The first meeting with a bankruptcy prospect is the best and hardest work I do. It’s probably the most important as well. I use it to figure out what the issues in the case are, what the client’s goals are, and to convey what I will need from the client to produce a successful outcome. […]
How To Get More Than Your Share Of The Bankruptcy Business
I have a theory about growing your bankruptcy practice: as long as you take on only the most straightforward cases, growing your practice becomes more a matter of marketing than lawyering. You and every bankruptcy lawyer around you are competing for the same cases: the simple, the certain, the routine cases with fees tightly packed […]
How QuickBooks Nearly Scuttled A Bankruptcy Case
I learned something new last week and it took the ***!#### means test to teach it to me. The case involved a couple where the non filing wife ran an interior decorating business. The income and expense information we were presented with showed “lots” of money flowing through the business. Subtract the given business expenses […]
What are you waiting for? The bankruptcy filing timeline
What bankruptcy timelines really matter? The internet is awash with debtors reporting that their attorney has told them they have to wait to file. They’ve reportedly been told to wait 90 days or 6 months, or ?? from some event to avoid something, they’re never quite sure what. In the layman’s understanding, 90 days is […]
Why listening is a bankruptcy lawyer’s superpower
The initial meeting with a prospective bankruptcy client is the most important work I do as a bankruptcy lawyer. It’s also the hardest. The results of that meeting lay the groundwork for the entirety of the case. The challenge is establishing rapport with an utter stranger, who’s in distress, and persuading them to spill all […]
Delay Division of Community Property At Peril of Bankruptcy
Put off the division of community property in a marital dissolution at your peril. Hesitate and you risk all of the community property being swept up in a bankruptcy by the other spouse. And you’ll have little control where community property assets fall. Community property is all in The threat begins with the bankruptcy law […]
How to avoid bankruptcy blunders
Avoiding bankruptcy malpractice is a learned skill and necessary for professional survival. If word of mouth from happy clients is the world’s best advertising for a bankruptcy lawyer, loud complaints from unhappy clients in the internet age is professional poison. So, for both client and lawyer future wellbeing, it’s worth considering how to avoid bankruptcy […]
