Month: June 2013

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Some things to remember while you are in a Chapter 13 case….

Here are a few tidbits of information that I think will come in handy for you while you are in your bankruptcy case:
(disclaimer: None of this is intended to be legal advice. Reading this by itself does not make me your lawyer (ie doesn’t create an attorney-client relationship). Contact your lawyer with questions. We help people file for bankruptcy relief under the Bankruptcy Code).

1. When you go to your meeting of creditors, be SURE to bring BOTH your photo ID and your proof of your social security number. If you do not bring BOTH, your meeting will not be held and you will have to come back in about 2 weeks to do it all over again. See my article here about what forms of ID and SS proof are ok.

2. Do not buy anything on credit while you are in your case without first getting the Court’s approval. Have something you think you need to buy on credit? Give your attorney a call to go over the situation and see what you need to do.

3. If you have a claim against someone, or a lawsuit against someone, be SURE to tell your bankruptcy attorney BEFORE you spend any money you get. You need to call your attorney’s office and tell them your situation so they can tell you what needs to be done. Also, if you think you have a claim against someone, go ahead and call your bankruptcy lawyer. They can tell you if you have a claim how the bankruptcy might be affected. Your bankruptcy lawyer might also be able to handle the claim for you, too, so you can keep everything together.

4. Be sure you’ve told your bankruptcy attorney everything, and that everything you’ve told is true. After all, you did sign a paper that says it’s all true under penalty of perjury. What does that mean? In a nutshell, if you lie, you might go to federal prison or face a big fine, or both. (See my article here about telling the truth.) The moment you realize something you’ve said isn’t right, you need to contact your attorney and get it fixed.

5. If you change where you live, where you get your mail, where you get your phone calls, where you get your emails, where you get your paycheck, or from whom you receive money, you need to let your attorney know.

6. Make sure that your employer is sending in the right amount of money each paycheck. It has happened where a payment change was sent to the employer, but the employer didn’t make the change for a month (or longer), and then the client got way behind in the bankruptcy payments and the Trustee wanted to dismiss the case. Don’t be that person! Stay on top of your paycheck, and make sure that when a new income deduction order comes out that your employer promptly makes that change, too! Problems? Call your attorney ASAP so your case doesn’t get messed up.

7. Stay on top of your case. See my article here about how to check your case status online. Do you see something on there that doesn’t look right? Did you get an order that didn’t make sense? Call your attorney and make sure that things are right! If you wait until the end of your 5 year case and then mention something, it’s much harder to get fixed than if you mention it as soon as you see it!

8. Don’t compare your case to anyone else’s cases. While you both may be in a Chapter 13 case, that’s where the similarities end. Everyone’s case is just as different as every snowflake. That’s why you hired a lawyer to make sure it was done correctly! And really, I find that most of those “other people” are not telling you the whole truth about their case anyway. So, don’t listen to them and make sure you understand why your case is the way it is. Call your attorney if you don’t so that you can understand. Knowledge is power, right?!

Be sure to click the follow button so you can have instant access to posts with useful information! For even more access, be sure follow me on Twitter @AttorneyAlissa.
Need a bankruptcy consultation? Give me a call! Contact me here.

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Have you been injured? Do you now have financial problems as a result of that injury?

Have you been injured through no fault of your own? If so, you are probably facing many issues right now. From medical bills to paying your rent or house payment, and probably time off from work. Don’t fret!

Injured people face lots of problems. Luckily, you know an attorney that can try to help you with most of those problems! That would be me, Alissa Gay. Among other things, we can evaluate your situation and let you know if bankruptcy is an option for you. Sometimes it is, and sometimes it’s not. It depends totally on your situation. Also, you might be able to recover some of your losses (medical bills, time off from work, etc.) from the person at fault, or an insurance company.

So what do you do?
Give me a call for a confidential free consultation for both bankruptcy and personal injury, or one or the other. Whatever you need! I’ll probably need around an hour of your time for this. Check out my post on what to bring to your initial bankruptcy consultation here.

Don’t forget — you may have a limited time within which to bring a claim against someone for hurting you or your property.

I look forward to meeting you!

We are a debt relief agency. We help people file for bankruptcy relief under the Bankruptcy Code.

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Small business owners whose customers owe money…..

As a small business owner, you may run into this more often than not these days. You contract with someone for a service with a specified price, and when you complete your task the customer asks if they can pay you next month, or maybe in installments. Because you like your customers, and you’d like customer referrals, you agree. But then the next month they ask to pay the following month. So what happens when they just stop answering the phone when you call, or do not respond to the letters you send? That might be the time to call your attorney, me, for some help.

What can I do as your attorney?

For starters, I can handle all aspects of the case for you, which gives you time to do what you do best — run your business! Once I receive all of the information on the file, I will take the appropriate steps to resolve the matter. What those steps are depends on how you want to resolve the case. There are generally several options available on how to handle the case. Based on your needs and goals, I can recommend the best step for you to take to reach those goals. Depending on the contract you have with your customer, your collection costs may be assessed against the customer.

In addition, with our experience as bankruptcy attorneys, we know how to help you recoup as much of your money as possible if your customer has filed bankruptcy, or may file bankruptcy in the future.

There are many laws that apply when collecting a debt. Be sure not to fall into a trap where you end up paying the customer because you did not follow one of those laws!

Do you have customers who need a little reminder that they need to pay you for your services? Give us a call and find out how we can help you collect what is owed to you and help your business succeed!

Contact Jackson, Tennessee attorney Alissa Gay at Teel & Maroney, PLC 731.424.3315.

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Are you or someone you know having financial problems? Maybe bankruptcy is an option!

Are you having financial problems?
If so, you are certainly not alone. With unemployment rates as high as they are, and more employees being asked to do more work for less pay, the not so great economy is somehow affecting nearly everyone. Most people I see for bankruptcy consultations have tried everything else to get them out of their financial situation. They’ve sold everything they can, borrowed from everyone they can, put up all of their cars (and maybe even the tv’s) as collateral for loans, and even pulled money out of their retirement plans. Some have opened new credit cards to transfer balances, some have gotten loans to pay off the first loans they got that they now can’t pay, and some have put their medical bills on credit cards even (don’t ever do that by the way). The constant struggle to keep a roof over your head, food on your table, and the lights on is a struggle that many many families are facing these days.

So what can you do?
You’ve tried all that other stuff and nothing seems to be helping. It only makes it worse. What else is there? Well, you might be a good candidate for a bankruptcy case. I call the couch in my office “the couch of last resort” because it’s not the first thing people try, but is usually the last and best thing for them. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told “I wish I’d come to see you sooner!” I’m here to try to help people avoid the pain and agony of trying all that other stuff, it not work, you waste money, make your credit that much worse, and then realize there’s been a better option available all along.

So what now?
If anything I’ve already said sounds like you and your situation, it’s time for you and I to talk. Give me a call or send me an email and we’ll set up a time for you to come in and we’ll talk about what you’ve got going on, what you’ve tried, what your goals are, and what options are available to help you reach those goals. We’ll spend probably around an hour together talking. To help with that conversation, I’ll need you to bring some documents with you so that I can give you the best possible information. If you don’t bring all the pieces of the puzzle, it makes it harder to put the puzzle together.

Here’s what you will need to bring to our meeting:
1) All of your bills — and I mean ALL of them, not just some of them. If you know you owe someone and don’t have a bill, it’s not the end of the world. Just write down the name of the person you owe, their mailing address for letters (which is usually not the same as the address you send money to), your account number, and the balance you owe. If you’d like to get a copy of your credit report and bring that, too, that’s great. (See my article about getting a credit report here.)
2) The last two years of tax returns. This means the form 1040 (or 1040A, 1040EZ, or 1040 something). This is NOT the w-2 you get from your employer to do your taxes. If you don’t have this form, you can stop by the IRS office either before or after your meeting with me to get it. They print it out for free while you wait, and it usually doesn’t take very long.
3) Proof of your income for the last 6 months. If you work, this means ALL paystubs for the last 6 months. If you receive unemployment, SSI, SS Disability, workers comp, or anything else, you’ll need to bring either a copy of your bank statements or the letter that says how much you get. If you are self employed, you’ll need to bring some sort of proof of the money you’ve made in the last six months. However you keep up with it for taxes will probably work.
4) Photo ID and social security card. (See my article on acceptable forms of ID here)
5) A copy of the declarations page of your car insurance policy if you have a car. If you don’t have this, or don’t know what it is, just call your agent and have them fax it over to me. And if you don’t have this for your appointment, no big deal. We just need it within about a week of your case being filed. The rule generally is that if you have a car, and you have a loan of any kind (either the purchase of the car or a title loan) then you are required to have FULL coverage insurance. If you don’t have full coverage insurance, the court will put insurance on it, but the court’s insurance doesn’t protect you. So what does that mean? If you get pulled over, and you only have court insurance, then you still get a ticket. And if you hit someone in your car and they sue you, the court insurance doesn’t provide any of the protections that your own insurance would. Not to mention there’s the TN law that requires you to have at least liability insurance. So the moral of the story is you need to get your own insurance and don’t use the court’s insurance!
6) Write down any questions you know you have so we can go over those. I’m sure more will come up as we talk, and probably even some after you leave our meeting. Contact me anytime with your questions. I want to make sure you understand everything about your case so you can more easily reach your financial goals. Also look around this website. I’ve tried to address lots of questions in various postings, so you might find some answers to some of your questions here.

So how do you set up our meeting?
That’s easy! Just give me a call at 731-424-3315, or email me at alissagay@tennesseefirm.com.
Be sure to follow my website so you’ll get instant access to helpful information and updates when I post them. Also follow me on twitter @AttorneyAlissa.
I look forward to meeting you soon!

We are a debt relief agency. We help people file for Bankruptcy under the Bankruptcy Code.

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How can I access my Chapter 13 Bankruptcy information online?

You can access your Chapter 13 Bankruptcy information online via the National Data Center at www.13datacenter.com. The first time you visit the website, you will have to have some of your case information and register for a username and password. From that point on, you will only require your username and password.

Before you head to the website, gather the following items together. You’ll need them all to register for a username and password.
1. Your case number (7 digits. ex: 25-10675) Hint: The first two digits are the same as the year in which your case was filed. Your case number will be on paperwork received from the court.
2. Your social security number
3. Your mailing address as listed on your Petition.
4. The name of the Chapter 13 Trustee. (If you are in the Western District of Tennessee, Eastern Division at Jackson, your Trustee is Tim Ivy).
5. A username you’d like to use.
6. A password for your account.
7. An email address where you check email.

If you have issues registering or accessing your information, you can call the debtor support line at 1-866-938-3639. Their hours are monday – friday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm Pacific. They are closed on major holidays.