The answer? There are no secrets in this guide. Georgia Debt Law simply uses common sense to get results.  First, let’s go over Chapter 7 bankruptcy and then we’ll compare it to Chapter 13.

Chapter 7 bankruptcy eliminates your debts, and on paper, the discharge can be quite large. There are some rules which keep the size of your discharge down, but you can discharge tens of thousands of debt if not more by filing. Chapter 7 is the clear solution, as you can literally turn a debt into a memory.

Chapter 13 bankruptcy focuses on protecting your assets, property, and income rather than discharging debt. You pay some if not all your debt over a 3-5 year period, but you protect your home, car, and other assets.

Which saves you more money? It all depends on what you owe. Secured debts are monies owed like your home and car; if you can’t make payments, you stand to lose them. Unsecured debts, monies owed without collateral, include credit and medical bills. You can still lose assets or have your wages garnished with an unsecured debt.  If you have secured debts for assets you simply cannot stand to lose, Chapter 13 bankruptcy can save you the most money. If, on the other hand, you have a high amount of unsecured debts – say a high credit card bill – Chapter 7 can clearly save you the most money.

See how that works? You either protect valuable property with Chapter 13 or you discharge high debt with Chapter 7. That should help you make the choice between the two. If you have more assets, Chapter 13 may be best. But if your problem is a huge debt you have no way of paying, you can save tens of thousands with Chapter 7.

Sometimes choosing a form of bankruptcy can be difficult. You should never make such decisions without financial and legal counsel. If you have no way of paying back a debt in a 3-5 year period, or if you stand to lose a lot of assets, it’s time to consider bankruptcy and hiring a lawyer. Do not undervalue the importance of getting financial help either; bankruptcy isn’t your only option.

Where should you begin? You’ve taken a big step in reading this blog guide. Now it’s time to make some calls. There are many bankruptcy lawyers who offer free consultations and case reviews to explain how they can help, especially online. Be sure to consult with several, to compare both in court and out of court experience, and find one you can afford.

Why are so many homes going into foreclosure? And what can you do to avoid losing your Georgia home?

Why Foreclosure?
Why foreclosures are occurring may be for different reasons than you might think. Yes, the housing crisis is a major culprit in the rise of foreclosures nationwide. Yet there is far more to it than that. Unemployment rates are high, many are barely able to afford paying credit interest rates, many lack proper medical coverage, and some have lost thousands of dollars on their homes due to the downward spiral in pricing.

How To Stop It
There are many ways to avoid a foreclosure. In Georgia, with over 1 in every 300 homes being foreclosed every month, the main problem is debt. You likely owe more money on your home than it’s worth. Also, credit and medical debts are increasing, just as jobs are being lost across the state.

You do have options. You can try to sell the home for full value, hoping you get lucky (and you might). You can do what’s called a short sale and sell in order to pay back what you owe; you are selling for less, but will be clear of the debt. You can also get legal protection from creditors and for your home by filing bankruptcy.

Why Bankruptcy?
Bankruptcy gets a bad name. “Only people giving up file bankruptcy” may sound familiar. In fact, bankruptcy can save your home, and it’s your legal right to get help. It all depends on where you stand, and requires some expert financial and legal help. If you want to lose your mortgage debt, and you also have high credit and/or medical debt, filing Chapter 7 may be smart. If on the other hand you believe you can keep the home, but just want some time, Chapter 13 can help. Chapter 13 may be best because it protects you from foreclosure as you create a debt repayment plan you can afford.

Getting Financial Help
This can all get quite technical and requires some financial expertise. You can consult with a lawyer, but you should also consider speaking with some financial experts. This can really help your situation by giving you options.

Getting Legal Help
A lawyer is invaluable if you want to protect your home or discharge debt by filing bankruptcy. Georgia bankruptcy has numerous benefits. Just remember: while you do pay this lawyer money, he or she saves you far more. If you have a $150,000 home in danger of foreclosure, a Georgia bankruptcy lawyer can help you protect it. That’s the main reason for hiring a lawyer: he or she gives you financial protection.

The Notice
You need to remember several key points after getting your notice for a 341 meeting. When is the meeting, at what time, where will it be held, how do you get there, where do you park, and what should you bring? These are some good questions to have, and the answers can be found on your notice or with a map. You also want to confirm with your lawyer that he or she received the notice. If you have further questions and worries, a good lawyer can help.

Study the Notice
You also will be given further information on your notice, namely the trustee assigned to your case. Your trustee is a key component of filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy. You want to ensure this person has no relationship with those you owe money; though rare, it happens and needs to be immediately addressed. If you ever have to change trustees, you will likely get a new notice with a new date for the 341 meeting.

