File Personal Bankruptcy

Do it yourself bankruptcy is for people who might have the confidence to file personal bankruptcy by themselves, without the help they could expect to get from a qualified bankruptcy attorney. The decision whether or not to go for a “do it yourself bankruptcy” very much depends on your unique personal circumstances. You should be in a position to analyze your situation carefully and arrive at a comfortable decision to take the process forward all by yourself, rather than approach a bankruptcy attorney who is in the business of bankruptcy filing.

As it has been mentioned, the decision to subscribe to a “do it yourself bankruptcy” is very much a subjective one, which you need to be comfortable with after careful consideration of all alternatives available before bankruptcy filing. If you do find it a good option to indulge in a “do it yourself bankruptcy”, you should perhaps start off with a comprehensive listing of your assets and liabilities and an analysis of where you stand in terms of your debts. If you are a small business owner who has seen his ship run into troubled waters, you would have to first make sure you pay off your employees who have been with you in the troubled times. Once your own employees are dealt with properly and are discharged of their responsibilities, the next in line to follow should be all your external creditors.

If you are an individual who wants to claim bankruptcy and not an entrepreneur, you would still have to take this step of taking stock of your creditors as the initial step in the right direction towards clearing off your debts. To start off, you may disconnect yourself from the whole list of utilities and services that you may have been using, discontinuing their services and paying off all that you owe them. This way, you would deal with the monthly costs that are repetitive in nature, hence deal with the costs that are immediately relevant. If you have taken any equipment on rent from any of the equipment service providers, you may surrender the equipment back to them and get it duly certified that there is nothing that you owe these companies.

With no obligation to any service provider, with all employees having been paid off and with all rental equipment having been returned, the next vital step in your “do it yourself bankruptcy” process is to make a list of assets that you may have for sale. Make an exhaustive list of objects that you have possession of and mark those that you could do without and ones that would fetch you the maximum sale value. Get in touch with an auction house and announce a sale of your assets through the auctioneer. Once you have managed to offload your assets at a reasonable price, pay off the auctioneer and then handle the creditors with the amounts that you have realized off your assets.

Before you indulge in a “Do it yourself bankruptcy”, you need to note that your ability to take decisions, which is among the most important things in a “Do it yourself bankruptcy”, would be severely hampered in case what you run is not a one-man show kind of business but a corporate set-up that has a host of partners, shareholders or directors. In such cases, you would have to act in consultation with people who matter in your business before claiming bankruptcy.

Sometimes, it may so happen that your assets might just not be good enough to meet your liabilities. If you have accumulated so much of debts that you would not be able to pay them off even with liquidation of your assets, you would have to start off with the exercise of getting in touch with each of your creditors and renegotiating terms with them in your favor. As you may appreciate, this is a tough ask as every person is different and you would have to hold individual negotiations with creditors – and the creditors would have to agree to the terms proposed by you for renegotiating your debts. If that is something that you cannot succeed in, then, a “do it yourself bankruptcy” may not be the best option for you and you would be better off approaching a qualified bankruptcy attorney to file personal bankruptcy.

One other aspect that you need to consider in a “Do it yourself bankruptcy” is the length of time that you have been in distress, if you have not been defaulting your creditors for an equal period of time. The amount of debts whose payments you are lagging in, the asset backings that you have managed to maintain and the support that you could expect, both psychological and financial, from your close circle, are aspects that you would have to consider before you decide on taking the “Do it yourself bankruptcy” course. If you are not strong in assets or if you would rather not go it alone in the process of facing your creditors and renegotiating terms with them, you may decide in favor of claiming bankruptcy under Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Consult a qualified bankruptcy attorney for guidance.