Filing Bankruptcy Is Emotional

While most of this blog site is devoted to bankruptcy practice, procedure, and tips, a few post deal with the emotional and stressful side of filing bankruptcy, and this post falls into the later. Almost every bankruptcy consult I give, the person or couple on the other side of the table will say that they never in a thousand years ever thought they would be placed in this situation. In their minds, they are in disbelief, they feel embarrassed, and even a general feeling of guilt, of even have to contemplate bankruptcy. Much of this is associated with the culture and society in which we live. Generally, one thinks of bankruptcy as taking advantage of a creditor or a symbol of failure. Emotions are similar in many respects to what one experiences when getting divorced or after the death of a loved one. Disbelief, anger, resentment, hurt, and loneliness.

During the bankruptcy consultation when learning of ones income, debts, assets, and expenses, I also learn how they ended up where they are. They usually come to see me after exhausting all other remedies, which they usually find out later that it may have been a mistake to not have consulted with a bankruptcy attorney sooner. Sometimes they have sold most of their belongings, financed bills through relatives, and exhausted savings in an effort to not have to file bankruptcy. For these people, bankruptcy may be the last alternative, or in some cases, the they may be judgment proof.