2009 December Archive

Do you really need the services of a New Jersey bankruptcy attorney, or can you resolve your personal financial crisis on your own? Obviously, different debtors have different needs. But before you dismiss the idea of retaining an attorney, our seventh post in the 10 Reasons to Hire a New Jersey Bankruptcy Attorney blog series will help you consider the downsides of not seeking assistance from a bankruptcy attorney. For instance:

1. Ruined credit rating and FICO score – Individuals who fail to take effective action in a timely manner can wind up with abysmally low FICO scores and ruined credit ratings. Once you are unable to get credit, your financial leverage will be severely limited. For instance, you may not be able to find money to buy a house, lease a car, or purchase a key asset for your business. Similarly, you may not be able to get a credit card. Moreover, once you get into a bad credit situation, it can be very difficult to climb your way out. Credit repair can be a time intensive, fraught, and aggravating process.
2. Creditor harassment – Ignoring your mounting debts can ‘feel good’ in the short term; but if you ‘go numb’ to your obligations to creditors, chances are, your creditors won’t return the favor. Harassing letters, phone calls, and other kinds of contact can scare you and your family, create needless aggravation and anxiety, and can actually be precursors to lawsuits or other kinds of legal action. When you retain a bankruptcy NJ lawyer, on the other hand, you can end creditor harassment and begin down the road to financial recovery.
3. Garnishments and losses of services – If you persist in ignoring your debts and putting off retaining a NJ bankruptcy lawyer, you can suffer an array of consequences, including, but not limited to: garnishment of your wages; utility shutdown; repossession of your car or other assets; eviction; foreclosure; and, a bank account levy.
4. Anxiety, stress, and depression – The longer you delay attending to your debt situation, the more the uncertainty may annoy you, cause problems with relationships, force you to overwork, and create psychological problems. For instance, higher levels of stress and anxiety can increase cortisol levels in the body, which can result in a predisposition for more severe illnesses. So there is a very real risk that putting off dealing with your debts could physically impact your health.
5. You will likely have to get a lawyer anyway – If you delay retaining a competent attorney, chances are high that your debt problems won’t go away and that, in fact, they will snowball. Thus, you will be forced to retain an attorney after all – but now you will be saddled with even bigger problems.

To tackle your financial problems straight on and get sound, practical advice for moving forward, connect with the Law Offices of Robert Manchel today at 866-503-5655.

Please refer to our next post to learn what potential complications are likely to arise when dealing with bankruptcy and how to best handle such issues.

As the sixth post in our 10 Reasons to Hire a New Jersey Bankruptcy Attorney blog series, we will present how an experienced, knowledgeable, and compassionate New Jersey bankruptcy attorney can provide strategic guidance, not just to help you and your family get out of debt, but also to help you channel energies in a more constructive way. Search for an attorney with these attributes:

1. Credentialed – Hucksters and scam artists regularly take advantage of desperate debtors. No one wants to get involved with a scam artist. But it can often be difficult to tell these people apart from genuinely experienced agents. Remember: just because someone has good credentials doesn’t mean that he or she can deliver. However, if a debt relief agent lacks good credentials, that should be a red flag.
2. Specialized – Many NJ bankruptcy lawyers are “jacks of all trade, masters of none.” In other words, they tackle all kinds of cases, including consumer bankruptcy, white collar crime, fraud, criminal defense, and so forth. This lack of specialization can hurt you. After all, if you’re not constantly paying attention to the evolution of bankruptcy NJ law, you could miss important subtleties that could help your clients.
3. Accessible – A proactive New Jersey Bankruptcy lawyer should take your calls and emails and provide attentive service. Unfortunately, many attorneys and other debt relief professionals fail to listen effectively to the needs of debtors and thus create needless stresses and anxiety.
4. Knowledgeable – New Jersey bankruptcy law is always changing. The federal bankruptcy code and federal rules of bankruptcy procedure likewise evolve at a rapid clip. Ideally, you want an attorney who keeps pace with changes in the field.
5. Experienced – A limited number of judges, trustees, and agents of the court, handle the majority of New Jersey bankruptcy cases. Ideally, you want to retain a lawyer who has good relationships with these people and who knows how to negotiate with them effectively on behalf of clients.
6. Proven – A lawyer may be a financial wizard and a keen student of the law, but if he or she hasn’t demonstrated practical results over many years, this should give you pause. After all, you don’t want to be a test case. You want to work with someone who has demonstrated success time and again in cases like yours.

