I want to explain that there are four relatively common types of bankruptcy, and they include Chapter 7, Chapter 13, Chapter 11 and Chapter 12, once I'm about halfway into explaining the difference between the various Chapters, an ordinary person is usually deeply unconscious.

Kinda like when my mechanic tries to explain that funny noise in the car to me.

So I've experimented over the last thirty years with various tools to make Arizona bankruptcy cases simple to explain to debtors, and I think I'm finally making some progress.

Now there are these things called blogs! And I've been building blogs to try to explain how bankruptcy works here in Arizona, whether it's in Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, Chandler, Tempe or Casa Grande. Or anyplace else where people need to file bankruptcy in Arizona.

The blog you're reading is one of my most recent online bankruptcy projects. But I built more!

For instance, I built a Bankruptcy Video Blog to help explain bankruptcy to folks who prefer to pick up their information from tiny talking heads!

And I built an Arizona Bankruptcy Homework Blog, so that when people came in to visit with me for a half hour, our time together could be productive! See, otherwise, folks would waste their time asking the same round-one questions that folks always ask. So I answered those frequently asked bankruptcy questions in the Bankruptcy Homework Blog, and I even gave folks a sort of organizer, so they could easily put together the information I needed to analyze whether bankruptcy was a good idea for them, or not!

Then I thought, maybe there are people out there who would like to do analysis on their own, to determine whether a bankruptcy was a good idea, and they would like bankruptcy calculators and similar tools to help them make good bankruptcy decisions (which is not as easy as it sounds, when you are being dive-bombed by relentless creditors!).

So I built an Arizona Bankruptcy Resources Blog, and that's short, and fairly sweet, and includes a means test calculator, a median income calculator, and a credit card payoff calculator (so you can see how long it will take you to pay off your credit card debt, if you decide that a bankruptcy is not the correct option for you!). I also talk about a great bankruptcy resource, which is the U. S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Arizona website, which also has bankruptcy videos, bankruptcy faqs, and discussions of bankruptcy law as it relates to Arizona. Here's a taste of what awaits you on the District of Arizona Website, and it's a very useful bankruptcy resource itself, although you should always check that it's current:

Arizona Exemptions

The baby of the Joseph C. McDaniel Bankruptcy Blog Family is the Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Blog for Arizona, and I built that because the overwhelming majority of bankruptcy filings in Arizona are under Chapter 7, so I figured that was a topic that could use some attention.

The Granddaddy of the Bankruptcy Blogs I've built is here, and it has about a thousand entries.

Now, I've built a few other blogs; the one I beg my friends to read is my little health and longevity blog, called "Getting Older Beats the Alternatives". In that one, I talk about stuff I've picked up about healthy living, because that's important. So take your Vitamin C, Vitamin D and Selenium, but before you do anything I tell you to do about your health, check it out with a real doctor, not an Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney!

Contact an Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney