Our firm, Teel & Maroney, PLC, will be holding a free Bankruptcy Information Session in conjunction with West Tennessee Legal Services on Thursday, April 17th, 2014. The session will be held at the Jackson Chamber of Commerce (near the Civic Center) from 6pm – 7pm. It will be very casual and we will have time for questions and answers as well. This is open to anyone who has financial concerns and is wondering if bankruptcy might be an option for them. Seating is limited, so we ask that anyone who plans on attending call our office by April 15 to register.
Please pass this information along to anyone you think might benefit from the free information session!
Where can I find everything I need to bring to my first bankruptcy appointment?
You’ve seen the list of what you need to bring to your first bankruptcy appointment. Now you are wondering where can you find all of those things? If you don’t have those things at home, there are a few websites that can help you with some of the information.
1. Tax Return
The IRS now allows you to obtain your tax transcript (a fancy word for your tax return) online. Simply go to the IRS website here. You will have to register using your email address and personal info, but you will be able to instantly download your last few tax return transcripts. If you don’t have a printer to print them, contact your attorney’s office and see if you can email them to the attorney.
2. Pay stubs
If your employer uses ADP for payroll processing, you can download your pay stubs here. You’ll need to register or use your username and password to login, and then you will be able to access the PDF’s of your pay stubs. Remember we will need the last six months worth of pay stubs.
If your employer does not use ADP, there may be other ways to access your pay stubs online. Check with your payroll department and they should be able to give you more information.
3. Credit Report
Go to annualcreditreport.com, enter your information, answer a few questions, and you should be able to get at least one of your credit reports. Remember to either print the report or save it to your computer (you may be able to email it to your attorney).
Remember that you can only get your annual credit report free once every 12 months, so if you’ve requested yours within the last 12 months, you will not be able to get another free one until after that 12 month period is over.
Also keep in mind that everything may not be on your credit report. When you get your report, look it over. If you know you owe someone who is not on the report, write them down. If possible, call that person you owe and find out how much you owe, your account number, and their mailing address. All of this information will help make sure the people you owe get notice of your bankruptcy filing, and cause you less stress and headache down the road.
4. Unemployment income proof
If you have received unemployment income in Tennessee, you can visit the state’s unemployment benefits website here and obtain proof of the income you’ve received.
These websites should help you obtain many of the things you need to bring to your first bankruptcy appointment. If you have any questions about your upcoming appointment with me, or need to make an appointment, just call our office and ask for me or send me an email!
Have a great day!
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?!
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Need a bankruptcy consultation? Give me a call! Contact me here.
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.
How can I find out who I owe?
If you do not keep your bills as they arrive, you can get one credit report for free every 12 months. Go to www.annualcreditreport.com. There, you will need to enter some personal information and answer some questions to get your report. Remember, you can only get one free one every 12 months. Sometimes you will receive a message that says they cannot provide your report on the website, but you can get it by mail. Do not despair! Simply print out the form, fill it out, and mail it in with the required proof of identity, and your report will soon come in the mail. Just that simple. Not everything will be on your report, and each of the three reports may be a little different, but together you should get a good idea of everyone you owe.
Still have questions? Ask an attorney! Remember, only an attorney can give you legal advice!
Attorney Alissa Gay 