To explore the philosophy, process, and credentials of the attorney Robert Manchel, please browse his site or dial his hotline now at 866-503-5655.

Please refer to our next post to find out how failing to hire a NJ bankruptcy lawyer can lead to problems.

To better understand how you can make the most out of your NJ bankruptcy options, the fifth post in our 10 Reasons to Hire a New Jersey Bankruptcy Attorney blog series will address this issue. The experienced New Jersey bankruptcy attorneys here at the Law Offices of Robert Manchel can help you plan a strategic, ethical, organized plan of action to get your finances under control, wrangle your debts, stop creditors from harassing you, and protect your assets. Mr. Manchel has been working hard on behalf of New Jersey debtors since 1992, and he exclusively handles bankruptcy and foreclosure cases. Mr. Manchel has demonstrated success time and again for his clients, and he is happy to provide references and/or testimonials upon request. You can also call the offices at 1-866-503-5655 any time to discuss your circumstances and get a competent and no obligation consultation.

What can an attorney like Mr. Manchel do to improve your chances of good outcome? Here is a short list:

• Stop the garnishing of wages
• Get utilities turned back on
• End creditor harassment
• Reduce anxiety about money and about your future
• Develop a plausible and reasonable battle plan to get you and your family back to financial health
• Help get your New Jersey driver’s license back
• Get many of your most pressing debts excused or eliminated
• Eliminate certain debts because they have expired due to statue of limitations
• Protect key assets like your home, car, or boat
• Get certain pieces of property exempted, such as real estate
• Put you and your family on the road to financial rehabilitation by connecting you with competent counselors, financial planners and independent consumer debt organizations
• Rearrange child support obligations, thus reducing the amount of money you have to pay in the short term
• Eliminate income taxes and other taxes under certain special cases
• Learn the basics of debt management, budgeting, and prudent planning so you don’t wind up repeating mistakes of the past

Mr. Manchel works closely with all clients and provides easy accessibility. He believes passionately that informed, educated and respected clients do better in the long term, and he and his associates go the extra mile to provide information and strategies to ensure long term success.

Please read our next post to grasp how experience and knowledge will benefit you with your bankruptcy filing endeavors.

In the forth post of our 10 Reasons to Hire a New Jersey Bankruptcy Attorney blog series, we will discuss how to avoid common mistakes when filing for bankruptcy in New Jersey.

If your finances are a mess and you are faced with foreclosure, you may be hesitant to retain a New Jersey Bankruptcy attorney to help you strategize and assess your options simply out of reluctance to take on yet another financial obligation. While it’s generally prudent to avoid taking on obligations when you’re in debt, it can be a significant mistake to fail to consult, in a timely manner, with a NJ Bankruptcy lawyer. Here’s why:

