A person considering bankruptcy may sometimes hesitate to reach out to a lawyer because they are afraid that they cannot afford the legal fees to file bankruptcy. This is natural assumption since it is indeed true that many legal issues are expensive to resolve. Fortunately, bankruptcy is one of the most affordable legal issues you may face in life.
If you file chapter 7 bankruptcy in the Buffalo or Rochester districts, you will see prices advertised from as low as $695 to as high as $1,800. Our firm charges a reduced fee of $795 for clients on low, fixed income, and we typically charge around $1,000 for most other basic bankruptcy cases. In addition, there is a court fee of $335 to file chapter 7 bankruptcy.
We understand that even a fee of $1,000 may seem like a lot to some people, but it is really a small investment for the valuable benefit of eliminating your debt and getting a fresh start. And we are happy to set up payment plans for any clients that need them. On average, it takes our chapter 7 clients about 3 months to come up with the fees for the case, but we have some clients who take as long as a year or more.
Although we cannot file your case until the fees are paid in full (because we would be a creditor in your case if we tried to collect our fee after filing), it is completely up to the client how and when they wish to pay. We will never force you to pay the fees on a schedule you cannot afford and we honor any fee we quote for a full year or more.
Do not be afraid that bankruptcy is something you cannot afford. We will always charge you the lowest fee we can for your case and work our terms you can live with.
