People who come to me seeking bankruptcy counsel, in a way, are seeking to get to a destination. In most cases, it’s getting themselves out of the financial mess they have found themselves in. They are looking for a end point: a place where collection calls stop, where the sense of hopelessness ends, and where the future seems a bit less daunting. Many times, I have described it as similar to a Boy Scout helping someone cross the street. My job is to make sure they don’t mistake a puddle for a pot hole, or get hit by a bus. Recently, I met with someone who used a different metaphor, and I wanted to share it.
To describe it most simply and antiseptically, bankruptcy is a process by which a person or business may extricate themselves from the clutches of unmanageable debt. A client told me that he viewed it as a tool. In a sense, that is true. Bankruptcy is a powerful tool that enables debtors to regroup, reorganize and move on. He specifically mentioned a table saw. And this got me thinking.
I do not know how to use a table saw. I took shop in junior high school and made a spice rack that could only hold those small food coloring bottles, and there are only four of those. It stayed empty. In my head I had a sense of what the spice rack would look like. It didn’t turn out that way, even though my mom still hung it up in the kitchen for everyone to see (and for my siblings to openly mock me about). IIt is safe to assume that I have not used any such power tools since junior high school. Don’t laugh, but I am pretty sure – but only pretty sure – that I know what a table saw looks like. Thus, if I have the need for such a power tool, I am likely go to someone that knows how to use it (and is very sure that they know what it looks like).
The same applies for bankruptcy. In searching for a bankruptcy attorney, it’s important to find someone who “knows the tools.” Metaphorically speaking, someone who knows how the blade cuts, how the wood can jump up if it’s placed incorrectly on the table and of course, someone who remembers to measure twice and cut once. Also, as my client astutely pointed out: “I don’t want to lose a finger.” I don’t want him to lose it either.
Related posts:
- 20/5 Redux: A Table Saw Crosses the Road
- The Road to Foreclosure: Non-traditional Mortgages
- Keep the Bankruptcy Option on the Table
- Do It Yourself Chapter 13: The Road To Failure
- Another Road to Failure: How Do I Qualify for Bankruptcy?
Tags: Bankruptcy
