Filing bankruptcy is a tough decision. Many of my clients from Dallas, Hiram, Dalton, Cartersville and Rome Georgia will tell me that they feel like they are a bad person because they are filing bankruptcy.
This stigma bothers me because its not true and it keeps good people from getting their life back in order. Is a person who had cancer and now has over five hundred thousand dollars in medical bills that they have no hope of ever paying a bad person? I don’t think so.
Is a woman who is trying to raise two kids on her own and is left with a pile of credit cards bills she can’t pay because her husband decided to run off with another woman a bad person? No!
Is the man who lost his job and has not been able to find another one in the worst economy since the Great Depression a bad person? Of course not!
What about the guy whose pay has been cut severely during this recession? They still have a job but now they are making much less and can’t afford to pay the credit card bills. Are they a bad person? Absolutely not!
Lets not forget about a person who borrows money to start a business and the plan does not work out. Was Henry Ford a bad human being because he filed bankruptcy? Was Walt Disney a bad human being for filing? The answer is no. Like many Americans, these people took a chance to start a business and it did not work out. After bankruptcy, Henry Ford and Walt Disney went on to do great things.
The truth is that bad things happen to good people. The question is how are you going to deal with it. One option is to bury your head in the sand and hope it goes away. Obviously, this is not going to work. The best option is to meet with a bankruptcy attorney and find a solution to the problem.
Bankruptcy was written into the United States Constitution by our founding fathers to prevent permanent economic slavery. The idea for a bankruptcy system comes from the Bible (read Deuteronomy 15:1-2). The Bankruptcy Code has been written by the United States Congress to enable citizens to obtain relief from their creditors.
People who file bankruptcy list all of their debts and provide the court with evidence of their income and tax returns. No one hides anything. The bankruptcy trustees and judges perform an excellent job making sure everyone plays by the rules.
Bankruptcy is a good system and I’m thankful to God that I live in a country that gives people a second chance.
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