1. You may make unrealistic promises to creditors – As the adage goes, “Pride cometh before the fall.” If you have spent your life working hard, saving, and generally being financially prudent, you may avoid filing for bankruptcy NJ out of fear that doing so might represent a lowering of your standards. Unfortunately, when you attempt to negotiate directly with creditors, you can get yourself in hot water. By making unrealistic promises or by behaving unnecessarily antagonistically towards creditors, you can complicate your relationships with them, legal and otherwise.
2. You could file for the wrong bankruptcy – New Jersey bankruptcy law allows petitioners to file for various kinds of relief, including chapter 7, chapter 11, and chapter 13. In addition, some individuals may qualify for reorganization that falls short of bankruptcy – such as credit counseling. The differences among these various kinds of relief can be subtle. You can’t make a keen assessment about what kind of relief is best just by reading about your options on the internet. Only a battle-tested, veteran New Jersey bankruptcy lawyer can really help you make the best choice – and he or she can do so only after deeply investigating the state of your assets, debts, financials, hopes, and anxieties. If you file for the wrong kind of bankruptcy, you could potentially lose major assets that you could otherwise protect – such as a car or house.
3. Overworking to make up the difference – As another old adage goes, “If you are in a hole, stop digging.” Often, individuals who are in debt may take on second or even third jobs to try to pay the bills and keep everything in balance. This may be a plausible strategy for the short term, but working yourself to the bone is almost never a successful strategy for the long term. Unless and until you work with an attorney who can help you understand your legal options and plan for a reasonable future, you may find yourself running hard on the treadmill and getting nowhere.
4. Risk of winding up with bad counsel – If you’re desperate to deal with your debt or to save your home, you might be surprised at how many different organizations and individuals will show up to “help you” get out of debt and reorganize your finances. While some of these individuals and institutions no doubt provide good services, bad advisors abound. If you rely on unethical, naïve, or incompetent advisors, you could wind up in much more complicated and frustrating financial straits.
5. Could accidentally perpetrate fraud – Here is a final adage to consider: “desperate times call for desperate measures.” This adage, perhaps, is rather inappropriate. In fact, when you are under serious financial pressures, taking desperate action can often lead to trouble. If you fail to disclose all of your assets on a bankruptcy filing form, for instance, or if you intentionally downplay your debts in the hopes that the court “won’t notice,” you could be severely penalized. In fact, under certain situations, you can even be arrested for white collar crime.

To avoid making completely unnecessary mistakes, consider retaining the services of a confident, experienced, and highly reputable New Jersey bankruptcy attorney, such as Robert Manchel. Call the Law Offices of Robert Manchel now at 866-503-5655 for good, reliable, and compassionate assistance with your financial problems. Unlike other attorneys who practice bankruptcy NJ law, Mr. Manchel focuses exclusively on bankruptcy and foreclosure resolution, and he holds accreditation from the American Bar Association and the American Board of Certification.

To find out how you can make the most out of your New Jersey bankruptcy options, please read our next post.

As the third post in our 10 Reasons to Hire a New Jersey Bankruptcy Attorney blog series, the focus will be on how to get the most out of the effectiveness of your New Jersey bankruptcy filing.

First of all, a savvy New Jersey bankruptcy lawyer can maximize the benefits you get out of your bankruptcy NJ filing. With enhanced efficiency, you can protect more of your assets, excuse more of your debts, and move past your bankruptcy faster and more effectively. Moreover, you will be better prepared to build a sustainable financial future and to avoid subsequent NJ bankruptcies. Here are few of the benefits of improved efficiency:

1. Your attorney (and/or his or her staff) can do paperwork for you – The paperwork and petitions that a debtor must file – even for the simplest New Jersey bankruptcy cases – can be overwhelming. Without an attorney helping you, you can easily get snowed under by these technical forms. Moreover, if you make mistakes – for instance, leave out certain assets or debts or provide inaccurate numbers – these inaccuracies can haunt you later and complicate your filing.
2. Maximize your exemptions – New Jersey bankruptcy laws are always changing. Rules governing what assets can be exempt are also constantly shifting. Only an experienced and up to speed attorney can advise you properly about your best strategy for protecting as many of your assets as possible. Believe it or not, subtle changes in how you declare your property, for instance, can radically alter the outcome of your filing. You may be able to protect a car, a house, or other major asset. Moreover, even small ‘victories’ in terms of maximizing your exemptions can pay dividends that can easily compensate you for your legal fees and then some.
3. Your time equals money – In any financial transaction, you should strive for cost efficiency. You must invest something – be it money, time, or energy – into any given project. You also should expect some return from that investment. When you hire an attorney, he or she can tackle a variety of processes that would likely eat up tremendous amounts of your time. If, for instance, you earn fifteen dollars an hour doing your job and you waste 100 hours filling out NJ bankruptcy forms (probably ineffectively), that’s $1,500 dollars in potential income you have lost. On the other hand, if you essentially “outsource” that work to a respected New Jersey bankruptcy attorney, you can use that time to earn more money or otherwise get your finances/ life in order.
4. Prioritizing equals money – A New Jersey bankruptcy attorney can help you prioritize your next actions, so that you attend to the important aspects of your filing when they need to be attended to. For instance, you won’t waste time attending to a particular creditor while ignoring key filing deadlines. An experienced attorney can keep you on the straight and narrow and make sure that you follow a time-tested strategy for getting your finances under control.
5. Fair and easy legal fees save you money – Reasonable legal fees help you optimize your reorganization. Thus, you need not worry about yet another expense on top of all your other expenses.

