Every year, Minnesotans who live in and around Minneapolis get their lives back and celebrate their new life with enthusiasm. If you are one of those people who filed Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 Bankruptcy and live here or anywhere else in the twins cities metro area, and you now have your life back, please know how much I am proud of you!

If you haven’t been living under a rock for the last several years I’m sure I don’t need to explain to you how much DIY information we have available to us online. It’s everywhere! We’ve all used Google or YouTube before to figure out how to do something that we had no idea how to do in the first place. It feels good to accomplish things on our own. However, as good as it might feel it’s just as good to know our limitations. Especially when it comes to filing bankruptcy. Sure, there are several informational guides that outline the process online, but in order to avoid any complications you’ll always be a lot better off and happier working with an experienced and professional Minneapolis Bankruptcy Lawyer. Here’s why:

This is a source of great confusion in the marketplace. If you own a business, does the business need to file bankruptcy or you? Can I just file on business debts and not my personal debt? These are all great questions.

If you’re reading this blog, it’s likely you were kind enough to co-sign on a debt with someone, but that certain someone fell behind on payments. Since they fell behind on their payments, it’s likely the creditor is trying to collect the debt from you. If you’re experiencing this, don’t worry. We can certainly help you.

It is one of the top concerns of any Minnesotan filing for bankruptcy protection. What will this do to my credit? Will bankruptcy damage my credit forever? How can I repair my credit as fast as possible? Many of our guests say I would have filed bankruptcy sooner had I known I could repair my credit fast. And now you can. For the 1st time in Minnesota history, a Minnesota bankruptcy law firm offers a one of kind, exclusive, 90 DAY FREE* CREDIT REPAIR PROGRAM after obtaining a discharge. How does it work? It is easy.

In the previous two weeks, I’ve written about the origins of bankruptcy law. In the first week, I wrote about the formation of debt forgiveness in the ancient world up to the ratification of the Constitution of the United States, and noted that the framers of the Constitution gave Congress the exclusive power to create uniform bankruptcy laws in the United States.

Many people continue to struggle for years with overwhelming debt because of the negative stigma surrounding Bankruptcy. At Kain & Scott our MN Bankruptcy Lawyers speak with clients every day that have one regret - they wish they would have filed sooner!

Last week, I wrote about the historical origins of the bankruptcy law - that the concept of a structured program of debt forgiveness was as old as Moses, and that Julius Caesar had formulated the first bankruptcy law that contained features that continue to this day. At the end of last week’s blog, I referred to Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, that gave the United States Congress the sole authority to make “uniform” bankruptcy law. This week I’ll look at the historical development of bankruptcy law in the United States, from the time of our nation’s founding, to the present.

I know- you think I am a little crazy saying this right? Well, I am a little crazy but I believe the above statement with all my heart. We start with the premise that everyone wants to pay their bills on time- everyone. There are not a lot of universal statements you can make but I believe this is one of them. But then something happens to us. That something is called life. If you have not yet been humbled by life’s events then you are not living- seriously, you are dead.

There is no secret about this, many Minnesotans suffer from overwhelming debt. It can happen to any of us at anytime for any reason. Life is humbling. When debt falls upon you, you stress out about paying it back and the fact that often you have no way of paying it back.

However, at Kain & Scott, when our guests start to think about whether bankruptcy makes sense for them or not, they don’t always worry about the act of filing or hiring a MN Bankruptcy Attorney, although that is a concern too. What they worry about more than anything, is how a bankruptcy will impact their credit long term.

So you have thought about bankruptcy until you are blue in the face and now it’s time to make a phone call- but to who? Do you know how many lawyers in Minnesota do bankruptcies and claim to do bankruptcies? There are a lot of attorneys in Minnesota who do bankruptcy work. The variation between attorneys and law firms is huge. How can you tell if the firm does bankruptcy as part of many offerings or if it is all they do? How can you tell if they are nice, and easy to work with?

My last two blogs have discussed the “worst case” scenario any bankruptcy debtor encounters: the risk of not being granted a discharge, or if the debtor has already been discharged in a case, the revocation of that discharge. Since the reason to file a bankruptcy case is to receive a discharge of a debtor’s liability for debts, revocation or denial of that discharge is a complete frustration of the purpose of the bankruptcy. When a discharge is denied or revoked, then creditors can continue to collect against debtors as though the bankruptcy had never taken place.

There is a law, in effect in all fifty states of the United States, that allows people who have entered into contracts to borrow money or to receive credit to have their contractual obligations discharged - wiped out - without harsh consequences to the borrower. This is the Bankruptcy law, set out in the U. S. Bankruptcy Code, and at first look it seems to be a very unusual public policy. Don’t we want people to honor their debts? What about the financial well-being of lenders if they run the risk of a government-sanctioned method of allowing people who asked the lender for money with a promise of repayment to break that promise? So where does this policy come from? That’s what we’ll look at in this blog.