Two hints:

• Pick an attorney who does mostly bankruptcies. Do you really want an attorney who does criminal proceedings, adoptions, business law, AND bankruptcy, or do you want AN ATTORNEY WHO DOES BANKRUPTCIES?

  And,

• Choose an office that has a real person at the front desk who returns telephone calls. If you cannot get through to your attorney, how can the court or the creditors effectively communicate with your attorney?

The major reasons for filing bankruptcy vary per geographical area. Across the country, however, major reasons include:

1. Uninsured medical expenses
2. Unemployment or underemployment (you are not employed at the income level you have been employed at in the past)
3. Divorce
4. Small business
5. Military service
6. Adult children returning to the home with grandchildren

Many of these factors are largely out of one's control. If you have no medical insurance and spend more than one night in the hospital, you may face bankruptcy. If the average forty year old is unemployed for one year, a bankruptcy is likely to follow, although perhaps two to three years later. If you are injured on the job and receive any limited worker's compensation, bankruptcy is likely to follow.

We often see high credit card use during periods of unemployment which may include the payment of hospital bills or taxes. In my practice, I would estimate that less than 25% of my clients face bankruptcy due only to credit card use without additional underlying problems, i.e., unemployment or medical expenses. Of this group, many are unaware of the real cost of interest on credit cards, the over limit charges, the late fees, etc. Please remember that credit card companies are not victims.

Almost all of us feel a moral imperative to pay our debts. However, if you are facing growing debt, try to look at the cause(s) of your bankruptcy as realistically as possible as well as the numbers. BANKRUPTCY IS A FINANCIAL DECISION. The question is whether this is the time that bankruptcy has become necessary.

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