“Angie” filed a bankruptcy a couple years ago with some other lawyer.  Her case was “dismissed.”  She emailed me yesterday, looking for a lawyer she could “trust.”

“I filed two years ago and my lawyer filed too early from my one years ago and it was dismissed. I paid alot and didn’t get my bankruptcy. Trust and money are issues. Please Advise.” –Angie.

There are two ways bankruptcies end up–and the words look a lot a like.  ”Discharged” means the bankruptcy is approved.  ”Dismissed” means it’s thrown out.

So, how often are bankruptcies “dismissed?”

I took a quick look at how many have been dismissed here in Alexandria VA in the first four months of the year.  Here’s what I found out.

People who filed on their own–”pro se” is lawyer-Latin for “on your own”–had 175 bankruptcies dismissed.  That’s a big number.   If you look here, you can see that 243 people filed bankruptcy on their own during that same time.  So there were 72 dismissals for every hundred cases filed “pro se.”  A dismissal rate of 72%.    That gives you an idea that most people who try to do bankruptcy without a lawyer, end up failing.

Next, you see 70 cases were dismissed for lawyer Nathan Fisher.  Is that bad?  Well, consider that Nathan Fisher is the busiest bankruptcy lawyer in Northern Virginia.  He filed 361 cases and had 70 dismissed.  That’s a dismissal rate of 19%.  Way lower than people who did it on their own.

I'm the second busiest bankruptcy lawyer in Northern Virginia. January - April 2012, I filed 202 cases, and had 8 cases dismissed.

I’m the second busiest bankruptcy lawyer in Northern Virginia.  January – April 2012, I filed 202 cases, and had 8 cases dismissed.  That’s a dismissal rate of 4%.  That’s way, way lower.

Is dismissal always a bad thing?

Sometimes you want your case to be dismissed.

Here one example.   “Al” filed bankruptcy with me on February 3, 2012.  On February 6, he was rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery.  Even with insurance, his deductible is over seven thousand dollars!

Fortunately for “Al,” he was too sick to make it to his bankruptcy hearing–and his case was dismissed.

Now, he can come back and file again–and his new bankruptcy covers those hospital bills.

Here’s a second example of wanting a case dismissed.  ”Erin” files Chapter 13 bankruptcy–a payment plan.   Her only debts are the first and second mortgages on her house, and student loans.  She’s current on the second, six months behind on the first.  After she files the Chapter 13, the first mortgage gives her a loan mod, and puts the late payments on the end.  ”Erin” then is happy to have her case dismissed; there’s no need for her to stay in bankruptcy.

I can think of other examples–some I don’t want to put in writing–of why you sometimes want your bankruptcy to get dismissed.  So a dismissal is not always a bad thing.  

Is dismissal always a good thing?

Well, no.  Most people, like “Angie” in my example, file bankruptcy because they need a discharge.   And when their case is dismissed, they are upset.  Like “Angie”, those people paid a lot of money and didn’t get their bankruptcy discharge.  Usually, when a bankruptcy is dismissed, that’s not what the plan was when the bankruptcy started.

How Do different Lawyers Stack Up?

Here’s a summary of the Top Five lawyers and “pro se” filers in Alexandria.

Nathan Fisher       Filed  361    Dismissed  70         Dismissal Rate 19%

“Pro Se”               Filed  243    Dismissed 175        Dismissal Rate 72%

Robert Weed      Filed  202   Dismissed    8       Dismissal Rate   4%

Tommy Andrews   Filed 135     Dismissed  19         Dismissal Rate  14%

Katherine Martel    Filed  71     Dismissed  18         Dismissal Rate  25%

Every person is different and every case is different.   Some cases are harder to avoid a dismissal.  Some cases you may want a dismissal.  And you cannot expect results in your case will match what others have done.

But I’ve done this chart for “Angie”  who wanted to know if she could “trust” a lawyer to handle her case, to get her a discharge; not have her case dismissed.

“What will they take?”

When you file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the Chapter 7 trustee can take and sell your non-exempt assets.  (The proceeds are used to pay your creditors.)

Most people don’t have “non-exempt” assets, so the trustee doesn’t take and sell anything.  But that happy result often requires careful planning and detailed knowledge of exemption law.

Bankruptcy law is established by the Federal government. But the law gives each state control of exemptions for your house and car, clothing and furniture.

