How long will it take? The Maple Grove Bankruptcy Attorneys At Kain & Scott, get this question often. We don’t blame you either. Once you have made the decision to file a bankruptcy, get your life back, and protect your family, you want to get on with it and get this done. Scores of other clients feel the same way. Most former clients felt that the longest part of the process is deciding and agonizing over how to resolve an overwhelming debt problem. However, once they made the decision, and what once they got their lives back, they have all found that they had wished they would have filed bankruptcy much sooner than they did. I suppose it’s human nature to anguish over any problem whose resolution is a word most people would rather not hear- the “b” word or bankruptcy. Now maybe there are better words in the English dictionary, but I can think of far worse too.

Filing Bankruptcy can be a very personal and challenging decision because of its legal, moral, emotional and financial dimensions. The bankruptcy process also requires you to organize everything that has to do with your financial life - your debts, assets and income. There’s work that we ask our clients to do to help us prepare a petition and schedules that are accurate and complete to file with the Bankruptcy Court. It can take some time and effort. However, very few clients regret filing bankruptcy - they regret waiting too long! Time and time again my clients tell me that filing was the best decision they’ve ever made. Their bankruptcy case allowed them to put everything behind them and get their life back. But bankruptcy is not for everyone. Before contacting one of the Kain & Scott Bankruptcy Attorneys in Roseville, MN for a free consultation here’s a few questions you will want to ask yourself first:

I am always struck by the amount of courage people have to face a problem. Oh sure, flowers bloom at different times, and we all open up in our own ways. I respect that. Once you make the decision to file a bankruptcy and get your life back, your work is not over. In fact, selecting a Roseville Bankruptcy Attorney to represent you is just as important as the decision to file a bankruptcy. Why? Because to me, you just made one of the most brave decisions in your life and now, you want the job done right, with dignity and yes, with grace too.

Facing the challenges of today’s tough economy can be stressful. Dealing with an income drop, divorce, business failure or medical issue can make it even worse. Any of these things can happen to anyone; if it does, it is very easy to acquire a severe debt problem. In fact, thousands of Minnesotans are struggling with various debt problems keeping them up at night worried about how they are going to make their payments. But it doesn’t have to be this way. If you’re dealing with significant debt and the stress it causes,the Bankruptcy Attorneys in Roseville, MN have the solution for you. 

An accident or severe medical catastrophe can happen in the blink of an eye.  You could hop in your car some sunny day after leaving your work in Maple Grove and all of the sudden here comes someone texting, not paying attention and BOOM! Now, your life is upside down at no fault of your own. The worst part is there’s not a whole lot that you’re guaranteed when it happens except a big bill. Medical expenses are not cheap and unfortunately most of the time they’re acquired unexpectedly and at inconvenient times.

It happens all the time. We receive phone calls from anxious Minnesotans looking at their bills and wondering how in the world am I going to pay these? I am continually amazed at how long good people can hang onto a seemingly hopeless financial situation. It is not that uncommon to see people do it for years, decades even.

When it comes to debt, human nature has a common thread that runs through all of us: we want to pay it. We want to pay all of our monthly bills and yet still have enough left over to eat, keep the lights on, and make the rent/mortgage payment to keep the roof over our heads. Most of us don’t want much beyond this.

Today, most of the Bankruptcies filed in Minnesota are either a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13. Determining which chapter is right for you will depend on your specific financial status including your debts, assets and income. A lot of people have the option to choose between the two but if you have higher than median income for a household your size, you might only be allowed to file a Chapter 13. No matter the case both are excellent options for resolving unsecured debt. However, they are unique in their own way and offer a variety of different advantages. If you have the option to choose between the two it will be important to know the differences so that you can make the most attractive decision for you and your family.

Life is humbling is it not? Who among us starts out in life with the dream of incurring overwhelming debt we cannot pay for? Naturally, none of us do. And yet, it happens to 10,000 plus Minnesotans each year. At Kain & Scott, we have been practicing bankruptcy law since 1972. We have never seen a person yet who says something like- hey, I just got back from a fabulous trip with all my friends, using my credit cards, knowing I was going to file bankruptcy when I returned.

