Bankruptcy Attorney

When someone calls and has a bankruptcy related question, what they are really seeking is a bankruptcy lawyer. It can be a very simple question such as where is your office located or it can be a very complex question such as how does Chapter 11 differ from Chapter 13? In any event, what I try to do is answer the question to the best of my ability. If it is something that cannot be easily answered over the telephone, then I will invite the person to come to the office for an initial consultation. If I don’t know the answer immediately, I have the ability to research the law on the topic at hand.

Most of the advice that I give out is dealing with bankruptcy basics. People want to know whether or not they qualify. They then want to know the cost. Most people will qualify for debt relief under either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 of the bankruptcy code. In rare instances, the debtor will not fall within the filing requirements of either chapter. In those cases, the debtor can explore non-bankruptcy alternatives. Those include working out installment, payment plans or simply avoiding collection efforts.

I often caution against someone who thinks it’s easy to file bankruptcy yourself and avoid the expense of a lawyer. In most cases, the debtor will not be able to handle the filing without a skilled attorney. The laws have changed and way it was done 10 years ago is not how it is done today. In fact, many attorneys who used to file bankruptcy cases are no longer practicing bankruptcy. They simply were not able to keep up with the changes to the law. In the Northern District of Illinois, there is a great disparity between the decisions of the judges. What may work in one judge’s courtroom may not work in the adjacent courtroom.

When someone is thinking of claiming bankruptcy, I invite them in for an initial consultation. I also advise that he or she view several of the lengthy videos on my website. There is so much information out there if someone is willing to take the time and investigate. I have a thirty minute video on Chapter 7 bankruptcy and a 30 minute video on Chapter 7 filing. I find that an informed client is better than an uninformed client. It makes the entire process easier on both parties if there is a general understanding of what is to come. The best advice I can give is to seek help from an attorney who is an authority on the subject. I have made helping people file for bankruptcy my life’s work.

File Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

Of course you do not want to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Everyone would first like to explore the alternatives. But just what are those alternatives and are they are good for your situation? The answer is as varied as the number of folks that are in debt. Do you have any assets that can be attached? Do you have any wages that can be garnished? Are you being harassed by creditors for payment of certain debts? If any of those answers are yes, then you may be subject to filing for bankruptcy at some point. The trick would be to get out of debt and yet, not have to file, correct?

That is the promise that many television advertising campaigns seem to tout. If you have more than ten thousand dollars of debt, we can help you. But can they really help you? In my experience, most debt settlement attempts fail and they do so with drastic results. I have had clients who were in debt settlement payment plans for years only to get sued by another creditor. In some cases, the balance did not get reduced accordingly and they lost money to the company itself. In other situations, the debt settlement company wound up claiming bankruptcy. Experience shows that many of the non-bankruptcy options are just not powerful enough.

You could try to do it alone. You could call your creditors and attempt to make an arrangement. The worst that they can say is no, we want more from you than that. Be careful however, that you do not give up too much information. Any information that you give can be used in an effort to collect on the debt. If you give your employer’s information for example, you may be seeing a wage garnishment coming down the pike. Whatever you do, please don’t file bankruptcy yourself. You have no clue how difficult it is to get a case processed correctly.

Lastly, if your non-bankruptcy options just do not seem to be working, then consider the services of a Chapter 7 bankruptcy attorney. The attorney will know your best options under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. It may be a Chapter 7 or it may be a Chapter 13. You will not have to make the legal decision. You will only have to make the decision to file if you feel that after receiving all of the information that it is in your best interest to file. No one can or should force you to file for bankruptcy relief.

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Everyone Should Have A Living Will

 by: David G. Hallstrom, Sr.

According to information provided by http://www.plan-my-estate.com an an estate planning and asset protection resource web site, a living will, known in most states as a Directive to Physicians or Healthcare Directive, sets out your wishes about what extended medical treatment should be withheld or provided if you become unable to communicate those wishes. The directive creates a contract with the attending doctor. Once the doctor receives a properly signed and witnessed directive, he or she is under a duty either to honor its instructions or to make sure you are transferred to the care of another doctor who will.