Bankruptcy is set up by the Federal government, but the law gives each state control of many exemptions.  Here’s a look at the exemptions that apply in Virginia.

Will they take my house?

During the real estate crisis, most people in Northern Virginia lost any equity they had in their real estate.  In bankruptcy, bad is often good.  Having no equity is often good, because Virginia is right at the bottom of the real estate equity you can keep.

Your Virginia “homestead” exemption is $5000.00.  That’s found in Code of Virginia 34-4.    That compares unfavorably to 100 acres of Texas, Or 160 acres of Florida.   If the bankruptcy trustee can take and sell your house, give you $5000, and have money left over to pay your creditors, that’s what he is supposed to do.

Now Virginia does provide much better protection for married couples.  Under “tenancy by entirety,” real estate that belongs to a married couple cannot be taken for the debts of only one.  So a married couple can protect unlimited real estate equity, as long as they are not joint on credit cards or other debts.

What about my car?  Or my truck?  My tools?

Most places, you can’t get to work without a car.  Many people owe more on their cars than it’s worth.  But for those whose car is paid for, or almost paid for, Virginia law allows you to protect $6,000 equity in your car.

Some people can also claim “tool of the trade” protection for a vehicle.  If you are cab driver, your car is a tool of your trade.  If you are a painter, then your truck, along with your ladders and brushes, are your tools.  Virginia has a $10,000 exemption for tools.

The Virginia exemptions for cars and tools are pretty good, compared to many other states.

Other stuff

You are allowed to exempt most of your stuff.   Your pets, your wedding and engagements rings, and your family bible.

Clothing up to $1000.  Household furnishings, $5000.  I’ve never seen a bankruptcy trustee be interested in people’s normal clothing–you’d have to sell a lot of it at yard sale prices to get to $1000.  Somebody with a lot of electronics might have more than $5000 in household furnishings.  In Northern Virginia, where I am, the bankruptcy trustees don’t have time to mess with that.  In more rural parts of the state, I’ve sometimes heard of it.

One firearm, $3000.  That was added in July 2011.

What about money in the bank, retirements, places where there’s money?

Your retirement funds–401(k), 403(b), 457, IRA’s–are all exempt under Federal bankruptcy law and also the Code of Virginia.  Virginia also exempts the retirements of state and local government employees.

The thrift savings plans of federal employees are protected by Federal law.

What about money in the bank?

The protection for your money in the bank depends on where it came from.

Your “wages’–including commission, bonus, almost anything–is three quarters exempt under Virginia law.  That protection follows the money when it hits your bank account–as long as you can trace it.  Having direct deposit really helps with that tracing.

Your Social Security is exempt, and keeps that exemption when it hits your bank.

Disability payments are protected under Virginia law exempting sickness insurance.

Money you receive as a result of a personal injury, typically a car accident, is exempt in Virginia.

If you have cash or investments that don’t fall into any of these categories, you can use that Virginia $5000 “homestead” if you don’t need it to cover your real estate equity.   If you have cash value life insurance, you need to use that homestead exemption to protect that.

College Savings plans

Money that’s been in a 529 college savings plan for your child or grandchild (not yourself) is exempt if it’s been there for more than two years.  If it’s been there for more than one but less than two years, $5000 is exempt.

However, Virginia gives better protection for money in the Virginia 529 Plan–the specific 529 set up by the Commonwealth of Virginia.  There’s no waiting period for the exemption to take effect under the law for the Virginia 529 plan.

PS:  My mom “put my name on” her bank account

Under Virginia law, money in the bank belongs to the person who put it in.  (Except husband and wife are 50-50.)  So if mom put the money in, then it’s still protected, even if mom put your name on the account.  (Now if mom is giving you the money, that would be a different story.)

My name is Lori Rupp and I’m Mr. Weed’s Chapter 13 paralegal.

I’ve been a bankruptcy paralegal since 1998 and before I worked for Mr. Weed I even worked for a Chapter 13 Trustee in Michigan for two years.

Chapter 13 bankruptcy is more complicated than a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in a lot of ways. One of those ways is you are required to send the Chapter 13 Trustee a copy of your tax return every year while you are in the bankruptcy.

