ct bankruptcy law Article

The Job Of A Consumer Bankruptcy Attorney
By Rolf Joho
Being a consumer attorney is not the easiest job. Having to hunt down people for their bad financial decisions or just having to explain to them what they might or might not have realized about their financial position. For one to understand what a consumer attorney does its important to know what exactly consumer is. This is, basically, when the amount of a person s liabilities exceeds the amount of their assets, fairly valued, also known as insolvency whereby a consumer becomes sequestrated. There are two types of sequestration. Voluntary surrender is whereby the consumer (debtor) himself applies to a court for surrender of his estate and compulsory sequestration is where creditors may approach the court to obtain a sequestration order. In terms of voluntary surrender the consumer attorney informs all the creditors about sequestration. At the end of the day, the purpose of sequestration ultimately should be to the advantage of all creditors. There are however alternatives to bankruptcy, which a consumer attorney will let the consumer know about, namely loans. This includes paying debt with ones other existing credit, which is a short-term means but in the process actually creates more liabilities. Another alternative is to obtain one big loan at a lower interest rate and pay

all creditors. This has the effect that only one creditor is paid and one is likely to score on the interest. One can also arrange with ones creditors a rescheduling of debt payments, which basically affords the bankrupt consumer the option of making smaller installment payments resulting in an extension on the payment period. What is important to note is that filing should be a last resort as the consumer attorney has a long and exhausting procedure to follow in terms of getting a consumer out of bankruptcy? Consumer Attorneys Preventing Overload What exactly is and what is the cause of overload? This is when there are too many consumers being declared bankrupt and how this happens is simple considering how easily available credit is to consumers. Too often, we as consumers are bombarded with credit application forms and when we are not able to pay these debts we are put in a category that labels us as being financially irresponsible. So what are consumer attorneys and, in general, government doing to minimize the chances of consumers falling into this trap that creditors have masterminded to make us think we can buy anything? At the end of the day, I think it all goes back to consumer responsibility and it is our job to refuse these applications or suffer the consequences.