CHAPTER #6 What Do I Lose if I File Bankruptcy?

The answer is, you won’t usually “lose” your vehicle, home, pension or other assets, if your lawyer is Geraci Law. Good luck if you pick a no name lawyer who puts you in Chapter 7 when you should be in 13, or files a “cheap 7” and you lose a $6,000 tax refund. Or you pick an inexperienced Chapter 13 lawyer who makes your payment higher than it should be, but charges you the same fee that Geraci Law would have charged.

Why is the answer “you lose if you pick a no-name lawyer”? In Chapter 7, each state says that certain assets, such as a portion of the value of your home, and pensions, cannot be taken by creditors. In Chapter 13, the amount you pay to unsecured creditors is determined either by your budget, or the amount creditors would receive in a Chapter 7.

Geraci Law has done studies on how much a “cheapo” lawyer really costs when they lose your tax refund or other assets in a “cheapo” Chapter 7. In Illinois and Indiana, the figure is that the cheapo lawyers give away $2,000-6,000 in assets in enough cases to make it chancy to go to them. If they charge you $1200 plus court costs, but you have to pay $4000 to a Chapter 7 trustee, you paid $5200 for your Chapter 7. Some deal. Like buying a used car at 28% interest.

In Rockford, Illinois, for instance, in once recent year, “cheapo” solo lawyers gave almost $1 million of Chapter 7 clients’ money to the creditors, while the number for Geraci Law was almost nothing in comparison, despite the fact that Geraci Law did almost 1 out of every 5 Rockford bankruptcies. The numbers are even greater in Indiana: the cheaper the fee the more their clients paid to creditors.

A properly planned Chapter 7 or 13 can save you a lot. When you are paying the same, get the name, Geraci Law, and you may find yourself paying a lot less in the long run. Why? Because a properly planned Chapter 7 or 13 protects your assets from being seized by the Chapter 7 trustee and given to the creditors. This is not to say that Geraci Law clients never have to turn over something unexpectedly. But we avoid it, and it rarely happens. If you tell us the truth, and disclose all your income and assets, we know how to protect them by filing either Chapter 7 or 13, or if we cannot protect them, to tell you in advance so you can decide what to do.

You should lose no assets in filing Chapter 7 or 13. That is the Geraci Law plan for you. We can’t guarantee it, but we have never lost a house or had a vehicle or home furnishings or pension taken. Never. Ask us to show you our list of what happens when you go to a “cheapo”, it will make you sick.