Here are the rules about your taxes in Chapter 13:

1. You are required by law, 11 USC 521(f)(4)(B),  to send the Chapter 13 Trustee a full copy of your federal and state tax returns every year that you are in bankruptcy. That means the returns themselves and all the attached schedules. It doesn’t matter if you owe or are getting a refund, you have to send a copy of the return no matter what. The Court doesn’t remind you and the Trustee doesn’t remind you. You are just supposed to remember to do it on your own.

2. You are not allowed to file for an extension on your taxes while you are in bankruptcy. You are required to file your taxes on time every year.

3. Depending on which Judge you have, you might be required to send the Trustee any refund you receive over $250.00. If you have any questions about sending your refund to the Trustee you should contact me and I can help you.  (But you need to send in the tax forms, even if there is no refund!)

Last year, a lot of people didn’t send the Trustee copies of their return. As a result, the the Chapter 13 Trustee, Thomas Gorman,  filed motions to dismiss all of those cases. That left us, and the people who hadn’t sent the returns in on time, scrambling around at the last minute trying to stop their case from being dismissed when the whole thing could have easily been prevented by sending the returns in when they were required.

One Judge joked about the guillotine for people in chapter 13 who don't send in their tax forms.

And the Judges were mad! They were not sympathetic because they expected everyone to be responsible and send their taxes in on time.  The Judges did not know before that this had been such a problem, and they said it better not be a problem again.

Judge Robert Mayer said his answer to excuses would the “the guillotine.”   (Only a joke, of course, but a joke that means he is really mad!  Usually, Judge Mayer is a very patient guy.)

So this year, we’ve become more involved in making sure everyone gets their tax returns to the Trustee. In February, we sent out a letter to all of our Chapter 13 clients asking them to send their tax returns to me. That way, we can keep track of who sent their returns in and who didn’t and I can send the returns to the Trustee via UPS with a tracking number so we know they are received. We don’t want to have to scramble around again this year like we did last year!

After the February letter, some people sent me their taxes but a lot didn’t. They have continued to trickle in but we are still missing returns for more than half of our clients and they are due today! Since we haven’t gotten the response we had hoped for Mark Sullivan, the attorney who’d have to go to Court on the motions to dismiss, has started calling people reminding them they need to send their taxes in.

We do not want your case to get dismissed over something as simple as sending your tax returns to the Trustee.

So if you haven’t already, please send a complete copy of your 2011 Federal and State taxes to me immediately so I can check your name off my list and forward them to the Trustee.

You can fax them to me at (703) 635-2848, you can email them to me at lori@robertweed.com or you can mail them to me at Law Offices of Robert R. Weed, Attn: Lori Rupp, 7900 Sudley Rd., Suite 409, Manassas, Virginia 20109.

It’s really important that this get taken care of right away!

We sue debt collectors and creditors a dozen times a month for doing illegal things to our clients–before bankruptcy or after the bankruptcy.

We don’t make a lot of money doing that.  But I think big companies can act like small children–they do what they can get away with.   I don’t let them get away with much when it comes to my bankruptcy clients.  That’s part of my job as a lawyer.

Bankruptcy Lawyer Mark Sullivan beat Navy Federal in court, when Navy Fed claimed their collection calls were "merely administrative."

Most times, once we sue them, they apologize, and send us a check; and we agree not to bad mouth them.  (I can’t write about those.)

Last year, March 2011, Navy Federal decided to fight us.  (Navy Federal is my least favorite financial institution; and I may be their least favorite bankruptcy lawyer.)

They had continued to call my client–Jennifer–after she filed bankruptcy the end of February, 2011.

Jennifer never actually talked to them.  They just left messages on her phone.  A total of 16 voice mails over the space of a couple weeks.

Making collection calls after the bankruptcy is filed, violates “the automatic stay.”  The stay tells the whole world to stop “any act…to collect” a debt from the person who just filed the bankruptcy.

I asked Mark Sullivan, the top lawyer in my Sterling office, to go after them.  And he did.

Navy Fed argued that they were not trying to “collect” a debt.  That the “purpose of the calls was merely administrative.”  (The person who claimed the calls were not collection calls was a collection manager at Navy Federal.   I thought that was pretty funny.)

Mark made short work of them at trial last fall.  Bankruptcy Judge Robert Mayer awarded $500 in damages to Jennifer.  (Different judges in different parts of the country would have gone higher.)

