Affordable Law Offices will provide personal service in the unfortunate event of personal bankruptcy.  A single lawyer will handle a client’s file, insuring the individual needs of the client are met.

Chapter 7

Chapter 7, colloquially known as ''straight bankruptcy,'' is the ''operative'' chapter of the Bankruptcy Code which governs liquidation cases. Liquidation is a form of relief afforded by the bankruptcy laws which involves the collection, liquidation and distribution of the nonexempt property of the debtor and, if the debtor is an individual, culminates in the discharge of the debtor. Chapter 7 is the chapter most frequently chosen by individual debtors. For most debtors it offers a speedy and inexpensive fresh financial start.

The basic purposes of chapter 7 are to provide this fresh start to the debtor and to equitably distribute any nonexempt property to the debtor's creditors. Every step in the chapter 7 process is directed to one or both of these ends.

Chapter 13

Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code gives the debtor the opportunity to adjust his or her financial affairs without having to liquidate current assets. Rather than being designed to pay debts out of those assets, a chapter 13 case usually involves payment of debts out of future income (although the debtor may also decide on some payment out of current assets). The debtor is allowed to keep and use all property, whether exempt or not, and to pay some or all debts according to a plan approved by the court. At the completion of this plan (or, in some cases, earlier) the debtor receives a discharge which, with several significant exceptions, is similar to the discharge received in a chapter 7 case.

Chapter 13 is most frequently chosen by debtors who must use its provisions to deal with mortgage arrearages or other secured debts, and by debtors who have nonexempt property that they wish to retain. However, there are a variety of other reasons for choosing chapter 13, including simply the desire to repay some or all debts. The basic purposes of chapter 13, like those of chapter 7, are to provide a fresh financial start to the debtor and to distribute payments equitably to the debtor's creditors.