bankruptcy help in brooklyn
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Despite its cautionary title, yesterday’s NPR piece from Marketplace Money, “Self-filing for bankruptcy can cost you” (March 23, 2007; listen here) has some good news for those who want or need to file for bankruptcy without a lawyer: the United States Bankruptcy Court, EDNY (Brooklyn) has created a Pro Se Attorney’s Office and the pilot program “may be replicated in cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco.”
Mary Fox currently holds the Pro Se clerk job in the Brooklyn bankruptcy court. The services are provided in person at the court on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Ms Fox only provides legal information, not legal advice. She offers two impressions about pro se litigants in the NPR piece:
- “People will pay thousands of dollars for root canal, but they seriously question whether they should hire an attorney for important, life-altering decisions.”
- “And a few filers, she says, have really done their homework and are pretty qualified to represent themselves.”
In our prior post bankruptcy law self-help, you can find many free, online resources to help prepare for filing bankruptcy on your own. For example, the webpage Filing Bankruptcy Without an Attorney (Pro Se), from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Columbia offers help for the pro se litigant, including a 77-page pdf. document on Bankruptcy Basics, explaining the “basics” and process since the new bankruptcy law became effective in October 2005.
