Using a lawyer serves several important roles. One is that only an attorney can represent a debtor in bankruptcy. You can cruise the net for typists, paralegals and preparer services that convince you that using a lawyer is a waste of money. In reality, these types of services are a waste of money. It has been my experience that more time is wasted on non-lawyer services because of the problems they cause. I have personally witnessed the disasters these people have created for debtors. It usually costs more hundreds, even thousands of dollars to fix or repair the problems created by these types. One example is back in 1994, I personally witnessed at a Meeting of Creditors, a woman who used a paralegal service to handle her Chapter 7 bankruptcy. She owned four pieces of real estate out of state. They were rentals. She used a well-known Tacoma paralegal outfit. She paid them more than $300! The trustee, who is now a Federal Bankruptcy Judge in Tacoma, nonchalantly asked the woman to turn over all properties immediately so he could liquidate them for her creditors. The woman panicked, "You can't do that, they belong to me!" She yelled. The trustee said, "No they aren't. They belong to your bankrupt estate and I have the right to sell them for your creditors." The trustee recommended that she talk to a lawyer immediately. That is the most extreme of examples, but all too true of what can happen if you don't have a lawyer. A lawyer worth his or her weight would never have allowed this to happen to this woman. I did not follow the outcome of this case.

Another important role of the lawyer is that if you are represented pro se, creditors can still contact you directly. Isn't that why you filed in the first place? To get them off your back? So why file pro se and still have them contacting you? They can still attempt to coerce you or convince you to do something against your better judgment to protect THEIR interest. A popular tactic of credit card companies is to try and get you to reaffirm (PAY BACK) their debt for a promise of a better interest rate, keeping your credit alive with promises that it helps you rebuild credit. A good bankruptcy lawyer will soundly reject these come-ons without wasting your time. If you represent yourself, they will likely tempt you to keep their debt alive and you could end up paying back more than if you had simply gone forward with discharge and you may not even get the ability to keep charging on their credit or charge account.

If your sole reason for avoiding hiring an attorney is to save money, you must recognize the pitfalls: To reaffirm a debt, you must schedule a separate court appearance in front of the judge, in addition to attending your Meeting of Creditors alone. You must get a bankruptcy judge's signature on a Reaffirmation Agreement in order for you to either reaffirm a mortgage, car loan, furniture loan or any other secured obligation. To date, I have witnessed very few judges agreeing to sign these documents with unrepresented debtors. They usually refuse to sign them. So you wasted time from work to go before a judge who probably won't sign the documents anyway.

I always applaud when somebody attempts to do their bankruptcy by themselves. Well, if that is the case, then do it yourself, do not tempt fate and use a typer, preparer or paralegal. They are not regulated. Usually they are not even around when it comes time for you to either make changes or amendments they didn't tell you that you might need later. These non-lawyer types are PROHIBITED from giving ANY legal advice whatsoever. They won't tell you this, because it defeats the purpose of using their services.