What kind of bankruptcy options?
I am not sure what kind of BK atty to contact if any. I have a great job, make good money, and I have less than K in personal debt outside of my home. I am having to close down a small business. The problem is I have a personal guarantee on the business loan, lease, and equipment for the business. The equipment has enough equity to take care of itself, but it leaves the loan and lease. I owe roughly K on the loan, and have roughly 0K on the lease left. I don’t have any toys or extras, as my family leads a very modest lifestyle, and ultimately have fallen victims to the bad economy. The business is three years old, and we were on pace to have the business debt free within 5 years. We paid everything in advance, and now looking back was a mistake. All options to extend the debt and restructure have been exhausted. We are now going to be on the hook for almost 0K that we will never have means to pay off. I don’t know where to begin. Do I contact a business atty, a personal atty, or should I be thinking of other options. The loan is with an individual, while the lease is with a major leasing company.
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Contact an experienced bankruptcy attorney.
Your situation is not unusual. In fact, many "individual" bankruptcies are actually the result of the failure of small businesses, where the individual has personally guaranteed the business debts. When the business goes under, so does the owner.
Bankruptcy attorneys are very familiar with this situation.
Interview several bankruptcy attorneys in your area (most offer one free appointment). Make certain that the attorney you select is experienced and is not operating a "bankruptcy mill" (a very high volume bankruptcy business in which paralegals actually do most of the work and the - often only - attorney simply has the paperwork pass briefly before his or her eyes so that they can "say" they are working under the direction of an attorney).
The attorney you select should meet with you in person, and NOT in a "group meeting" the first time you meet with him or her. You should ASK how much experience the attorney has with filing bankruptcy cases similar to yours. What you want is a bankruptcy attorney who does file at least an average of one bankruptcy case a week (not a generalist who rarely does bankruptcy work), but NOT someone who cranks out bankruptcies like an assembly line filing dozens of cases each week (no attorney can give the right kind of personal attention to that many cases).