Bankruptcy is a corrective measure against outrageous medical expenses, inequitable lending and banking practices, and a dysfunctional social security system. Victims of broken social systems should NOT be ashamed of asking their government for equitable relief. By removing the negative stigma away from bankruptcy more people will likely file for bankruptcy, penalizing industries for inequitable or even predatory practices.

Medical and Health Care

Patients of medical services rarely have the opportunity to agree to an out-of-pocket expense in exchange for a given procedure, instead people have a procedure and pray that their insurance company will provide for all but a reasonable co-pay. The average monthly cost of medical insurance in Illinois for the year 2021 is $6,203, while Illinois' median income is $58,698.00. It is absurd that a person pay over 10 percent of their gross income for health insurance that covers only an undeterminable amount of any given procedure. The cost of ambulance rides are so expensive it's not unreasonable to flee from paramedics while injured. Insurance agents, not doctors who have attended medical school, decide if an emergency air-lift is medically necessary. Healthcare providers that exploit the sick and injured deserve to be deprived of their accounts receivable.

Banking and Lending

Sub-prime lending practices are oppressive and banks disincentive saving by providing interest rates that do not maintain pace with inflation. According to multiple third-party sources, sub-prime personal loan companies might charge 20-35 percent interest, while a traditional savings account provides for only .01-.5 percent interest, a rate far below inflation. Even prime loans charge an interest rate of 5-15 percent, so that the best interest rate you might pay to borrow from a bank is at least ten times greater than what a bank will pay to borrow from their customers' accounts. Banks are interested in discouraging savings so that when an individual experiences an emergency or unanticipated expense the only option is to borrow from, and pay interest to, the bank.

Banks are not required to possess the amount of money they lend, instead they borrow from the Federal Reserve at a rate that is fractional to the rate of their customer they are lending to, so that they are mere middle-men charging an outrageous premium. Furthermore, the Federal Reserve simply prints more money at the request of the bank making the loan, furthering inflation.

Our federal government lends tens of thousands of dollars to teenagers, without significant income or assets, for the pursuit of an education that may or may not provide access to a career that will allow the inexperienced borrower to repay the loan. Our incomes are taxed and our currency inflated in order to provide for these loans that may or may not be repaid, so that often the only beneficiaries of this arrangement are the Universities that the federal loans are paid to.

Social Security

With increased age people naturally degrade. Muscles, bones, and tendons become rigid, and natural radiation in our environment deteriorate our chromosomes causing vulnerability to disease and illness. In many instances people are forced to retire due to health issues whether or not they are financially prepared to do so. The average monthly distribution for a Social Security recipient in 2021 is only $1,543.00, an amount adequate to supplement retirement savings, but inadequate as a sole means of income.

Many individuals retire with debt and their savings is either inadequate to resolve the debt or resolving the debt may result in an inadequate sum for retirement. The problem created by paying debt with retirement savings is that it increases the likelihood of financial instability during the end of life, when many find they are physically constrained from generating an income outside of social security.

Bankruptcy IS Public Record, but . . .

Bankruptcy is public record, however access to those records requires a PACER account (public access to court electronic records) which requires credit card information so that the account holder can be billed 10 cents per page viewed, so that it is unlikely a person that does not regularly participate in federal court will discover your case. Newspapers typically report legal events occurring in the local county, however rarely, if ever, are legal events occurring in Federal Court reported. Therefore, your neighbors are unlikely to discover your bankruptcy.

Persons and Entities that WILL discover a bankruptcy:

A Bankruptcy petitioner is to include all of their creditors, even those of debts they may want to retain. Creditors are placed on a mailing matrix and receive notice of the bankruptcy. Co-Debtors are NOT placed on the mailing matrix, however if a person has co-signed a note that they wish to discharge in Bankruptcy, the co-debtor is likely to discover that the the person they once shared liability with is no longer liable to the note.

Preferential transfers are payments made to, or on behalf of, insiders (friends and family) in the year preceding bankruptcy. The bankruptcy code does not allow an individual to transfer property to an insider when the property could have been used to pay off a debt, even if the transfer is in satisfaction of a legitimate debt; the non-insider creditors are entitled to the equitable distribution of the property transferred. A failure to list preferential transfers on a bankruptcy petition is perjury and may result in a denial of discharge and possibly criminal liability. If a significant preferential transfer is listed on the bankruptcy petition the Bankruptcy Trustee will likely contact the person to whom the transfer was made and request turnover of the property transferred so that he or she can distribute it evenly among the Debtor's creditors.

Free Consultation

Call our office for a free consultation to determine if Bankruptcy is the solution for you.

Bankruptcy is a technical practice for an experienced debt relief attorney, like those at Smith Law, Ltd. Because there are so many nuances in the application of bankruptcy law, it is inadvisable that an individual not experienced or knowledgeable about Title 11 of the U.S. Code, and how the courts have interpreted those laws, to file bankruptcy without the assistance of counsel.

If you would like to speak to experienced debt relief attorneys, please contact Smith Law, Ltd.

We are a debt relief agency. We help people file for bankruptcy relief.

Smith Law, Ltd.

(217) 345-6222

622 Jackson Avenue

Charleston, IL 61920