After a second fight, the Judge also awarded us $2585 in attorneys fees and costs.  That spilled over into January.

Just last month, Navy Fed wrote us a check.  The check cleared the bank.

The whole fight took 13 months.  It was worth it.

I thought you’d like this story.

At your bankruptcy hearing, you are supposed to show your bankruptcy trustee a picture ID and evidence of your social security number.  The best way to prove your social security number is with your social security card.  However, a W-2 will also work.  (At the bankruptcy court here in Alexandria, VA, your own tax form is usually not good enough.)

For self employed people, there may be no W-2.  So what to do?

Being self employed myself–and having lost my own social security card ten or more years ago–I decided to see how hard it is to go to the social security office and get them to send me a new card.  (Since I’m near age 65, I thought a probably should do something about it, anyway.)

I hadn't seen my social security card in ten years. So I went to their office and got a new one.

It wasn’t too bad.    I went to the social security office in Manassas, a few blocks from the Prince William Court House.  The whole process took an hour and twenty minutes.  Wait in line, fill in a form, wait some more, show my driver’s license to somebody, who put info into a computer and had a new card mailed to me.  (They will also give you a letter on the spot, saying what your social security number is.)

To fill in the form, I needed to know what my social security number is, know my parents names and know where I was born.  (The form asks for my parents social security numbers, but not having them wasn’t a problem–there was a box to check unknown.)  And of course I needed my Virginia driver’s license.  A passport would also work.

Besides Manassas, they also have offices in Alexandria, Arlington and Fredericksburg.

You can also apply by mailing to your nearest social security office.  But that doesn’t work very well.  Why?  You need to mail your ORIGINAL picture id.  I don’t recommend mailing your driver’s license to social security and driving around without it for a month until they get back to you.  If you have a passport and you aren’t going anywhere, you could mail that.

At least once a month, we have bankruptcy clients who only figure out at the last minute that they don’t have their social security card.  As I said, a W-2 or a 1099 will also work.  But in this security conscious time we are living in, probably getting a replacement social security card issued is a good idea.

Ken and Mary filed bankruptcy with me three and a half years ago.  They had built back to a credit score in the high six hundreds.

Until last week.  Last week, Bank of America “updated” their credit report, replacing “bankruptcy” in 2008 with foreclosure, January 2012.  Ken first noticed this on Experian, but when I had him check, it also showed up on Trans Union and Equifax.  That wrecked their good credit.

We’re working with Ken right now to send letters to each of the three credit bureaus (with copies to Bank of America) asking them to fix it.

If asking nicely doesn’t work, we’ll sue.  (Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you usually have to do a dispute letter, or even two, before you can sue the creditor or credit bureau.   In fact, under the law, you really don’t have the right to get a correction on your credit report.  You only have a right to a“reinvestigation.”  If your disputes don’t get it fixed, you have to sue–not because it’s wrong, but because they didn’t investigate.)

We sue credit bureaus half a dozen times each month or more.  We sue to make sure that our clients’ bankruptcies are properly reported.  It seems strange to some people that we sue in order to get bankruptcy on people’s credit reports.  That’s because  some people still think that bankruptcy is the worst thing you can have on your credit report.  That’s totally wrong.

As Ken told me, updating bankruptcy to foreclosure “killed my credit score.”  It’s a whole lot easier to build back to good credit after bankruptcy than it is to build back after a foreclosure.  Why?  Because bankruptcy means you don’t still owe the money.  Foreclosure means you still do.  Nobody wants to lend you money at a fair price on a new car or new house if there’s an old foreclosure out there that can garnish you.

People who lend you money want to know two things–can you pay, and do you.  If you have a foreclosure sitting there, it tells potential lenders that you don’t pay (that’s the foreclosure) and you can’t pay–because you are still in danger of getting garnished.

When you file bankruptcy, that “can’t pay” changes to “can pay.”  That’s because they know you don’t owe anybody any money.  Then if you get some low balance credit cards, charge a little every month, and pay them every month, now you have “can pay,” and “does pay.”

That’s why it’s so important after your bankruptcy to make sure all those charge offs, lates and foreclosures are all updated to show bankruptcy.  Only a handful of lawyers in the country do that.  I’m one.

Here’s an email I got yesterday.

