Save Creditor Ordered with airSlate SignNow

Save creditor ordered

hi this is Jay Fleischman for the bankruptcy law network at WWDC law network.com today let's talk about what happens after your bankruptcy the key part of your bankruptcy is the discharge order at the end of a successful chapter 7 or chapter 13 bankruptcy case you receive a piece of paper from the court that indicates that you have been discharged or relieved from personal liability for repayment of your debts now the terms of that discharge vary in a chapter 7 or chapter 13 what is discharged and what isn't discharged and I'm not going to speak about that today what I am going to talk about is what happens if a bill collector contacts you after bankruptcy about a debt that has been discharged or wiped out well under Section 524 of the US Bankruptcy Code in a nutshell without getting into specifics and technicalities it essentially says that after your bankruptcy nobody can take any action against you they cannot continue a lawsuit they cannot begin a lawsuit they cannot continue or begin an income execution they can't freeze your bank accounts they can't call you they can't write you they can't send your letters they can't even send you a birthday card that asks you for repayment of a debt that is locked solid assuming of course that the debt has been discharged and again we're not going to talk about that I'm assuming that the debt has been discharged let's take a credit card bill let's say you've got a Visa card issued by X bank and you listed on your bankruptcy petition and the debt is discharged at the end of let's say a chapter 7 bankruptcy after your chapter 7 bankruptcy X Bank sends you a bill telling you that you need to pay the money well that's illegal that's against the law that's a violation of the US Bankruptcy Code what you can do is go back to your lawyer or if your lawyer doesn't take these sorts of cases and and handle them then find another local lawyer in your area but you need to go back to the attorney and say look X Bank sent me a letter they were wiped out in my bankruptcy what do we do about this now there are two things that your lawyer may do your lawyer may say well let's just send them a letter and hope that they never do it again that's a valid course of action but the more aggressive course of action and the one that I personally prefer is going back to bankruptcy court and suing that creditor for violating the court order when the discharge injunction comes down that is a court order against that creditor saying you can't collect the debt ever again no way no how no way shape or form so if they violate that court order your lawyer can go back into court and your lawyer can sue that creditor on your behalf for breaking the law and violating your rights under the US Bankruptcy Code now what is going to be the end result of that well the Bankruptcy Court has a lot of latitude they can do a lot of things they can order the creditor to pay you damages they can order the creditor to pay your lawyers legal fees and costs they can order the creditor to pay what are called punitive damages which are damages that are assessed as a punishment so that the creditor doesn't do it again it's the courts way of sending a message and it doesn't really relate to your amount of actual damages or your actual time and expense or your lawyers fees but it is actually a punishment and the court can do that too the court can do absolutely anything that it wants the most likely outcome is that the court will order the creditor to pay you some amount of money and the courts going to order the creditor to pay your lawyers fees in connection with bringing that lawsuit so for the most part you're never going to go out of pocket for your lawyers fees depending upon the lawyer they may ask you to give them fifty or hundred or two hundred dollars towards their cost and that really is entirely up to the lawyer different lawyers practice in different ways in my office in New York where I concentrate primarily on suing creditors and suing bill collectors for violations of the Bankruptcy Code and related consumer protection statutes I typically don't ask my client to pay any money upfront with the exception of very limited cases in certain situations but for the most part I don't ask my clients pay any money upfront why is that because I've got the experience and because I know that at the end of the case the creditor is going to pay those fees for me so that's just my local practice my individual officers practice different lawyers do it different ways but the upshot is this if a creditor or bill collector sends you any letters or calls you at all or sues you or begins in income execution a wage garnishment in use one or takes any action against you whatsoever what do you do first step is you call your lawyer and you let them know if your lawyer is willing to help you great work with your lawyer if your lawyer isn't willing to help you or if you didn't have a lawyer for your bankruptcy if you did it yourself come back to us at www.clemson.edu/peach