Wouldn’t it be nice to get rid of all your credit card debt and start fresh again? Could you imagine the peace of mind you would have knowing that you could wipe your credit cards clean and not have to worry about paying them back? If you’re like most Minnesotans it’s pretty easy to rack up large amounts of debt on your credit cards quickly especially if something unexpected happens. Let’s face it, you never know if something unexpected is going to happen that might cost you several hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Let’s say your vehicle breaks down, you get sick or are injured in an accident, your business becomes unprofitable or you maybe you get laid off from work. The bottom line is that these types of things can happen to anyone and they happen all the time.

I was born near the tranquil backwaters of the Mississippi river in a small Minnesota town, called Foley, Minnesota. I was one of 9 children brought up in a home that was built in 1901 using square headed nails! My dad was a factory worker and my mom was a stay home mom and entrepreneur (she babysat up to five more kids!). We grew up poor but rich with family values and small hometown spirit. I knew growing up we were poor but you never really felt that way. It’s hard to feel poor with a family of 11 growing up in a small town- living a simple lifestyle. Heck, everyone around us was poor too so we didn’t know any better anyway.

I often tell clients that banks don’t care if you pay your creditors. What? How can that be? I thought credit scores and paying your creditors was the most important thing to banks when they look at the decision to either lend you money or not. Turns out, that is not always true. Let’s look at a case study to illustrate the point.

It’s no surprise that VISA is a wordwide powerhouse in the financial industry but I bet you would be shocked to know how big they really are! VISA Inc. started their 2016 fiscal year off with over a whopping 857 million credit cards issued worldwide! That’s enough credit cards to wrap around the world twice! To top it off they ended their year in 2015 with over 14 billion dollars in gross profit and nearly 7 billion of that net profit! Unbelievable. That’s right I said BILLION. With that net profit, half of every BILLION dollars VISA sees, after every expense is paid, gets deposited directly into the bank account!

Article I, section 8, clause 4 of the United States Constitution states that . . . ”The Congress shall have the power to establish . . . uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States . . . ” And so it is that the framers of the Constitution envisioned that the people of the United States would have the right to File Bankruptcy in the United States and that Congress will have the power to establish uniform bankruptcy laws throughout the United States. When you hear of individuals having a Constitutional right to file a bankruptcy, that is a bit of a misnomer. Technically, the US Constitution gives the Congress the power to give you the right it does not give you the right to file bankruptcy directly in the Constitution.

Have you ever had the experience of buying a piece of furniture that was in a box, not yet assembled? Oh how I hate and I mean HATE assembling furniture. You take everything out of the box, lay it on the floor, and think well this doesn’t look that complicated. So, without further ado, you start screwing this together, and that piece with this piece and things are going fairly well. And then it happens, you are 2/3 finished when a piece of the furniture remains and the furniture just doesn’t quite look right- right?

Declaring Chapter 7 Bankruptcy can be intimidating and stressful especially if you don’t know exactly how the Bankruptcy Process works. Unfortunately, the pressures of society can make you feel like a failure often leaving you down in the dumps. As such, you worry about what your life is going to be like after you file, what’s going to happen to your credit score, your house, the car you drive and most importantly the future of you and your family. However, remember bankruptcy can happen to anyone and you’re not alone! There are plenty of advantages of hiring a Bankruptcy Attorney to help you get your life back!

Suffering from overwhelming debt is crushing and draining physically and mentally. When the weight of debt is upon your shoulders you may feel like you are the only one experiencing overwhelming debt. Trust us, you are not alone. Life can be very humbling. Have you ever gone to a medical clinic for an infection? Maybe the infection was in an embarrassing location on your body? I doubt highly the medical professionals find your infection or it’s location interesting at all. In fact, their job is to hear about your problem, see the problem, diagnose the problem, and then solve the problem. This is what to expect when you file wIth our maple grove bankruptcy attorneys.