There is an old saying, “nothing is sure in life except death and taxes”. Whether you like it or not, someday you will die. How you die and how it effects the people you leave behind can be affected by whether or not you have a living will.

Say you feel that if you develop an inevitably fatal illness, you do not want any extreme measures taken to prolong your suffering or to cause you additional suffering or loss of dignity while you are dying. Say you have a massive stroke and end up in a coma and according to the doctors you are brain dead or completely unresponsive. You are being kept alive by a bunch of machines and tubes. Now say you had previously told someone, your spouse, one of your children or a parent, that you did not want to be kept alive by extreme measures. That person tells the doctor that you would not want to be kept alive by a machine, however, another family member, who can not take the thought of your dying, tells the doctor that you wanted to be kept alive by any means possible. Now, there is a problem. Remember the seven (7) year court battle over Terri Schiavo.

Both family members love you and both want to do what is best, however they disagree and end up causing great emotional distress to each other and to other people who love you, as well as forcing you to be kept ailve against your wishes while the matter is being settled, and as well as running up considerable medical and legal expenses that have to be paid by someone. None of this would have taken place had you taked the time to have a living will prepared.

Conversely, say that you would like to receive all medical treatment that is available, no matter what. Since you can not speak for yourself, your spouse or a loved one, not knowing your wishes and who believes in dying with dignity, tells the doctor to turn off the machines and let you die. No one else knows what you wanted so the machines are turned off and you die. Had you taken the time to have a living will prepared they would have tried to keep you alive.

The foregoing examples are very black and white and most incidences will vary in various shades of grey, however I hope that you will understand the point that I am trying to get across.

Note: I am not an attorney or a doctor and none of the foregoing should be construed as legal or medical advice. This article is written strictly as my opinion based on life experiences through both my personal life and my work as a private investigator when investigating family disputes. As in all matters of law you should always consult an attorney before taking on any legal endeavor.

Whether you are married, single, young, old, healthy or ill, a living will is an inexpensive way of insuring that your wishes are carried out in the event that something untoward happens. It could also spare your loved ones the emotional distress of being forced to make such an important decision for you. Please visit this website for Estate Planning

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Construction Defects Attorney

If you have a problem with something that you purchase in a store, you can simply return the item most of the time and get a refund or another item that isn’t damaged. In the new home building construction business, this isn’t exactly how it works, all of the time.

All of the products that are purchased are brought to the job site and assembled into the new home. If any of these items are damaged, there’s a good chance that they will need to be removed, if possible and returned to the store that they were purchased from to make the exchange.

That’s okay and usually works… sometimes. If you install a couple of boxes of floor tile and you notice that there is a flaw of some sort after you have installed them, I don’t think the store is going to be happy or interested in having you return floor tiles that have tile grout or adhesive dried on to the back of them.

In other words, some new home construction defects are going to be bigger problems than others. If you notice there’s a chip in a piece of tile, bathroom sink or even a light fixture, don’t bother to install it in the new house. This is the point when it needs to be returned for an undamaged item.

By now you’re probably wondering, wouldn’t everybody do this, isn’t this kind of stuff called common sense. Not when someone’s in a hurry and isn’t really worried about the finished product. The biggest problems with construction defects in new homes is building materials that get damaged by other workers or building materials that are already damaged and installed anyway.

There’s not a lot that you’re going to be able to do about building materials that become damaged after they are installed, but there is something that you can do before they are installed.
We are dedicated to the successful representation of homeowners and homeowner associations in construction defect matters. Please visit our Website here
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If you have recently purchased a home, or are about to do so, you owe it to yourself and your family to understand everything that should be done to make sure that you know everything you need to know about the premises in question. One of the most overlooked aspects of purchasing any home is understanding how construction defects affect new and used home buyers.

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