Legal Question in Bankruptcy in Massachusetts

Re: Free bankruptcy consultation

While going to jail may be an exaggeration, using credit cards when you know you can't pay for the things you buy could be considered a type of fraud - probably not criminal but at the same time the debt incurred in that context could possibly result in a chapter 7 bankruptcy discharge being denied. So, the attorney he saw today may have been trying to scare him, which it obviously did. But maybe not enough - is your son working? Your question makes no reference to your son having income. My instinct - without meeting your son and just based on what you say here - is that the attorney did your son a favor. Not using the credit cards, combined with getting a job and making at least some payments on the credit cards over the next 90 to 120 days, is very good advice. Bankruptcy is not a magic wand, and also is not something to enter into lightly. At the end of 90 to 120 days, if you son still can't manage his finances, then bankruptcy may be a solution IF combined with a lesson in financial management. But only if he gets a job

And yes, there is a "jail". If one or more of the credit card companies were to sue him for the balance owed and get a judgment, the judge could force him to find a job in order to make payments on the debt, failing which he possibly could spend some time in jail. It probably would not be "criminal" jail time, but jail time is jail time.