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Tacoma Bankruptcy Lawyer David M. Lux

Call (253) 444-5517

Experienced Washington State and Tacoma Bankruptcy Lawyers.

Thank you for visiting our Tacoma Bankruptcy website.  If you are contemplating filing a Pierce County or Tacoma bankruptcy, we're here to assist in understanding your legal rights and options.  Our Tacoma bankruptcy attorneys are experienced Washington State bankruptcy lawyers.

We know the law.  We know how the courts interpret the laws.  And, we successfully discharge millions of dollars in bankruptcy debt for our clients every year.  We will aggressively pursue discharging your debts while protecting your assets.

This site has been designed to provide general information and assistance to Pierce County residents in need of debt relief.  The decision to file for bankruptcy is a complex one.  Bankruptcy is not for everyone, and it's important to know that it's not your only option. 

If, however, you find yourself going deeper and deeper in the red every month, you owe it to yourself to learn about your legal rights and options.  The bankruptcy laws are here for your protection. 

The credit card companies and the collection companies that do their dirty work want you to believe that filing a Tacoma bankruptcy somehow means that you are a bad person and a failure.  This is ridiculous.  The bankruptcy laws are here for your protection.  If you qualify, filing for bankruptcy is your legal right.

Is filing a Tacoma bankruptcy your best option?  It may well be.

Many people are under the erroneous assumption that the new bankruptcy laws are preventing them from seeking protection under our bankruptcy laws.  We can tell you from experience that this is simply untrue.

In fact, we believe that the overwhelming majority of people who would have previously qualified for debt relief under the old bankruptcy laws are still able to successfully file today.  And we should know.  We successfully file hundreds of bankruptcy petitions throughout Tacoma, Pierce County, and the Greater Puget Sound region every year.

We are experienced Washington State and Tacoma bankruptcy lawyers, and we successfully file hundreds of personal bankruptcy cases throughout the Greater Puget Sound area every year.  Our Pierce County debt relief attorneys have the resources and the experience to assist you in making informed decisions about your financial options.

To Learn More About Your Tacoma Bankruptcy Legal Rights and Options, Call Our Pierce County, Washington Bankruptcy Law Firm. Call (253) 444-5517

Stop Harassing Creditors
You don't have to live in fear of your phone ringing anymore.

One of most valuable services that our Tacoma bankruptcy lawyers can offer is getting creditors off your back and stopping all of those harassing phone calls.  Hiring a bankruptcy attorney stops creditor harassment, even before your bankruptcy petition is filed.  Once you hire our law firm, we make sure creditors stop harassing you and can take legal action against them if they continue to harass you and violate the law.

The Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act prohibits the unfair collection of consumer debts and is here for your protection.  If you can prove that your creditors intentionally and repeatedly violated the Act before or after you retained a bankruptcy attorney, you may be able to recover monetary damages. 

The following is a summary of some prohibited debt collection practices:

1. Calling you before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. local time.
2. Contacting you directly after you told the creditor that you have retained a bankruptcy lawyer.
3. Telling your employer or co-worker that you owe money to the creditor.
4. Calling you at work after you have told them not to.
5. Intentional and continuous harassment or abuse in connection with a debt.
6. A collection agency threatening legal action against you.
7. A creditor’s representative falsely representing that he is an attorney when in fact he is not licensed to practice law.
8. Threatening you with arrest or imprisonment for failing to pay a debt.
9. Communicating with anyone other than you or your spouse about your debt.

The debt collection laws are complicated, and while you may have a right to recover damages based on the specific facts and circumstances of your case, it is important to keep a record of all inappropriate conduct.  You should keep a detailed and date-specific log of all violations.

These cases often come down to a matter of evidence and frequently end up in swearing match over who said what to whom and when.  Thus, keeping detailed notes and phone records of any unlawful conduct is critical in pursuing your legal rights to recover damages.

The attorneys who work at our Tacoma bankruptcy offices can assist you in determining whether or not you have a claim against a creditor under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. 

We invite you to call and speak with one of our Pierce County bankruptcy lawyers if you believe you can prove that one of your creditors intentionally and repeatedly engaged in unfair debt collection practices.

Are my creditors allowed to contact me after I file for bankruptcy?

In general, the answer to his question is an emphatic "No!".  Immediately upon filing your Everett bankruptcy petition, an "automatic stay" is created.  This automatic stay is one of the fundamental cornerstones of bankruptcy law.  Here's what Congress said about the automatic staty.

"The automatic stay is one of the fundamental debtor protections provided by the bankruptcy laws. It gives the debtor a breathing spell from his creditors. It stops all collection efforts, all harassment, and all foreclosure actions. it permits the debtor to attempt a repayment or reorganization, or simply to be relieved of the financial pressures that drove him into bankruptcy."

House Report No. 95-595, at 340 (1977).

The protections provided by the automatic stay continue to be one of the basic foundations of the Bankruptcy Code.  If you qualify to file a Tacoma Bankruptcy, the protections given by the automatic stay become your legal rights.