Arrive Early
Just in case you are unfamiliar with where the 341 meeting will be held, be sure to leave early. Yes, the meeting is a formality, but one which deserves your full attention.

The Paperwork
In the notice you’ll also see if all required documents have been given to the court. In cases where you are unsure of what documentation needs to be filed, this should be addressed by your lawyer. Sometimes the wrong documentation can be filed or not filed at all. Problems like these are to be solved by your lawyer; that’s why you pay him or her.

What to bring?
Bring your ID or some other valid form of identification. You should also have proof of your Social Security number, if not then your W-2 tax form or other proof. You also may want to bring a notebook to the meeting in order to take important notes, especially helpful if you have some problems.

Review More
For what may be the final time, you should review all your bankruptcy information. It may be smart to do this with your lawyer. You can go over your current proof of income, debts you have, what debts will not be discharged, and more. If you see some problems, it’s okay: you’re lawyer can help, and the trustee can help you with any changes.

Be Confident
Once you’re ready for the 341 meeting, go in confidently. This is quite often a formality if all your documentation is in order. So take a deep breath and look at this as one of the final steps to financial freedom.

Reasons to File Chapter 13
Chapter 13 bankruptcy is very different than Chapter 7, and less common. However, by filing you can maintain your major assets, such as home and car. If you have debts which cannot be discharged in Chapter 7, you can pay on them in manageable amounts with Chapter 13.

Rebuilding Credit History
One of the best ways to rebuild your credit after bankruptcy is by getting a secured credit card. This can prove to creditors that you can maintain credit. It will also improve your credit just like paying on a regular credit card. How do secured credit cards work? You can choose the amount you want the credit to be, and pay it directly to the bank in order to get it. If you paid $1,000, you’d get a $1,000 credit line. This may sound pointless, but you get to keep the money, and then use the card and pay on it as you would a normal credit card.

Budget After Bankruptcy
If you want to avoid filing bankruptcy again, it’s time to start budgeting. This means looking over both income and expenses. If you’ve been spending more than you’re making, for example, you can see clearly where you need to tighten up. You may opt to buy the lower priced car, less items you really don’t need, eat out less, and only charge with a secured credit card with the goal of buying once your credit is better.

Save Money
You should also look for other ways to save money. A penny saved is a penny earned, and though that’s a cliché it’s true. The best way to stop a future bankruptcy is to keep money in your account, not spending it all your paycheck. Many file Chapter 7 bankruptcy because of a loss of job. If you prepare for losing a job by keeping several months to half a year in income saved, you can avoid future trouble. Yes, saving six months of salary may seem impossible, but it’s the best safety net you have. And it’s a goal worth having.

Life After
This may all sound like leading a money-tight life. You can’t buy items beyond your means, you only use money you have, you budget, you save months in salary, and so on. However, if you look to the reasons you had to file bankruptcy, you can make plans to avoid it ever happening again. And there’s good news: you can soon enough buy the more expensive car, the better home, the more expensive entertainment items. These are good goals to have.

Is this really that big of a problem? Yes, creditor harassment is a very big problem. In fact, 2009 saw creditor harassment not only continuing, but on the rise. Even in 2010 creditor harassment is still a major problem. Studies pointed out that debt collection agencies and creditors in general caused more complaints in 2009 than in 2008. This is common during tough economies, you might think, but it doesn’t make it any better. For one, creditor harassment to most extents can be illegal. There are tens of thousands of complaints to the Federal Trade Commission every year. For example, in just the first half of 2009, the Federal Trade Commission Reported 45,000 complaints about debt collection agency practices, a significant increase over the first half of 2008.

What are creditors doing to cause complaints? It may seem obvious – calling people like you night and day. Contacting your work. Contacting outside family members. Calling you into the night or very early in the morning. Some are even contacting consumers asking for payments on things they never bought. Still more are saying people owe more money than they really do.  In the worst of cases, creditors are acting like some form of government or law enforcement agency, threatening seizure of assets like homes and cars if no payment is made.

So there are a lot of reasons for complaint. What can you do? If you’ve truly fallen behind in debts, you may think paying them gets creditors off your back. In fact, you may be paying on the wrong debts or nonexistent debts. You will never be arrested for debts, unless a court orders it (which is quite rare). If they threaten to take your wages, it’s usually beyond their ability to do so unless they win in court against you. If they threaten to take your home, there is some truth in this statement. Technically, creditors can take you to court and obtain a lien on your property; that’s if they win in court; chances of that are slim.

You can stop creditor harassment in a variety of ways. If you really have a lot of debt, filing Georgia bankruptcy is one move to make. But don’t do it just because you have creditors harassing you. If that’s the case, you can write the creditor a letter asking them to stop contacting you; by law they must agree to this. Bankruptcy has many advantages, and stopping creditor harassment is one. Creditors will have no reason to call you anymore once the courts are involved; if they continue to call you, refer them to your lawyer.

