As I wind down from the high from my own recent marriage, I am reminded of a common issue that comes up when I talk to married people: Who of a married couple should file for bankruptcy?

My answer is usually the same: Both if possible and if they both need bankruptcy relief.

Married couples can either file a joint bankruptcy or individual bankruptcies.

When you hire a bankruptcy attorney, they are supposed to protect your interests and assets not take a lien against your assets to see that the lawyer gets paid their fees. I witnessed this happen recently and it is shocking a lawyer would do this. It is a very unseemly practice that prioritizes lawyers being paid over clients getting relief.

What is the true impact on your credit after filing bankruptcy? Filing bankruptcy is nearly always a net positive for your credit profile and credit score. How can this be? Pretend I am a banker and you come to me wanting a loan.

Soon, bankruptcy filings will hit record levels in Minnesota. I know it does not look like that can be the case right now, but it will be and sooner than you think. How can I be so confident of that? Easy, Google global debt and you will get part of the picture. But that is only part of the picture. Global debt levels never went away even after the last recession, which started in 2007/2008. We are at a crossroads in our economy that has fundamentally transformed itself without anyone noticing much.

If you are suffering from debt, the last thing you want is to work with a group of “professionals” that are not very professional and who treat their clients like widgets on an assembly line. You don’t want to work with a law firm that would really ask their client to put up their clothing to secure the bankruptcy attorney’s fees. This is really happening.

Law firms are largely specialized these days. Many are what we call “boutiques” that cater to clients in one specific area of the law. For example, there are many personal injury law firm boutiques. Many law firms specialize in family law, criminal defense, or even more specific than that, one area of criminal defense like DWI law.

When you are looking for the best bankruptcy law firms in Minneapolis, you cannot go wrong with choosing any of these three Minneapolis bankruptcy law firms.

They will vary in prices and service offerings, but you will get experienced chapter 7 and chapter 13 bankruptcy counsel from any of them.

Why do Minnesotans refer their friends and family to LifeBack Law Firm, P.A. for bankruptcy? There are many reasons but the biggest reason is they used LifeBack Law to get their lives back and they really felt good about how they were treated.

After all, LifeBack Law is Minnesota’s highest Google reviewed bankruptcy law firm. If you care for your friends and family, refer them to LifeBack Law and we promise to use soft gloves and treat them exceptionally well.

As incredible as this may sound, there is a bankruptcy law firm that will actually ask you to put up your clothing as collateral for the attorney fees in a bankruptcy case.

LifeBack Law will never ask any of it’s’ clients to put up the clothing on their back as collateral for our fees. At LifeBack Law Firm, we accept payment in one of three ways for a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.

I constantly remind Minnesotans, your finances are sick, you are not. If you need a metaphor to think about this, here is one; actors and actresses many times need to be told, you are not the same person as the actor or actress.

You are two different people. So when people criticize the actor/actress, they are not criticizing you, they are criticizing someone else. Same thing with debt. You are not your debt. You are you and your finances are separate and if your finances are sick we need to give medicine to your finances (bankruptcy) not you.

You are sitting at home, at your kitchen table, and you are working your way through a pile of bills that need to be paid. Some of these bills are past due. When you whip out the calculator and add all of the credit card debt, medical bills, and unsecured lines of credit, you get a total of $75,000.00 with monthly payments that total $3,250.00 to service just the minimum payments on all of the debts.

Is chapter 13 bankruptcy in Minnesota something you should start considering?

Unfortunately, in the bankruptcy world, there are some very unseemly practices. There are some companies who disguise themselves as law firms only to be referral agencies in reality. They take your phone call and have non-lawyers sign you up, and then refer you back to a Minnesota bankruptcy attorney. If you want crappy service, you should definitely do this.

We cannot either. Recently, we heard of one Minnesota law firm that seems so hard up for money they actually take their clients clothing, along with furnishings and appliances, as collateral for their fees. We cannot imagine anything more distasteful than this. Bankruptcy lawyers are supposed to protect their clients assets not expose them to creditors, and especially themselves. Instead, the lawyer seizes an opportunity to take their clients property as collateral? Ridiculous. At LifeBack Law Firm we would never engage in this kind of chicanery to get paid.

We wanted to create a name that was congruent with who we are. We wanted to create a name that answered what do we do and have it more relevant to our marketing ethos in Minnesota. So we kicked back and brain stormed different names. We were going from Kain & Scott, P.A. to what name would fit us the best? After muddling our way through close to 500 names, we chose LifeBack Law Firm, P.A.!

A lot of people who suffer with debt want to know how does bankruptcy affect my credit? There are all kinds of misconceptions about bankruptcy in the marketplace. I have had some people tell me they didn’t think they could get any credit after they filed a bankruptcy.

This is not true at all. Over the many decades, LifeBack Law Firm has helped literally tens of thousands of Minnesotans get their lives back and most of them go on to obtain credit. Most go on to purchase homes and vehicles and all sorts of other items.

Bankruptcy is a serious legal tool that shouldn't be entered into lightly. Fortunately, it can, in specific situations, help you move forward toward greater financial freedom.

Chapter 7 is a specific chapter in the federal bankruptcy laws that represents what is known as straight or liquidation bankruptcy and that can wipe your financial slate clean.