There is a great deal of confusion about the filing of bankruptcy in Canada vs. the United States. This article will focus on the filing of a bankruptcy in Canada. The bankruptcy process starts with initially consulting with a licensed Trustee. You need to meet with a trustee who is licensed by the federal government and practices in your local area. So the first step is to contact a local trustee and set up a time for them to evaluate where you are at financially. To be able to adequately explain all your options and give any quality advice this trustee will begin by reviewing the details of your financial situation. To do this they will sit down with you in person and talk about the fundamental areas of our personal finances (i.e. assets, income, living expenses and debts).

In fact, there are plenty of ways you can use to file court petition for bankruptcy. For example, if you can hire bankruptcy lawyers to do the job for you or you can avail the various online bankruptcy services available on Internet, or if you are a legal expert and you know the ins and outs of the various bankruptcy laws, you may choose to go for personal filing.

One interesting thing is that a trustee is not just about bankruptcy. Often, as a trustee is conducting this review they will help you to determine that a bankruptcy is not going to be beneficial to your situation and perhaps there is a better way (i.e. consumer proposal). This typically occurs if you have higher income and/or substantial assets or some other unique aspect of your situation. This is part of the reason that a trustee is required to review things and explain not only about bankruptcy but all the options to bankruptcy as well. That way you are aware of what different choices are available and the ramifications of those different directions. This is a part of the process that most people find surprising; if you are not a good candidate for bankruptcy your trustee will tell you that. A trustee does more than simply file bankruptcy or suggest that people file for bankruptcy, a trustee is a licensed professional who’s duty it is to help you understand all the options that exist and make recommendations based on what is best for everyone. So if you are a better candidate of a consolidation loan, a debt management plan or a consumer proposal, your trustee will make sure you not only understand this, but will assist you in finding the help that you need.

Janice Kosel, Professor of law at Golden State University, San Francisco, and a recognized author and expert on personal bankruptcy issues, explains: „Do you need a lawyer in order to file a Chapter 13 (bankruptcy) repayment plan? No. [Even] Filing a Chapter 13 plan is often easier than preparing your income tax return. If you can do that, you can probably handle your… [bankruptcy] yourself…There is no requirement (under the law) that you have to have a lawyer (in order to file for bankruptcy)…You can choose to represent yourself.“ Stephen Elias, California Attorney, prominent author and specialist in bankruptcy law, most recently summed it up this way: „There is seldom a good reason to use an attorney in a consumer Chapter 7 bankruptcy case. The procedures are almost exclusively administrative – that is, there is no appearance before a judge…The forms are all (with very few exceptions) pre-printed in plain English….[But, in spite of that fact], What’s tragic is that people actually think they have to have attorney representation [to be able to do it].“

But, in all of this, there’s probably one piece of evidence which remains as the strongest proof, the clearest demonstration, and most incontrovertible, of the utter fallacy of the claim that bankruptcy is „complex“ and beyond the capability of the average debtor to comprehend or to undertake. And that is this. Independent survey studies by this writer and others, as well as bankruptcy court statistics, show that in several parts of the United States, but more particularly in urban jurisdictions like New York, Arizona and Los Angeles, both before as well as AFTER the draconian 2005 „reform“ law, a significant number of the debtors who file bankruptcy, particularly Chapter 7, still file Chapter 7 bankruptcy without lawyer. Such debtors are referred to as pro se filers, meaning, without the use of a lawyer! And, while their numbers may have been larger in the years before the BAPCPA law was implemented, that number remains significantly high even today and is now growing incrementally in the current condition of national economic recession.

For example, in the Central District of California, San Fernando Valley Division, the reported proportion of debtors who had filed for bankruptcy without use of attorneys just before the 2005 law went into effect, was well OVER 50%, but then as of June 2006 even AFTER the restrictive 2005 law had gone into effect, it was about 27%. (That figure should obviously have gotten much higher today than that by the end of 2008 and thereafter, a time when a severe economic down turn and high unemployment rate hit the nation!). After the passage of the 2005 law, there was an immediate dramatic fall off in the number of bankruptcy filings. But today, debtors, being increasingly overburden by their debt because of the current economic recession, and increasingly concerned about cost for bankruptcy, are now beginning, once again, to go back to the earlier ways in bankruptcy filing, which means they’re doing doing the bankruptcy themselves without lawyers. And given the severe economic down turn and high unemployment rate that has since hit the nation by the end of 2008, and the fact that by the end of 2008, the official statistics for total bankruptcy filing had, once again, topped over 1,000,000 filers for the 2008 year, clearly the American debtors are beginning once again to troop to the bankruptcy courts for relief, with lawyers or without lawyers, notwithstanding the obstacles and discouragements earlier placed on their path by the new 2005 law!

Frank Miller has a Debt Consolidation Blog & Finance, these are some of the articles: The Serious Truth Of Utilizing A Very First Leading Credit Card To Construct A Great Credit Score You have full permission to reprint this article provided this box is kept unchanged.