There are many businesses that rely on repeat customers. Certainly, if you are a restaurant, you want diners to have a wonderful experience and come back again often. A clothing retailer knows that you will at some point have to buy new clothes. And if a car dealer treats you right, you most likely will go there first when it is time to get rid of the old jalopy.
Bankruptcy is a bit different. It is our sincere hope that you have learned a lot from the circumstances that put you into your first experience, circumstances that often were not your fault. But as we all know, things happen. You may have been successful rebuilding your financial life with a steady job, reduced expenses, good credit. And then it happened: your parent got sick, your company moved out of town, you suffered serious injury or illness, your son or daughter got into trouble. And now the finances, which looked so solid just a few years ago, have tanked.
Many believe that bankruptcy is not an available option once you have filed. Or they believe that the Court will frown upon a second filing. Both of these concepts are untrue.
The Court is only looking at your current circumstances and is rarely judgmental. Will it ask if you have filed before? Yes, it is a question the Court is required to ask. But no one is going to yell at you or look down upon you if you come back. And you can indeed file again, with only slight restrictions.
Chapter 7 is only available to you once every eight years, but sometimes a Chapter 13 Plan might accomplish most, if not all of the goals, of a Chapter 7 and is available virtually anytime after a Chapter 7 has been completed. Multiple Chapter 13 cases are available under reasonable circumstances, though the attorney will want to make certain that you are not abusing the bankruptcy process by filing petition after petition just for delay.
What is important is that the Bankruptcy Code is available to honest people who have real problems, even if they have filed for relief before. Contact us at Steidl and Steinberg to see if we can help you.
Again!