Legal Question: RE: Chapter 7 Bankruptcies?
I’m about to start a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition preparing business and I needed to find out a few different things before I get bonded and registered with the county clerk’s office next week.
1) Since a legal document assistant like myself can not delegate legal advice, would a prospective client/debtor have to find out if he/she qualifies for Chapter 7 BEFORE coming to me to fill out the client questionnaire and have me fill out the petition, schedules, etc.? If so, do they need to go through an attorney to do so, or will they be able to tell based off of their existing real and personal property, income and debts?
2) What type of affordable Chapter 7 Bankruptcy software is available to non-lawyers (legal document assistants like myself)?
I am aware of the limitations placed on legal document assistants (fee caps, inability to delegate legal advice). I only need to determine the two aforementioned pieces of information and then I will be able to start work asap.
You may not give ANY legal advice AT ALL, and that includes advising a client which Chapter of bankruptcy to file OR telling a client WHERE on the schedules a particular debt or asset needs to appear. In other words, YOU cannot "decide" whether a debt goes on Schedule B, Schedule E or Schedule F — you must have the client TELL YOU where to put it, and even if the client tells you to put it in the wrong place, you can’t tell them that is the wrong place to put it — you just need to put it there per their direction. If they forget to tell you to put anything on Schedule C and therefore claim no exemptions for anything and lose everything — you still can’t tell them that they need to put their exemption on Schedule C. ONLY AN ATTORNEY can say those things because that constitutes Legal Advice which only an attorney can give.
I know of none of the major bankruptcy software companies that will sell to non-attorneys, although obviously some non-attorneys do manage to get their hands on the software somehow.
I do not envy you at all. I sure wouldn’t want to be in your business. Courts have been cracking down on petition preparers and charging them with the unauthorized practice of law for the smallest little slips of the tongue lately. You need to be really careful, and some of what you’ll need to do (such as filling out bankruptcy schedules in a way that you absolutely know will be HORRIBLE for the client) is more than I could stomach, personally.