Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Wisconsin

Alternatives for Dealing With Credit Card Collectors, Voluntary Receiverships, Negotiated Settlements

Even if you do not wish to file bankruptcy, you owe it to yourself to have at an initial conference with an experienced bankruptcy attorney, which can sometimes occur free of charge. By "experienced," I mean a lawyer who has experience as a bankruptcy trustee or is currently also a trustee but engages in private practice on the side. Such an attorney can advise you of your rights to claim wages and assets as exempt from garnishment under some circumstances. However, even if your attorney wins this argument, your employer may not appreciate all the paperwork and expenses of dealing with repeated garnishments, to say nothing of the toll upon your own mental health of going through this. Hence, bankruptcy may end being your best option. As an alternative, a WI circuit court voluntary receivership can sometimes have less impact upon your future credit than bankruptcy. That procedure, however, only temporarily freezes litigation--it does not give you a legal forgiveness of debts (known as a "discharge") like a bankruptcy does. If you have access to any reasonable amount of cash via a loan from relatives, etc., it is also sometimes possible for a credible bankruptcy attorney to negotiate a lump sum payoff by merely threatening bankruptcy. However, if there is more than one creditor, this process can become unworkable, since settling with one creditor will not solve your problem--the creditors who remain unpaid will still sue and harass you. Good luck!