Creditor harassment works because they strike fear in you. Take back control of your life. If you’re unsure of your rights, contact a lawyer.

Atlanta particularly has been hit hard, perhaps one of the hardest of any city in the U.S. Metro Atlanta in particular had many subprime mortgages–and now these mortgages are nine times more likely to go into foreclosure.

The problem is in how these mortgages were laid out. Obviously, it was a big mistake to allow such a high number of subprime mortgages, but it happened across the country. Even scarier, most of these Atlanta mortgages are going the way the rest of the country is.

Worry not, because the economy is clearly improving. While the last quarter of 2009 was very high in terms of foreclosures, especially in Atlanta, the economy is slowly rebuilding and unemployment lowering.

That doesn’t help you unless you can avoid losing your Atlanta home. This post will walk you through the process of choosing between forms of personal bankruptcy, hiring a lawyer, and avoiding foreclosure.

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy – The Good and Bad
The good news with Chapter 7 is that you can at a minimum buy extra time to live in your home before foreclosure, and the mortgage can be discharged as part of filing. The bad news is, you will most often lose your home through foreclosure. This is supposed to help avoid foreclosure, right? It’s still good to consider Chapter 7. An experienced Atlanta attorney can tell you 1) if you’re eligible and 2) what you can save. If you are a single resident of Atlanta, for example, you cannot make more than $40,546 and file.

Chapter 13 Bankruptcy – The Answer to Foreclosure
Federal law allows most all cases to be taken under Chapter 13 unless you have hundreds of thousands in debt. This is the same across every state in the country.

Chapter 13 is truly the answer to saving your home. First,  this givesyou protection. Immediately after filing at the Northern Georgia Bankruptcy Court (for Atlanta residents), an “automatic stay” will be given by the court. This effectively delays and potentially stops the foreclosure so the bankruptcy proceeding can occur.

Next, you can restructure your payment plan to your Atlanta lender. You must stay current on your mortgage in order to keep your home, and you also should file Chapter 13 before you fall too far behind in payments or it won’t work (if the foreclosure process is started, you cannot stop it in most cases).

Hiring an Atlanta Lawyer
The State Bar of Georgia and your computer are all you really need in order to get help avoiding foreclosure. You want a lawyer who specializes in bankruptcy, has experience in helping avoid foreclosures, and can educate you on the advantages and disadvantages. Price may be an issue, so be sure to ask the fees before hand. Filing bankruptcy itself is very cheap, but lawyers can sometimes be expensive.

Before You File Atlanta Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
You must first make sure you’re eligible for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. If you make too much, you may be forced to file Chapter 13 bankruptcy under new federal laws. Depending on your income, assets, and debt burden, you may have to file Atlanta Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Also, if you filed bankruptcy 6-8 years ago, depending on what type of bankruptcy, you may not be eligible to file any bankruptcy.
Once you research limits, you also should research hiring an Atlanta bankruptcy attorney; you can find many online.

Filing Atlanta Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
You will need to file a petition with the bankruptcy court in your area when filing bankruptcy. After, you need to show schedules of assets and liabilities, info on current income and expenses, a statement of financial affairs, and a schedule of executory contracts and unexpired leases. You also need to supply your prior year tax return.

There other documents you must file if you’re an individual debtor filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Don’t worry–an Atlanta bankruptcy attorney can help you handle credit counseling debt repayment plan, evidence of payment from employers, a statement of monthly net income and potential changes in income and expenses after filing bankruptcy, and show a record of state or federal education accounts.

Sound hard?

Hiring an Atlanta Bankruptcy Attorney
An Atlanta bankruptcy attorney will help you with everything–if you choose the right one. Hiring lawyers can be difficult, but in most cases, you actually save money, assets, and time by hiring a professional bankruptcy attorney. He or she can advise you on bankruptcy law, walk you through all the steps of filing, and handle the court date.

If you need an Atlanta bankruptcy lawyer, you can find dozens online. Be sure to query experience, rates, and how busy they are. You want an attorney experienced in Atlanta law,  who fits your budget, and won’t put you on a huge list of clients for a small law firm.

Chapter 7 bankruptcy costs $299 to file with the court. For all the debt you can expect to be discharged at a minimal loss of assets, that’s a bargain. And if you can’t pay that, the court may be able to work with you in other ways.

Chapter 13 bankruptcy costs $274 to file with the court. The Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy fees with the court are the same across every state, including for Georgia bankruptcy filers.

