What is life like after bankruptcy in Minnesota? Rarely does this topic get discussed in a blog format. There are all kinds of blogs discussing what to do before bankruptcy, which firm to use, and what bankruptcy is and how it works but very little is written about what really happens to you after bankruptcy is over.

If you think I am kidding I am not. One of the best gifts you can give yourself is the gift of mental and physical health. There is no better way to protect your mental and physical health than to shed unwanted debt and repair your credit as fast as you can.

There are things you should never do on the day you file bankruptcy. The date you file bankruptcy is a snapshot of your life that is disclosed to your creditors along with the bankruptcy trustee. From that date, we glean what are your assets and what are your debts. We also see from that date backwards what kind of payments you made to creditors and what kind of transactions you made.

When I was in law school, they always told us the lawyer who tries to represent herself has a fool for a client. Same holds true for non-lawyers trying to represent themselves—especially in a mine laden area of law like bankruptcy. Let me ask you a question--- do you think a heart surgeon would do heart surgery on themselves? Of course not. Do you think a non-heart surgeon would do heart surgery on themselves? Of course not.

The Bankruptcy Code provides that filing bankruptcy automatically creates a new legal entity called the bankruptcy “estate.”  The estate separates what property is owned by the individual after bankruptcy from what property is to be sold to pay creditors.  

When I was younger, I remember thinking to myself how much can I save if I do this myself? Sometimes, it made sense and often times it was a major mistake. For example, I remember one time thinking I can change oil in my go-cart right? Wrong! I am not making this up. I was in the process of changing oil on the go-cart when I turned the oil plug just a little too tight. I ended up stripping the oil plug threads. This little snafu cost me several hundred dollars. An oil change would have cost me 20-25 bucks max.

When I hire professionals, I want the professionals who are not necessarily the “cheapest”, but I want to hire professionals that 1) know what they are doing, 2) treat me like a rock star, and 3) I never have communication problems with. How hard is this to do with bankruptcy lawyers in Minnesota? Harder than you think. The Google reviews are littered with reviews of either bad lawyering or bad communication from the lawyer and his/her staff. This is not right.

I feel terrible for people suffering from overwhelming debt. Every single one of us wants to pay our bills. I have never met a single person who did not want to pay their bills. Paying our bills is not the question. It is the lack of an ability to pay our bills that we are really discussing. And what it all comes down to is this very relevant question: Should you protect your family over your creditors or not?

In a word? Wonderful! Why? How can that be? What about my credit? What about my assets in bankruptcy? What about my pride? What if monkeys fly out of my butt? The reason I raise all these questions for you is I have high anxiety. There would be a never ending stream of questions and “what ifs” if I were considering filing bankruptcy. So, we totally understand how you feel right now. All of our current and former clients felt the same way. But what they found is that life on the other side of bankruptcy is wonderful.

I remember hiring a lawyer one time. He was juggling many cases. We needed him to represent us in a legal matter that was not overly complicated but we did not have time to do it ourselves. Besides, we learned in law school, that a client who represents themselves has a fool for a client. It is hard to be emotionally detached from a matter and hand the legal matter yourself. That is why even lawyers hire lawyers to represent them.

A Chapter 7 Bankruptcy is sometimes referred to as a “fresh start” bankruptcy. It’s like hitting the reset button and starting over again or taking a mulligan in golf. It is a wonderful tool that can be used by residents in and around Duluth, MN to get rid of unwanted debt. Each year many Duluth residents opt to get their lives back quickly and are now living without overwhelming debt.

Unfortunately, we see situations like this all too frequently. We get people who call us up and say basically, can you help us with our bankruptcy? The attorney we hired goofed up and now will not call us back. You would be shocked at how many times Kain & Scott gets this type of phone call. I feel bad for these people but I also wonder, had these good people spent a few more minutes researching Minnesota bankruptcy attorneys, could they have found someone better?

Raise your hand if you have been affected in some way by the Coronavirus? That will be all of us. Now raise your hand if you have been financially devastated by the Coronavirus? That is a lot of us. Now, raise your hand if you wanted to be negatively financially impacted by the Coronavirus? Of course you did not.

Cross-collateralization is a common practice used by credit unions, where one piece of collateral—such as your vehicle—secures multiple loans. This means if you have a car loan and later take out a personal loan from the same credit union, your car could be used as collateral for both debts. As a result, even if you pay off your car loan, the credit union may still hold the title to your vehicle until all other loans are repaid.

On March 27, 2020 the CARES Act was signed into law, which among many things, provided temporary student loan relief. This relief is only for federal student loan borrowers whose loans are held by the US Department of Education. This is an important point. Any private student loans are not affected by this Act, and continue to remain collectable.

Your credit score is a number that measures how likely you are to repay loans on time. It essentially assesses the risk of an individual not being able to pay back that loan.