The North Carolina Bankruptcy Information Blog

People are often deterred from filing bankruptcy by a nagging sense of pride that tells them that asking for financial help is somehow admitting defeat. Well, in this type of economy, it couldn’t be further from the truth. And if you need more evidence of that, consider the state of the federal bailout effort, which, while lacking in headlines, continues to be more aggressive today then when it was initially introduced.

It is true that the big bailout, the one for Wall Street, is in view of the finish line. Yet, federal support (tax money) is still being distributed to countless organizations, according to the highest official on the subject, Neil Barofsky.…

In this special series, entitled “Bad Ideas for the Bankruptcy Bound,” we’ll introduce what to avoid when bankruptcy is your next, best step.

Love may move mountains,
but money can crumble the strongest marriage.
– Ron, Lieber, The New York Times

Everyone who’s married knows: money can be a primary cause of marital strife. As a result, in this especially difficult economic climate—full of job insecurity, rising mortgage costs, health care uncertainties and other mounting money woes—many debtors who have accumulated all kinds of debt without the knowledge of their spouse are sometimes tempted to file for bankruptcy “secretly” and avoid sharing the financial “bad news” with their spouse.…

One would think that with the country going through the worst economic downturn since the Depression years that the government would be a bit more concerned with people trying to commit fraud when they file for bankruptcy. Yet in the last fiscal year (ending September 30) the government had conducted the fewest number of fraud investigations since 1986.

In the last fiscal year the number of people filing for bankruptcy has increased by approximately 30 to 35%; nearly 1.4 million people filed in fiscal 2008. This increase comes on the heels of two years (2006 and 2007) in which there was a decrease in filings.…