Bankruptcy: costs of filing bankruptcy with attorney, versus price of filing using Bankruptcy Petition Preparer.
Under the current U.S. Bankruptcy Code or law, the procedure provides essentially Two uncomplicated categories of outside program that a debtor filing for bankruptcy may use – support provided by an attorney, and assistance provided by a non-lawyer. And each of these parties occur under what is known as “Debt Relief Agents or Agencies.” Basically, the non-attorney program provider, who also goes by a name for example Bankruptcy Petition Preparer (BPP), preparers the documents upon which bankruptcy is filed from the Court for bankruptcy processing, even though the attorney (or, far more accurately, the aid he hires that does such work) prepares the exact same set of documents, EXCEPT how the lawyer assistance-provider can supposedly give a debtor “legal advice,” and can appear, on the debtor’s behalf, in the administrative hearing over a bankruptcy case administered by the Court “Trustee” (who is not a Judge, but a court-appointed administrator) that will oversee the bankruptcy case.
Alright, How Do the Services and Fees Compare, Between the Bankruptcy Attorney and those on the Full Program bankruptcy petition preparer?
But what are the Prices of filing Bankruptcy using Bankruptcy attorney? Can debtors afford bankruptcy with no lawyers? And, is there very any real, tangible, legitimate difference for your DEBTOR, both qualitatively and nominally, in between the Full Support bankruptcy service that online-based non-attorney BPP agencies supply debtors, and that that is certainly provided by on the web bankruptcy attorneys to debtors?
One view of it, popular in certain quarters among non-attorney online providers of bankruptcy filing assistance, is simply that there is “no difference,” or “little to none,” in terms from the genuine or qualitative importance of their work merchandise for the debtor. The principal argument is that for each side, the actual, principal jobs that each side does or turns up for the debtor – the relatively simple but time-consuming, paperwork required to become prepared for the debtor’s use in filing for bankruptcy – is more or a smaller amount basically the exact same content and quality for the non-lawyer prepared document, since it is to your lawyer prepared. In every case, the argument goes, the exact same set of documents are turned up by individuals who are seemingly experienced and trained or skilled in document preparation, and, in deed, in quite a few real instances, are 1 as well as the same paralegals who work, or may well have previously worked, to your bankruptcy lawyer’s office or the non-lawyer write-up preparer’s company. Or for both.
But, in any event, inside final analysis, the finished bankruptcy documents that each sides, the lawyer and also the non-lawyer, supply the debtor, are normally the exact same and with the same quality. The Bankruptcy Courts normally accept them, process them, and act on them, just the same! In deed, it’s a specific provision inside Bankruptcy Code that authorizes and sanctions that this sort of folks may well prepare these kinds of documents, and not only lawyers!
The Prices the non-attorney helper charges and what the attorney charges for Bankruptcy work
To a tough pressed and destitute debtor, the vexing, bothersome issue, is what justification, then, is there for ones beneficial disparity that exists inside the costs the bankruptcy lawyers charge for bankruptcy work, relative to what the non-attorney bankruptcy article preparers charge for turning up basically the exact same jobs for ones debtor? Bankruptcy lawyers would, of course, advance all kinds of convoluted arguments and conceive all sorts of fancy justifications in defense of their extremely higher and disproportionate charges. That aspect, however, is a matter for another location and another day for us.
But is it a matter of no bankruptcy attorney, and cheap, low-low price bankruptcy? To your benefit and details of debtors contemplating bankruptcy, just so you’ll at least have an idea, here are the differences in costs between what the non-lawyer assistance-provider charges, and what the attorney assistance-provider charges.
NON-ATTORNEY BANKRUPTCY HELPER’S SERVICES & PRICES
Service: In full Support bankruptcy work, the service in the non-lawyer debt relief agent or agency essentially involves their staff gathering the several documents and needed tons of papers and info together, and orderly arranging them and preparing all the legal forms and paperwork required by the debtor to file for bankruptcy of the bankruptcy court. For your better ones among them (they aren’t at all equal, some are better than others, and very many them are just about worthless!), these agencies use workers who are often very trained and experienced paralegals (they average many many years of jobs and/or training from the industry), and who are skilled at the preparation of legal documents and bankruptcy papers, and are usually well versed and knowledgeable in bankruptcy filing law and procedures. Of the Full Support bankruptcy petition preparers (at least those of them who are from the reliable and better categories), the debtor tends commonly to get a better support and greater attention, and much more one-on-one interaction for his or her case, and the obvious far lower prices.
