shlep: the Self-Help Law ExPress

According to a press release from the National Association of Legal Document Preparers, dated Oct. 19, 2006, “One year after legislation designed to reduce personal bankruptcy filings went into effect, nearly 80% of legal document preparers are seeing a spike in bankruptcy filings.”    Despite the state of confusion among the public described in our prior post on bankruptcy self-help, NALDP Director Lizanne Sadlier reports that “people are starting to wade through that misinformation and realize they can still file for bankruptcy and qualify for Chapter 7.”  Sadlier added that “more complicated paperwork and increased lawyer fees are leading many people to seek affordable and reliable assistance from legal document preparers.”  In addition, although bankruptcy attorney fees are rising, “the majority of legal document preparers surveyed have not raised their prices, which are typically 50-80% less than attorney fees.” 

Finally, to no one’s surprise (if you think about it), the great majority of people filing for bankruptcy “do not have the means to qualify for Chapter 13” (which applies to people above the median income in each state), and therefore do qualify for Chapter 7.