To learn more about the reputable and respected attorneys here at the Law Offices of Robert Manchel, dial 1-866-503-5655 right now. Attorney Manchel is certified by the American Board of Certification as a consumer law New Jersey bankruptcy attorney. He has been helping clients in New Jersey discover relief via bankruptcy since 1992.

Please read our next post to find out how you can prevent mistakes from happening when filing for a New Jersey bankruptcy.

In the second post of our 10 Reasons to Hire a New Jersey Bankruptcy Attorney series, we will discuss how retaining an experienced NJ bankruptcy lawyer can help in creating a buffer between you and other parties.

• Creditors, trustees, agents of the US trustee office, agents of the court and so forth will all crave some contact with you as you proceed through your bankruptcy filing. Without a veteran New Jersey bankruptcy attorney in your corner to finesse requests for information, hold off creditors, and interface with trustees and other agents, you could experience severe unwanted stresses.
• A solid NJ bankruptcy lawyer can force creditors to play fair. According to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, creditors cannot harass debtors inappropriately – and once you retain a lawyer, creditors must go through him or her.
• A lawyer can also attend meetings on your behalf, act as your liaison to the court, and provide trustworthy moment-to-moment guidance to help you prioritize how to spend your time, money, and energy to get out of debt.
• The bankruptcy NJ process can get complicated, even during seemingly simple filings. If you make inappropriate or inaccurate comments to the court, promises to creditors, or statements on your paperwork, these mistakes could compromise your options significantly. A good attorney can “protect you from yourself” by vetting your statements and by advising you about what not to do and who not to hire to help you reorganize your finances and reestablish your credit.

If you need help dealing with trustees, agents of the court, annoying creditors, or other individuals or institutions, contact the Law Offices of Robert Manchel, toll free, today at 1-866-503-5655. Attorney Manchel is a certified consumer law bankruptcy attorney, and his practice is limited to foreclosure resolution and bankruptcy. Mr. Manchel has a reputation for strong ethics, accessibility to clients, reasonable fees, and deep expertise in NJ bankruptcy law.

To learn how to get the most out of the effectiveness of your New Jersey bankruptcy filing, please refer to our next post.

To begin our Ten Part Blog Series discussing the 10 Reasons to Hire a New Jersey Bankruptcy Attorney, we will address how you can go about protecting yourself from uncertainty and unknowns.

Should you hire a New Jersey bankruptcy attorney to help you and your family get out of debt, avoid foreclosure, and deal with other loose ends? Perhaps. After all, unless you are an experienced NJ bankruptcy attorney yourself, you likely face a variety of unfamiliar issues:

