Joseph always said: "One size fits none!"

It’s strange to try to make a Clothes to Bankruptcy analogy, but Joseph had so many analogies on hand that he made it look easy. I mean, this is the guy who frequently helped people relate to Bankruptcy by using tools like werewolves and space debris.

Joe was an artist and we try to preserve his craft as much as possible, just as he taught us.

However, I would be more likely to include the Chupacabra in my analogy than Werewolves, but maybe that’s just me.

Um…

Bringing us to the difficult application of the specific Bankruptcy tools available in Arizona to the right cases, naturally. Some cases are tricky. Sometimes Bankruptcy isn’t even the right tool, but when waves of debt are cresting outside your front window it doesn’t hurt to get some options from an Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney so you’ll know what to do next.

But which Arizona Bankruptcy is best for you?

Joseph put it this way:

As I talk to all sorts of folks in Arizona during this economic depression, I’m struck by something obvious: there are four common sorts of bankruptcy cases, and none of them are good fits for anybody, in Arizona or elsewhere.

There are some exceptions, of course.

But a Chapter 13 is a pretty good tool, except that the debt limits the last time I checked were $336,900 unsecured and $1,010,650 secured. And many, many folks are above one or the other of those limits. Can you shoehorn somebody into a Chapter 13 by using some combination of negotiations to reduce the debt levels, or lawsuits to reduce the debt levels, or short sales to reduce the debt levels, or magic to reduce the debt levels?

Sure, but then you’ve still got three to five years for the poor client in a Chapter 13 case. Since they pulled the plug on the Super-discharge in 2005, Chapter 13s aren’t as exciting and useful as they once were. And Congress was going to pretty them up by letting homeowners strip down or cram down the mortgage on their primary residence, but that fell through last week in the Senate.

I’ve been an Arizona bankruptcy lawyer for about thirty years, and as a young Arizona bankruptcy attorney, I loved to play with Chapter 13 cases, because back in the Paleolithic, a creative Chapter 13 lawyer could do so much with it. Much of that has changed.

Then there’s the Chapter 11, the glamor-puss of the Chapters. No debt limits, and few limits on what can be done in a Chapter 11. Except. If they’re so great, why do 90 per cent of Chapter 11 Bankruptcy cases morph into Chapter 7 Bankruptcy cases? It would be nice if Congress made a positive result more predictable. I’ve gotten Chapter 11 cases confirmed, but the national statistic still exists; most Chapter 11 cases don’t get confirmed, and among those, many die during the course of the plan.

Then there’s the fabulous family farmer Chapter, the Chapter 12. Enough said, because few of us in Arizona are family farmers. Or if they are, are inside the debt limits. We have big farms in Arizona.

So that leaves the humble Chapter 7 for most folks. It’s a crummy tool for the job, but it’s a lot better than nothing.

And if you play with it a little bit, a Chapter 7 can achieve remarkable results.