“Dear Mr. Weed,

“Just an update.  I did receive my clearance and thank you for your help.  I have a new question for you.  My mortgage on my house was included in my bankruptcy.  I have been paying it for the last year.  They recently changed my rate and raised my monthly payment by $1000 a month.  They offered me a refinance package that would only raise my payments by $400 a month.

“Here is my question.  If I accept the refinanced mortgage, am I still covered by the bankruptcy, or is this a brand new loan and would no longer be covered by my bankruptcy from 3 years ago. ”

The answer is good news.  The bankruptcy does still protect you.  As long as you do NOT sign a reaffirmation for the mortgage during your case (one lawyer says reaffirming a mortgage is “nuts”), then the law still protects you with that lender for as long as you own that house.

(It also protects you from any new company or debt collector who later takes over that loan.)

You can pay for three or four years; and then decide to move out and owe them nothing.  You can get a loan modification, pay for a while, and then change your mind and move out and still owe them nothing.

You can sign in blood that you promise to keep paying; and then change your mind and move out and you are still protected.

For how long? People ask me.  Until the house is paid for.  Once the house is paid for, you can’t give it back to the mortgage company. Why?  Once the house is paid for, there’s no mortgage company to give it back to.

(This is an improvement that came into the law in 1978.  Under the Bankruptcy Act of 1898, a new promise brought back the old debt.

(Now when you get back to good credit, if you refinance the loan with a new mortgage company–maybe to get a better interest rate–then you have a new loan.  And you are back on the hook.)

If you do change your mind and move out, make sure you keep paying the HOA.  After bankruptcy, you still owe the HOA for as long as you are the owner of the house.

After filing bankruptcy, people say they sleep better. That’s one of the exciting findings of a new survey, done through SurveyMonkey.com, of those who filed bankruptcy in 2009 and 2008.

In all, 93% said life was better because they filed bankruptcy.  Nearly all, 88%, said better sleep was one of the reasons why.

Eighty eight percent of people in recent survey said sleeping better was one reason life was better because they filed bankruptcy.

Studies show that financial stress plays a major factor in sleep disorders.

Lack of sleep, in turn, increases your risk of cancer and heart disease, and affects both your mental and physical abilities.

Sleep is so important for everything we do.  So it’s no surprise that people mentioned it as one of the big reasons their lives are better because they filed bankruptcy.

Here is a typical comment from Allana, who filed bankruptcy in the winter of 2009.  ”I’m no longer stressed out all the time, I can sleep at night, and I’m just happier in general.”

When the survey asked people what advice they would have for you, here’s what some of them said.

Erik:  ”Filing bankruptcy gives you a fresh start and can bring peace to your household.  It was my last hope.  I wish I had done it sooner.”

Diana:  ”I am living life again, not stressed and felling hopeless.”

Darren & Naemi:  ”We were very scared, but decided to go ahead with our decision; and we are so glad that we did.  Now we can sleep well like normal people.”

Susan:  ”Saved my life and made the stress go away.”

The survey comments, looking back over two or three years, are backed up by what people tell me almost every day.  ”After I met with your paralegal, I got my first good night’s sleep in months.”

The survey was conducted September – December 2011.  Participants were one hundred eighty four people who filed bankruptcy with the Law Office of Robert Weed in 2008 and 2009.

Filing bankruptcy gets rid of most of your debts; but it does not necessarily get rid of most of your problems.

For some people, real estate that they already moved out of is a problem.  Filing bankruptcy does not mean the bankruptcy court takes over your house.   Unless the bankruptcy trustee thinks they can sell it and make some money to pay people off, the trustee will abandon the house.  That means, it goes back to you and the bank.

It goes back to you and the bank, meaning you are still the owner.  You are the owner until the bank takes over; and sometimes the bank is in no hurry.   So you still have all the obligations of the owner.  Paying the HOA or condo associations; mainting code standards (like cutting the grass), and paying the real estate taxes.

For several years I’ve told people–be sure you pay the hoa; and make sure you cut the grass; but you can probably ignore the taxes.

Why did I tell people they could safely ignore the real estate taxes?  At the foreclosure sale the county will require the taxes to be paid then, and the county will wait for the foreclosure.

What I’m seeing around here is that the counties are tired of waiting.  In the last two months, I’ve seen two people get garnished for real estate taxes on homes that are sitting empty, waiting for foreclosure.

"I'm changing what I tell people about paying the real estate taxes after bankruptcy."

