People ask me all the time, how did you pick Bankruptcy Law as the basis of your law practice. It seems like it would be depressing they go on to say. I don’t see it that way. I see the practice of Bankruptcy Law as uplifting. We are helping people that have had a financial set back, usually due to some major life event, to get back on their feet and get a fresh start.
It’s kind of funny, but most of my client’s initially come in kicking and screaming, because of all the negative (and mostly false) things they have heard about bankruptcy. They look at a meeting with me, as a sort of meeting with the financial grim reaper. That all changes once the client realizes all of the stress and anguish the filing of a bankruptcy will save them. Once they realize that the filing of a bankruptcy is the fastest way back to financial viability and is most often the best solution for their family and their future, their whole demeanor changes. I can actually see the stress and anguish leaving their faces. You can read some of our clients testimonials here, www.caponeandkeefe.com/blog/index.php/testimonials or here www.avvo.com/attorneys/07762-nj-marc-capone-1600166/reviews.html, to get an idea about the positive effect the bankruptcy filing had for these clients.
It is a shame that most people have no idea what bankruptcy is all about how it can help them. That is because most of the information that is available to them is generated by creditors and collection companies that have a vested interest in making sure that their customers do not file a bankruptcy. Many phone calls or email that I get from potential clients start off by telling me what they have been told by collection companies. Things like, “we are going to have you arrested if you don’t send in a payment”, “we are going to notify your boss if you don’t make a payment”, “the trustee will sell all of your property if you file a bankruptcy”, and the list goes on. The fact that no of these statements are true and in fact it is illegal for these collection companies to make such claims, doesn’t prevent these companies from making these claims and in doing so, scaring and stressing out the people they are attempting to collect from.
It is satisfying to help my clients take charge of their financial lives again. Most of the clients that have come in to see me have been through the ringer financially, they have lost a job, had a major illness, been injured in an accident, had a traumatic family event occur, gone through a divorce or just flat out overextended themselves in anticipation of things getting better. Most have been beaten down by the constant collection calls, the constant barrage of collection letters or solicitations from consolidation companies, the lawsuits that have been served upon them. So to be able to impart information to my clients about how they do have options and that the things they have heard are not true, and to see the hope return to their faces is extremely rewarding.
To see so many clients come out of bankruptcy so much stronger financially then they were before they filed tells me that we are truly helping people. I don’t want anyone to think that bankruptcy is like some kind of magic elixir that can cure all ills, however it is an extremely effective tool for helping people reclaim some financial freedom and getting that fresh start that many of them so sorely need and deserve. So if you are reading this and are going through the situation that I have described you owe it to yourself and your family to at least seek out advice from an experienced New Jersey Bankruptcy Attorney and find out how a bankruptcy can help you and if it can’t, then to find out what your options are. Good luck!
Marc
