A bankruptcy attorney walks through Chapter 7 from start to finish: filing to discharge takes 3-4 months, with one Zoom meeting 30 days in. A real case shows someone in Jacksonville earning $70,000 but carrying nearly $1 million in debt across a mortgage, car loan, and $250,000 in student loans. Credit rebuilds within 12-18 months after discharge.
What's the, uh, what's the process of a Chapter 7? How long does it typically take from when a person calls you to when it's filed to when it's discharged? What is the lifeline of that looking like these days?
It's amazing because people don't believe me when I tell you Chapter 7 is so simple. We've done it, we've done it thousands of times at this point. Basically, it's 3 to 4 months beginning to end, takes 12 to 18 months to rebuild your credit afterwards. but that whole process that you're involved is really just getting to getting the documents together, going to one Zoom meeting, which is called a 341 meeting about 30 days after we file. And then you are done. And then we just have to wait for the clock to run out. And that takes another 60 days. You get your discharge order, case closed. You can reestablish credit the day after your case is closed. So it's one of the quickest federal process processes you can do. And it really is a life-changing one. Uh, one of my clients, uh, told me today, I make it sound like playing Candyland. Which is kind of funny. But you know, it really is easy once you first make that phone call to me. That's the hardest thing is the first phone call to me because people just want to say, you know, I'm going to work a couple extra hours, you know, I'm going to hit the lottery, I'm going to go to Hard Rock, make some money. None of those usually work out. So get with me, we'll put together a strategy that truly will get you debt-free. There'll be a beginning and an end. And you know, by By the end of the year, you'll be debt-free.
I got a family member I'm trying to get to call you. She's in Jacksonville, and I am trying to lay it out. Normally I could sell snow to an Eskimo, but she is not listening to me. I'm talking about upside down on a home mortgage, 2 years behind on homeowners association. They've already liened the property. Upside down on a car, $250,000 student loans, and just picked up a second job. And when I say I've laid out Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, Plan D, and that person is under the impression that they can work it off, I said, you almost have $1 million in debt with interest and you make $70,000 a year. That means you will be working 35, 40 years to pay this off.
Yep. You know, sometimes family is the worst at listening to you, especially if you're an expert, right?