So $299 for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and $274 for Chapter 13 bankruptcy–but the lawyer fees cost a fortune, right? Not always! You can expect fees to vary in terms of the experience of the bankruptcy lawyer. The worst thing you can do is choose to file with the first lawyer you find; shop around.

How Georgia Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Works
As with all other states, you file a petition with the bankruptcy court in your area in Georgia. You must also file with the court several other key documents, including schedules of assets, income and expenditures, financial affairs, and a schedule of executory contracts and unexpired leases. For individual debtors, you have more documentation to file, including proof you went to a credit counseling agency and developed a repayment plan.

These things can get complicated, and you have to see the advantage of hiring an expert in all this process. Before we talk about that more, let’s go over how Georgia Chapter 13 bankruptcy works.

How Georgia Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Works
A Georgia Chapter 13 bankruptcy begins by filing a petition with the bankruptcy court in your area. You should, even before you do this, make sure you are eligible to file; if you have too much debt you might not be.

You take similar steps in Chapter 13 as Chapter 7 bankruptcy. This includes schedules of assets and liabilities, current income and expenditures, financial affairs statement, and more. Again, you must also  get a certificate from a credit counseling agency and prove you created a repayment plan.

Filing Documents and Other Things a Georgia Bankruptcy Lawyer Can Help With
There are dozens if not hundreds of other things you really need to know. The best option is to work with a professional so you can do this right the first time. In many cases, you save money by hiring the right Georgia bankruptcy lawyer. The rates of bankruptcy lawyers vary from $1,000-2,000 for filing, but look for quality and personal contact in the process, make some phone calls and do research, then make an informed decision.

All non-exempt assets must be turned over to the bankruptcy trustee managing your bankruptcy case, while exempt assets are excluded from the bankruptcy filing and are therefore retained by the debtor.

Exempt assets may include furniture, appliances, clothing, and any tools that are used in the debtor’s employment.

The assets that can be considered exempt vary significantly from state to state.  In order to ensure that you fully exercise these property exemptions, it is recommended that you consult a Georgia chapter 7 bankruptcy lawyer.

Other secured assets may be excluded from the bankruptcy if the debtor pays the creditor an amount equal to the value of the property, even if the amount of the debt is more than the value of the item.

Your creditors may object to your Chapter 7 filing.  When this happens, you will often need to negotiate a payment plan with that particular creditor or convert your filing to a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. For this reason, it is highly recommended that you consult a qualified Georgia Chapter 7 bankruptcy attorney.

In a Chapter 7 case, you will be required to attend one brief court hearing.  This is an opportunity for your creditors to file any objections or additional claims related to your case.  If there are no objections, a discharge order will be issued for your debts.

To get legal expert advice about the Atlanta Bankruptcy process it may be a good idea to talk to an Atlanta Bankruptcy Attorney. An Atlanta Bankruptcy Attorney will help you to determine if your income is below the median income of other Atlanta residents. In 2008, the median income in Atlanta, Georgia for an individual was $39,253 and for two people it was $52,055. 

To immediately qualify for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy your household median income must be below that amount. If your median income is higher, you still may be eligible for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. If you are considering filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy you may want to talk to an Atlanta Bankruptcy Lawyer who will be able to outline any other exemptions and other criterion allowed for filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy under the current federal bankruptcy laws.

Bankruptcy is an important financial decision. Georgia unemployment continues to rise and this will forces even more families into bankruptcy. If you are behind in your mortgage payments, you are not alone. In 2008, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported that in the last three months of the year one in eight Georgia homeowners were behind on their mortgage payments. Georgia has also been hit hard by the subprime mortgage crisis. The report also states that in Georgia of the residents who have these types of loans almost 35% are delinquent or in home foreclosure. Due to the home mortgage and lending crisis and unemployment, Georgia Bankruptcy filings are on the rise. In 2008, Georgia bankruptcy filings rose more than 20 percent from 2007.

Fortunately, you do not have to do this alone. If you are facing a financial crisis, are harassed by creditors or if the banks or mortgages companies are threatening home foreclosure, you do have options.  Let an expert Atlanta Bankruptcy Attorney help you determine if filing for either Chapter 7 Bankruptcy or Chapter 13 Bankruptcy may be a sound financial decision for your family.

General bankruptcy attorneys may be able to answer your general bankruptcy questions, but to get the best legal advice possible concerning Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, it is important to find an Atlanta Bankruptcy Attorney who specializes in Atlanta Bankruptcy law and understands any changes that have been made in Georgia Bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy is a serious financial decision and can have serious financial consequences for your family. It is not a financial decision that should be made lightly or with out the sound legal advice of an Atlanta Bankruptcy Attorney. Contact an Atlanta Bankruptcy Lawyer today and see if Bankruptcy is right for you or your family.