Hi, I’m Mike Greiner. I’m a bankruptcy attorney with The Financial Law Group, located here in Warren, Michigan. Our phone number is (586) 693-2000, and our website is financiallawgroup.com. I’m here to talk to you today about the credit counseling requirement for filing bankruptcy. A lot of people get scared off, thinking they’re going to have to go to some class. I’m going to have to sit in this class, and I’m going to have to answer questions, and I’m going to have to take a test. And none of that is true, that’s the good news. For most of the people who do their credit counseling, they do it one of two ways. They either do it at a website on a computer or they do it by a call on the phone line where generally speaking there will be an automated system that they’ll go through and listen to some information and then someone will get on the phone at the end of the call to talk with them for 5 minutes or so. There is always some requirement that you have some interaction with the company whether it be that you make a phone call at the end after you’ve compiled the website or sometimes I’ve seen it where they’ve had some type of online system where you chat directly with a credit counselor online. Those are two options. But the vast majority of the cases where the people go through the credit counseling that’s how they do it.
Credit counseling- The cost of it will vary anywhere from 30 to 50 dollars and it is a requirement. It’s a jurisdictional requirement. So what that means is literally you can not file your bankruptcy case until you have completed that credit counseling. You are not eligible to be a debtor. The bankruptcy court doesn’t have jurisdiction over you until you have completed that credit counseling. Typically credit counseling takes about an hour to an hour and a half. If you spend much more than that you’re doing it wrong.
A lot of people I’ve seen where they go in, go in have a lot of trouble and try to dig our all kinds of documents, try to get all their bills, and try to see how much they owe. Don’t do that. It’s not worth it. This information doesn’t go anywhere. What you just want to do is you want to go through, you want to proximate things, you want to read the information and a lot of people find it very helpful. But at the end of the day it doesn’t go anywhere. It’s just something you need to complete so you’re eligible to file bankruptcy.
There is a second set of credit counseling you need to do once your case if filed. But we’ll also set that up for you as well. If you want to find out more about filing bankruptcy please feel free to call my office. 586-693-2000 is my phone number and I’d be happy to meet with you personally.