S Daytona, FL (PressExposure) July 30, 2010 -- Phoenix bankruptcy lawyer, Christy Thompson of Thompson Law conducted an interview and was asked, "Do people really need an attorney to file bankruptcy?" Now while this is a very common question, anyone considering filing bankruptcy in the state of Arizona must consider the pros and cons of having a lawyer or not having a lawyer represent them and that is exactly what Christy covered in her interview. This interview and others are available for the public to view, just visit her YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/ChristyLawyer
A few of the comments Christy made during the interview include. "No, you don't. There is so much information on the Internet you can easily prepare your own bankruptcy. There's no requirement and the court doesn't require that an attorney represent you. But...here's the kicker. Should you have an attorney? Absolutely. The reason being is you can run into trouble by doing your own bankruptcy by not knowing all the little details and we see this a lot."
"When a person attends a Meeting of Creditors and you're representing yourself you don't have that extra layer of protection with an attorney at their side." "The biggest problem is when people attend their Meeting of Creditors on their own and they have prepared their own bankruptcy. A lot of individuals don't recognize the fact that they actually have to attend that hearing, then they don't appear at the hearing and the end result can be that their bankruptcy is dismissed, which means their debt doesn't go away."
"The other thing that typically seen is they haven't prepared the petition properly or they've had assets that they could have protected but weren't aware of it. The biggest thing seen all the time is individuals who have too much money on hand. And surprisingly, the bankruptcy court believes that anything over $150 is too much."
"A good attorney will always plan with their clients so they can give them advice as to how they should spend their funds and what they should spend their funds on. The bankruptcy court looks back 90 days so when assisting their clients and preparing their petition with them, they look back as well to see what's in their checking account, how they spent their funds. That way they're in the best light in front of the court. And unfortunately, people who've prepared their own petitions don't have that advantage. They don't have that information."