If you have been following financial conditions of people who have been in your position earlier, then you might have realized that filing for bankruptcy is not an easy process because there are a lot of complicated rules which are out of the comprehension of regular people. But then, most people still try to understand the rules themselves and file bankruptcy because they figure out this would be a good way of spending some money instead of going under the scanner for getting legal fees. So is it is advisable to file for bankruptcy without consulting your lawyer if there is a shortage of money?

The answer is an ever-resounding no. The simple reason for this is that the lawyer would be able to take notice of your current situation and advise whether you should file for bankruptcy or not. If he advises you to do it, then he will inform you about the various chapters under which you can file for the same. Also, there have been introduced a lot of new rules in the bankruptcy cases since 2005, that have made it even harder for people to get a grasp of what’s happening. So it is absolutely necessary to hire a lawyer for filing bankruptcy.

The next point is the ‘means test’ which has come into being recently. This is used by the authorities to determine whether you have the means to pay off the bills. If the median income of the state is higher than your salary, then you do not qualify for this test while if the salary is higher than the median income of the state, then you will have to take a couple of tests more to determine whether the authorities should declare you bankrupt and absolve all your debts.