Legal Question in Bankruptcy in Missouri

Legal Aid of Western Missouri runs a volunteer attorney project. The phone # of the coordinator is (816) 821-8020. As with most most endeavors to provide free legal assistance to the needy, it is necessary to qualify for this. If you aren't quite needy enough to qualify for free, and don't think you can afford an attorney, you can start researching the subject on your own. I'd start with the court's website. Then take a look at attorney websites to gain a greater understanding.

A couple of caveats: While bankruptcy is primarily governed by federal law, state law impacts bankruptcy practice as well. So try to limit your searches to Missouri. And bankruptcy is a complex area of law. I spend a substantial amount of time keeping up with changes and double-checking less common issues as they crop up in my practice. Hiring an attorney to do a "basic" chapter 7 will probably cost around $2500. I've known of cases where debtors decided to do it themselves and it cost them far more. The problem is that unless you know what the law is, you don't know if it's cost-effective to hire an attorney or not. Take a look at perhaps, the LawGuru website at the questions that begin, "I filed bankruptcy and now . . ." , followed by a description of the disaster the person is now facing. In most of these, there is no mention of an attorney, who probably could have headed off the problem before it was actually a problem.