Do I Need a Bankruptcy Lawyer Just to Get Information About Filing?

Many Americans these days are facing financial difficulties with some of them to the extreme of needing to file for bankruptcy. Before making the decision about filing for bankruptcy most people would like to learn a little bit about it and fly under the radar. Even though filing bankruptcy has lost its taboo over the last couple years, it is still something that most people don't want to talk about. So that leads to the question, how do you learn about filing for bankruptcy if you're afraid to ask anyone. The easiest and the best way to get information is to consult a bankruptcy lawyer to discuss your financial situation and ask questions that are plaguing you. That's the easiest way, but for most people it's a last resort to make that call. With the growth of the Internet, most individuals search the web and try and get the answers that are close to their situation. The problem with this is, if you don't know what you're looking for, many times the information you gather is either dated or outright wrong.

First of all, the normal Joe should stay away from blog sites to look for information on a bankruptcy filing. While, blog sites are very informative and entertaining, they are very opinionated. Another reason to be careful of blog sites is that different states handle a bankruptcy filing in different ways and usually the poster doesn't identify the state they are writing from. This could make all the difference in the world if someone is talking about a homestead exemption in the state they reside offers very generous bankruptcy exemption laws, only to find out that this does not apply to your particular situation. A lot of the information that is written online is from a bankruptcy lawyer. You need to just be careful where the bankruptcy lawyer practices. That's why it's advisable to use the bankruptcy court website for general information where even the bankruptcy forms are downloadable for your convenience. There are many other good legal sites with large amounts of information about filing for bankruptcy. It's important to make sure that the site is regularly maintained and the information is current as the bankruptcy laws are constantly changing.


This takes me back to my original point of how much easier it is to consult a bankruptcy attorney in your area about your particular situation. If you're dead set on using the Internet for information, it would be a good idea to gather as much information as possible, write down some questions that are vague for your situation and call the bankruptcy lawyer to make an appointment and get answers for all those plaguing bankruptcy questions. This is a hybrid method of getting the best of both worlds, a cheap legal education and getting schooled by a bankruptcy lawyer. By the end of this exercise, a person would have a good idea on which direction they should move in the future.