Working With a Bankruptcy Attorney

The word bankruptcy derives from the composite Latin words bancus and ruptus, specifically meaning a broken (ruptus) bench (bancus). In ancient Roman times, bankers put up benches in the market place from whence they would distribute loans and effectuate financial transactions. If a banker became insolvent, his bench was shattered as a sign that he was no longer able to secure debts.

There were many different ancient approaches to bankruptcy. Both Ancient Israel and Greece had codes insolvency and debt forgiveness, forgiveness following 5 years in Greece and 7 years in Israel. During that time, creditors might have to sell themselves as slaves to pay the debt. In actuality there were exceptions to the rule in both countries, and being a debt slave was not so easy, even if he was more than just an ordinary slaves.

In other countries, the treatment of debtors was even worse. In the rule book of Gengus Khan, a man who fell into debt three times was sentenced to death. From Russia come rumors of Cossaks who would beat up and on occasion beat to death peasants who couldn't pay their debts.

Today, modern civilization offers an alternative to historical bankruptcy. People who become insolvent have the opportunity to pursue debt restructuring, bankruptcy education to help debtors rearrange their debts and continue their financial life. In the United States, the power to carry out laws of bankruptcy is found in Article 1, Section 8, Clause 4, and the Bankruptcy Code, is located at Title 11 of the United States Code.

Much of the focus of American debt law is 1) to enable debtors to recover as much as possible and 2) to reeducate the debtor so that he won't go into debt again after he comes out of bankruptcy. The education process in bankruptcy is at least three fold.

The first part of the education comes from the debtors interaction with the bankruptcy lawyer. A bankrupcty attorney spends his whole legal life in the court systems and appears before Judges who interpret and in many cases create current thought about bankruptcy. During initial meetings with the client, the bankruptcy lawyer will help the client to describe the financial mess he has entered into, in an orderly fashion. His morass of debts will be reworded into a detailed description of assets,debts, including liens on property and back taxes, current monthly income, and expenses. The client will be asked to summarize how he came to be in debt.

If the debtor decides to pursue the process further, he must take a bankruptcy counseling course given by licensed professionals. During this course he will be taught techniques of debt management, and he will decide if he can get himself out of debt with the help of these options, and thus avoid bankruptcy, or if he feels the need to continue with bankruptcy .

If he decides to proceed with bankruptcy, he will have to take a course on bankrupcty management. This course will provide him the information he needs to proceed with the bankruptcy and to stay out of debt once he returns from bankruptcy.

Over the months of his bankruptcy, the bankruptcy lawyer, the courts, the debtor, and the creditor will keep in touch in and out of court, and in keeping with the bankruptcy laws, the debts will be reorganized and settled to the greatest extent possible, and a certain percentage will be forgiven. When the debtor comes out of bankruptcy, he will be allowed to continue his business, with whatever credit constraints the court concludes are appropriate