The Charges. There’s normally a ONE-Time PAYMENT ONLY amount. 1 of this sort of agency’s charge, for example, is $239 in your Chapter 7 bankruptcy; and $359 for Chapter 13. The price charged by these agencies have a tendency strictly to follow an honest, upfront pricing that’s based ONLY on “per project,” instead of on “per hour.” (That’s as opposed to the attorneys’ charges, that are typically based on “per hour” hourly rate).
This techniques that, as soon as a reputable Bankruptcy Petition Preparer (BPP) takes any case from a debtor, you pay the BPP Agency, assuming it’s, say, a Chapter 7 case, just $239, and NOT a penny a lot more on it, ever – no matter how numerous creditors you’ve (whether they are 10 or 20, or 200), or you happen to begin with 10 creditors, but turn up 100 or 200 additional later. Or, you’ll want to file some a lot more papers to get some of one’s secured debts “affirmed” so you may keep, say, your car, etc. YOU JUST PAY THEM NOT A single PENNY MORE. PERIOD! Thus, for most debtors, bankruptcy without having bankruptcy attorney assistance, offers the debtor low-low affordable prices and rates and is the only way to go.
The Time line. For ones credible BPP, it takes an average of roughly 1 to a couple of days to crank out the prepared, virtually completed package of bankruptcy documents for, say, a Chapter 7 case filing (in a case, that is, exactly where the debtor has hastened and substantially provides them the required financial facts and documents required to perform the papers). Being a matter of policy, however, the BPP will preserve off furnishing the papers for the debtor instantly just so that the finishing touches, corrections and appropriate checking can also be produced prior to the debtor gets them. Bankruptcy, file without the need of bankruptcy attorney?
THE BANKRUPTCY ATTORNEYS’ SERVICES & PRICES
Service: What the bankruptcy lawyer (that is, the 1 who is competent and knowledgeable in bankruptcy, as not all attorneys are so equipped) does, is essentially akin to the Full Program bankruptcy sort of work that the non-lawyer assistance-provider provides. Here, this involves the lawyer – or, a lot more accurately, a staff of paralegals the he or she may perhaps have hired to actually do the jobs – gathering the various documents and needed tons of documents and info together, and orderly arranging them, and preparing all of the legal forms and paperwork required to file for the debtor’s bankruptcy from the bankruptcy court. As on the case on the non-attorney Full Assistance paper preparation providers, these workers who directly do the papers (the ones who are the men and women that really do the jobs inside the lawyers’ the lawyers), are usually highly trained and experienced paralegals (average many years of jobs and/or training inside industry) who are skilled at preparation of legal documents and bankruptcy papers, and often, well versed in bankruptcy filing law and procedures.
Furthermore, in terms of quality of service, in the lawyers, inside the ranks from the lawyers who do bankruptcy jobs from the contemporary times, those who file the bulk of the bankruptcy cases look being what one practicing bankruptcy lawyer, Jonathan Ginsburg, the Atlanta Georgia, calls “high volume filers.” These lawyers file 100 to 500 or far more bankruptcy cases per month, using largely paralegals and some younger lawyers to try and do the paperwork, and for one thing, this sort of high volume filers have a status for not offering a lot inside the way of individual attention, but charge somewhat smaller fees relative for the “boutique” bankruptcy lawyers (those who file much more limited quantity of cases) – a “smaller” amount of fees which Attorney Ginsburg admits, however, often still “appear to become as well expensive” for some men and women “even [with] the lower fees and generous terms” that this sort of volume filers think their charges represent.
Lawyers’ Charges: For Chapter 7, there is the “initial” charge of $2,000 – 2,500; and for Chapter 13, the “initial” charge of $4,000 – $4,500. Unlike the BPP’s costs which strictly follow an honest, upfront pricing that is certainly based ONLY on one-time-only “per project” basis, the attorneys’ charges are frequently based on “per hour” hourly rate. (For example, the attorneys’ “per hour” hourly rate charge, was given as $228 (per hour) for their services in 2002, in accordance with a respected independent research study, the 2002 Survey of Law Firm Economics, made by Altman Weil Pensa Publication).
Price of Filing Bankruptcy Utilizing Attorney – Why Debtors Can Better Afford Bankruptcy Without Attorney – bankruptcy and bankruptcy information chapter