Why this change?  The counties are desperate.  Counties get a whole lot of their revenue from real estate taxes.  With real estate value down, county revenues are down.  The Obama stimulus plan made up a lot of the gap.  Republicans in 2011 blocked doing more of that.

So the counties are desperate.  And they are starting to garnish the homeowners for the unpaid real estate taxes.   The county needs the money NOW and they don’t have to take your to court to garnish you–they can just do it.

So, should you pay the real estate taxes? Not if the bank is paying, which they often do–even if you’ve stopped paying the bank.

Before you do anything, call the county and see if the bank has paid them.

But if the bank isn’t paying, should you?  It’s certainly the safer choice.

You probably want to make a payment arrangement.  Because if the bank does finally foreclose, then the buyer will have to catch up and you’ll be off the hook.  You don’t want to pay any faster than you have to.

(Of course this reinforces my advice: until there’s an actual foreclosure sale, DON’T MOVE OUT.)

PS  Nothing is more local than county government.  Lots of people all over the country post questions on my website.  And I’m glad to answer what I can.  (Thank you for your interest, too.)  But your guess will be better than mine about what county governments are doing in PA or NV or FL.  I don’t even know anything about Virginia, away from the counties in the DC area.  Sorry.

I’m one of a handful of lawyers in the country who promises to fight the credit bureaus–sue them if necessary–after your bankruptcy is over.

I want to make sure that all the debts discharged in your bankruptcy are reported by the credit bureaus as “discharged in bankruptcy.”  That should be automatic, but it’s not.  Let me tell you how I found out.

This young couple drove up from North Carolina, sat in front of me, and pounded on my desk.   It was 1999, but I still remember.  ”We filed bankruptcy with you in 1996; our credit report still isn’t right.  You didn’t finish your job.”

Up ’til that time, I had never looked at an after-bankruptcy credit report.  Never talked about it with any other lawyers;  never had it come up at any of our meetings or conventions.

But when I thought about it, these folks were right!  When a bank, or car dealer or mortgage company wants to know if bankruptcy cleaned up your credit, where do they go?  Do they look at the records of the bankruptcy court?  No.

They look at your credit report.

If the credit report isn’t right, I had to agree the lawyer (me) hadn’t finished the job.

By 2001, I had seen hundreds of after-bankruptcy credit reports.   And I was shocked.  Three of the major credit card companies constantly ignored the bankruptcy.  They left late status, charge offs, past due balances just parked on people’s credit reports.

A big reason it took people seven years to get back to good credit, is most people NEVER got their credit reports right.  The problem wasn’t the bankruptcy.  It was those bad debts, charge offs and past dues that were left parked there.

The more I found out, the madder I got.  I started suing the creditors and the credit bureaus.  I urged other lawyers to sue them, too.  I spoke on this twice at the National Convention of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA).  And once at the credit report conference of the National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA).

Today things are a lot better. Two months after bankruptcy, a little more than half of the people now have their credit reports right. That still means a little less than half the people, do not have their credit reports right.

Today, things are better.  Within two months after the bankruptcy is over, a little more than half the credit reports I see now are right.

But that still means, a little less than half the credit reports are not right.    When your case is over, there’s about a one in three chance that at least one of your debts will be parked on your credit report as a bad debt.  It will look like you still owe the money.

A handful of lawyers have been suing on this for the past seven or eight years.  A couple of the top credit report lawyers in the country also got involved.  My good friend Charles Juntikka, from New York City, brought in David Boies, who is famous for doing billion dollar law cases.

With all that, still three or four people out of ten people coming out of bankruptcy will have at least one creditor who says you still owe the money.

I still work with all our clients, to fix their credit reports when your case is over.  If there’s a bad debt showing there, we draft up a letter for you to sign, asking the credit bureaus nicely to fix it.  If that doesn’t work,  we write up a second letter.

If two letters don’t work, we sue.   On average, we sue credit bureaus two or three times a month, to get people’s credit reports right.

Recently, we took a look at the records of all the courts here in Northern Virginia.  I wanted to see who else around here sued the credit bureaus.  As far as I can tell, we are the only bankruptcy lawyers in Northern Virginia that do.

If you select me to be your lawyer, and get our help to get your credit report right, you can thank those people who drove up from North Carolina and told me I didn’t finish my job.