The automatic stay prevents creditors from taking any further collection against you.  This includes all phone calls, collections letters, lawsuits, and garnishments, as well as any other attempts to collect on the debt.

If, however, you are behind on your home or your car loans and intend to surrender that property, the underlying creditor will frequently file a motion with the bankruptcy court seeking a “Relief from Stay”.  If this Relief from Stay is granted, they will again be able move forward with attempting to repossess that particular property.  In most cases, this process will a minimum of days from the date your actual bankruptcy petition is filed with the court.

Your Home in Bankruptcy
Most homeowners can keep their homes in bankruptcy.

In Washington State, so long as you have no more than $125,000 of equity in your home (plus an about 8% for settlement costs of sale), you can keep your home in bankruptcy so long as you remain current on all of your mortgages associated with your home. For example, in Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, you can discharge you unsecured debts (e.g., credit cards, medical bills) and keep your house so long as you not behind on your mortgage payments and have no more than $125,000 of equity.

If you are behind on your mortgage and wish to catch up, you can use Chapter 13 Bankruptcy to repay your mortgage arrearage (the amount you are behind on your mortgage) so long as you can also pay your regular mortgage payment. If you have more than one mortgage on your home, you most remain current on both mortgages and repay any arrearage on those mortgages in a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy. You have up to 60 months (5 years) to catch up on your mortgages through Chapter 13 Bankruptcy.

Discharging a Second Mortgage

Under certain circumstances, you can discharge or wipe out a second mortgage in bankruptcy and keep your home.

In this declining real estate market, if the value of your home is less than the amount of your first mortgage, filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy can discharge your entire second and succeeding mortgages and allow you to keep your home so long as you remain current on your first mortgage or work out a repayment schedule to become current on your first mortgage if you are behind.

You will need to pay for a professional appraisal of your home (a Comparative Market Analysis from a real estate agent is not acceptable), proving there is not even one dollar of equity to cover your second mortgage in order to have a bankruptcy judge approve the discharge of your second mortgage in Chapter 13 Bankruptcy proceeding.

Second Mortgage as a Line Credit

Remember that a line of credit secured against your home is type of second mortgage. It can be discharged in a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, but the payments must be maintained if you want to keep your home (unless it can be discharged in a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy as explained above).

Payday Loans and Bankruptcy

Payday loans are almost always able to be discharged or wiped out in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.  These are unsecured loans with often outrageous interest rates and fees attached to them.  Although they remain legal in Washington state, these kinds of loans often only make matters much worse for unsuspecting borrowers.

While it is possible for these kinds of loans to serve a limited but legitimate purpose, they are often a never-ending trap.  The cycle just keeps going and going because people are forced to use the service over and over every month.

Indeed, in our opinion, Payday Loans are among the most egregious types of predatory lending practices here in Tacoma and throughout Pierce County.  Payday loans typically have an annual percent interest rate of between 200% and 1,000%.

In our experience, bankruptcy judges have little sympathy for the Payday Loan companies.   If you qualify and intend to file a Pierce County or Tacoma bankruptcy to wipe out your Payday loans, we recommend that you stop depositing any money into the bank account on which you wrote checks for your outstanding Payday loans.  We also recommend that you immediately close this account.

You should then open up a new bank account with another bank.  Any overdraft charges or fees that occur due to bounced checks from Payday loans on the old bank account can also be discharged in your bankruptcy.

Credit Card Debts

Credit Card Debts are commonly discharged in Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 Bankruptcy proceedings. There is no debt limit to discharging credit card debts in Chapter 7 Bankruptcy cases. However, you should make every effort to stop making any additional credit card charges after have retained a bankruptcy attorney.

Without proper legal advice, you may find that some credit card charges or cash advances in the months preceding filing bankruptcy may not be dischargeable. A knowledgeable and experienced bankruptcy attorney will properly advise you of the proper timing to file your bankruptcy petition so that most of not all of these credit card charges and/or cash advances will be discharged in your bankruptcy. This may involve hiring a bankruptcy attorney, but waiting up to several months before filing your bankruptcy petition.

Medical Bills

Medical bills are a type of unsecured debt that is commonly discharged through bankruptcy.  Our Tacoma bankruptcy attorneys successfully discharge millions of dollars in medical bills for our clients in Western Washington every year.  In general, medical bills are almost always 100% dischargeable.

According to several recent studies, medical costs are a contributing factor in over 60% of all consumer bankruptcy filings.  More importantly, about 75% of personal bankruptcy filers who included medical bills in their bankruptcy had some form of medical insurance. The reality is that the high cost of medical care is not enough to meet many family’s budgets.

If you have a large amount of medical bills you cannot afford to pay, contact an experienced bankruptcy attorney to discuss the benefits of filing for bankruptcy to relieve yourself of your medical debt.

Tacoma Bankruptcy Lawyers

We assist hundreds of Tacoma bankruptcy and Western Washington clients and families get a fresh financial start every year.

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