DuPage County Bankruptcy Attorney

2011 marks the second year in a row that we have seen the amount of credit card debt decline, leading many to believe that personal debt relief strategies are working, at least for right now. The average credit debt load dropped by nearly 11 percent last year, and this is something that has been seen across all states in the U.S., even those hardest hit by the ailing economy.

Wisconsin saw the lowest average credit card debt of $5,062, while Alaska had the highest, at $7,937.

Personal bankruptcies in the U.S. dropped by 12 percent last year, new reports say. Overall, 1.35 million Americans filed for chapter 7 or chapter 13 bankruptcy.

The apparent trend is reflected in businesses, too. The number of Chapter 7 and Chapter 11 bankruptcies filed this year is on the decline. Only 88 big companies, as opposed to 106 last year, filed for bankruptcy. It's also way down from the 211 filings in 2009. This comes in tandem with a fragile economy, and the decline has been steady for the past three years of economic turmoil. The 17 percent drop in bankruptcies includes chapter 7 and 11 filings by big companies.

Many consumers file for bankruptcy after a creditors begin garnsihing their wages. Some file before the garnishment begins. In either case, it is important to provide notice of the bankruptcy filing to both the creditor and the filer's employer. This is because some employers will continue to garnish wages after a bankruptcy is filed and the automatic stay is in place. 

When an employer receives a wage garnishment summons, it may automatically begin garnishing an employee's wages before the garnishment order is entered by the court. This is because employers don't want to violate a pending garnishment order. For bankruptcy practitioners, this means that an extra layer of notice is required when a client is facing a garnishment or is already in wage garnishment.

Notifying the employer of the bankruptcy filing and the automatic stay's effect on the wage garnishment should stop the garnishment activity. If the employer continues to garnish the filing employee's wages, the notice also turns a stay violation into a willful and knowing stay violation. This can be valuable if the client wishes to pursue and adversarial proceeding against the employer. Notifying the employer may also stop the garnishment faster than simply waiting for the creditor to inform the employer of the need to stop garnishing wages. 

As is the case with many aspects of bankruptcy law, it is always best to provide notices before problems arise. If a violation of the automatic stay occurs after notice is provided, then the available remedies are more powerful. Notice early, notice often!

People who are at risk of losing their homes to foreclosure may be under more pressure than they realize.

A number of recent studies of homeowners facing foreclosure indicate that such economic woes are often accompanied by the risk of illnesses caused by stress. Several separate studies came to the same conclusion. Some of those studied suffered from a variety of problems, including nausea, heart problems, high blood pressure, or depression brought on by the possibility of losing their home.