The economy has taken a nasty downturn since 2008 and has seen minimal, if any recovery – and as a result, more people are filing bankruptcy than ever before. Attorneys who specialize in bankruptcy rely heavily on bankruptcy paralegals to handle many of the duties required to handle bankruptcy client cases. Most people don’t know is that paralegals handle much of the administrative case work such as client interviews and paperwork for the attorney.
When processing a bankruptcy client case, one of the main functions for the paralegal is interviewing the client to collect their financial background information. Things like income, liabilities, assets, creditors, etc. This is actually beneficial to the client as they can minimize the billable hours by the attorney, which are usually substantial. In many cases, a payment plan is setup for clients who don’t have the funds to pay in advance – this is a service offered by many law firms to help clients who normally couldn’t afford to pay for bankruptcy proceedings and associated fees.
If the attorney accepts the client’s case after educating the client about the process of bankruptcy, which forms of bankruptcy are best for them, and what their role in the process is, the paralegal will handle the necessary paperwork needed to file the case. At this point, all collection activity from creditors will stop and they will begin corresponding with the paralegal. The client does not have to speak with their creditors anymore.
Bankruptcy paralegals are trained on many of the special skills needed to work with bankruptcy attorneys, including thorough knowledge of the bankruptcy process and procedures. They must also have a firm grasp of the bankruptcy laws, almost to the extent of the attorney. As a matter of fact, since they work with clients more closely, they may even have a more well rounded knowledge of the laws than the attorney.
They must know how to submit bankruptcy filings with the courts through electronic means as well as in person. If the client requests that the attorney handle this work, then they may need to pay additional fees since most attorneys use their legal assistants for these tasks.
Bankruptcy paralegals must also have working knowledge of the Concordance database which includes blue booking as well as cite checking skills.
The below activities are listed but not limited to the below items:
- Educate client with bankruptcy procedures at court hearings, motions and meetings
- Interview the client and obtain information for filing petitions and schedules
- Handle routine calls and correspondence to creditors, creditors’ attorney, committee chairperson, client and trustee
- Draft and file petitions, schedules and claim proofs
- Monitor calendar for ongoing tasks
- Review forms and make corrections or missing info
- Prepare case file for attorney court appearances
- Compile asset list
- Coordinate necessary property and other asset searches, appraisals, etc
- Draft and file attorney fee applications
- Prepare orders
- Meet with clients to execute documents
- Draft, file, and serve motions for ex parte motions, motions to reaffirm debts, relief from stay, objections to confirmation plan, etc
- Attend court hearings with client and attorney to expedite flow of documents
- Prepare document lists for proceedings
- Draft, file, and serve complaints in adversary proceedings
- Draft, file, and serve client’s monthly financial statements in Chapter 11 cases
- Maintain bankruptcy discharge log
- Draft motions for avoidance of liens and reaffirmation agreements and arrange for execution of same
- Attend Section 341(a) meetings
As you can see, bankruptcy paralegals must possess a wide range of skills and experience. But at the end of the day, the thrill of helping individuals with their ugly financial situation is extremely satisfying for many individuals that happily work as bankruptcy paralegals every day.