1. NJ bankruptcy law changes – Unless you invest time and energy to keep up with the latest and most critical changes to New Jersey bankruptcy law, you could accidentally flounder your attempts to file correctly. Not all nuances in bankruptcy law will be applicable to your situation. But if you fail to notice certain subtle points of law, your filing could run into serious trouble.
2. Unknowns lead to anxiety and fear – Social psychologists have demonstrated time and again that uncertainty creates fear, anxiety and even depression in individuals. The less you know about your rights, options, and obligations, the more anxiety you are likely to feel. If you hire an experienced New Jersey bankruptcy attorney (like Robert Manchel of the Law Offices of Robert Manchel), you will likely substantially reduce feelings of regret, remorse, and anxiety about the future, and so forth.
3. If you don’t know what you are doing, you could end up in the wrong hands – Bad advice about New Jersey bankruptcy abounds. If you are in desperate financial straits, you could easily make bad decisions that could land you even in hotter water and potentially compromise your options. Scam artists abound, as do bad, incompetent, and even unethical attorneys. Retaining a trustworthy New Jersey bankruptcy attorney can protect you against getting involved with these hucksters.
4. New Jersey bankruptcy law is impossible to learn ‘on the fly’ – Even if you are an experienced lawyer in some other domain, it can take years, if not decades, to develop finesse with respect to New Jersey’s bankruptcy laws. It can be tricky to figure out what kinds of debts are dischargeable and what aren’t. Also, your creditors must follow certain rules of protocol mandated by both federal and state laws. If you don’t know precisely what those rules are, you can have a difficult time stopping creditor harassment.

To eliminate uncertainty and to wrangle the unknowns that are keeping you up at night, contact the experienced New Jersey bankruptcy attorneys of the Law Offices of Robert Manchel. As a Camden County native and a practicing bankruptcy and foreclosure attorney for nearly two decades, Mr. Manchel provides all clients with experience, expertise, accessibility, and reasonable fees. Please dial 1-866-503-5655 for more information.

Please refer to our next post to learn how you can establish a buffer between you and other parties when handling bankruptcy matters.

For anyone who is facing the challenge of debt, potential foreclosure, or other matters relating to bankruptcy in New Jersey, there are many issues of concern that need to be addressed. In considering how to go about resolving your bankruptcy or foreclosure, you may also want to take into account the potential benefits a New Jersey bankruptcy attorney can offer.

In a Ten Part Blog Series, we will be discussing several issues to help you through your bankruptcy as well as providing ten reasons to hire a New Jersey bankruptcy attorney. These reasons, and blog series titles, are as follows:

1. Protect Yourself from Uncertainty and Unknowns
2. Create a Buffer between You and Other Parties
3. Maximize Efficiency
4. Avoid Mistakes
5. Take Best Advantage of Your Bankruptcy Options
6. Experience and Knowledge Equals Power
7. Failing to Hire a New Jersey Bankruptcy Attorney Can Lead To Problems
8. Complications Inevitably Arise
9. Minimal Upfront Investment Required
10. Guidance to Choose the Right Bankruptcy to File

Please refer to our next blog post, “Protect Yourself from Uncertainty and Unknowns”, for the beginning of our series on 10 Reasons to Hire a New Jersey Bankruptcy Attorney.

Welcome to The New Jersey Bankruptcy Lawyer Blog! The attorneys at The Law Offices of Robert Manchel have devoted their practice to the areas of bankruptcy and mortgage foreclosure resolution. Our focus on this particular arena of law has allowed us to become knowledgeable, proficient, and specially qualified to deal with all matters relating to bankruptcy. We have created this blog as an informational resource for our readers.

For more information on bankruptcy related topics, please visit our website at www.bankruptcylawyer-nj.com. It is an excellent source for bankruptcy related information. If you are considering filing for bankruptcy, call us today at 866.503.5655 to find out how NJ bankruptcy lawyer Robert Manchel can help you get control of your finances.

Robert Manchel is Board certified as a consumer law bankruptcy attorney, by the American Board of Certification, which is accredited by the American Bar Association. Board Certification is highly regarded by bankruptcy practioners. Board Certification requires rigorous standards relating to experience, peer review, continuing legal education, sophisticated knowledge of bankruptcy law and integrity. The bankruptcy reform law specifically recognizes and acknowledges the credibility of the certification.