To prepare for filing bankruptcy, there are a lot of documents that you have to get together. In my office, I have a two-page list that I hand to people. Generally, the documents consist of your most recently filed tax return, your last six months’ proof of income, which can consist of pay stubs or bank statements showing direct deposit. We need to show the bankruptcy court your financial situation. We need to show them what’s earned, what’s owned, what your monthly expenses are. Once that is all brought in we put together the petition, and then we look at it because that’s going to be a road map for how you exit bankruptcy.

To prepare for filing bankruptcy you need to get your documents together. There are a lot of documents that need to be utilized during this situation and it is important for you to know where they all are and have them organized. In addition to knowing simply where your documents are there are a lot of factors that you need to determine about your future after filing for bankruptcy. You will need to have an idea of where you want to end up, meaning do you want to hold onto your house? Do you want to keep that car? Do you want to move? Where do you want to get to? What do you want this to achieve for you? If we don’t know that, we don’t really know where we’re going or what we’re doing. It’s important at the beginning of the case where we are starting from, which is what all your documents are going to show; where you want to end up because then we can figure out how to get between those two points.

If you are in need of experienced legal counsel in New Jersey, please contact Tomes Law Firm, PC and we will be happy to assist you.