jameswyre

Divorce and My Approach to Practice

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 21:47:41 GMT

Divorce and My Approach to Practice

Much like bankruptcy and probate, the attorney is dealing with fallout from unfortunate events in the client’s life. Accordingly, I try to be sensitive to the fact that the client generally doesn’t really want to be in my office spending money on something that likely stresses them out. While there are tasks that no attorney can shield a client from experiencing or suffering to some extent, my main approach is to do a great job but also to make sure I do not become part of the problems. What forms can that take?

I personally try to be responsive and available and reasonably quick to get to tasks. Over the years, many people have complained that a professional at the medical or legal level might have done a good or even great job (less often a bad job than you might expect), but that the customer service left much to be desired or was frankly awful. Maybe they felt they had to spend time chasing the attorney down to get answers. Having been a child of divorce and having myself gone through difficult divorce and custody battles (but happily married to the love of my life since 2005), I have some perspective much like a doctor who has undergone the same procedure he practices. So, I try to not become that lawyer who sits on an email or callback for an unreasonable time and who then becomes a part of the problems. In the past, even when it wasn’t the best financial idea, I have changed an area of practice or office methods mainly so that I do not become that problem. Of course, clients are well served by having realistic expectations and it is true that even the best law office cannot operate like a hamburger drive-thru in terms of quickness. The key word is reasonable on communications, and I am privileged that many clients have felt that I met their customer service goals unusually well and it made the difficult tasks easier.

I also try to address the client’s concerns and needs. Often, this is about listening. While sometimes I have to redirect a client from one course of action or topic to another due to the dictates of law and circumstances, I make sure I fully explain why that is necessary rather than pooh-poohing a client’s concern in a short and dismissive way. I try never to forget that a routine matter for me is often quite a stressful event for you. The goal is for clients to feel that I respect and validate their concerns and that I am indeed listening. That being said, I have to talk a fair amount also and prefer to have given somebody too much information rather than too little. Some attorneys will say that people don’t respond well and it is information overload, but I think clients are paying me in part for information. What has impressed me over the years is not how much people forget or do not absorb, but how much they do remember and absorb from what I tell them and how much they appreciate not being left in the dark or with only part of the picture.

Wills and Probate in Arkansas

Wed, 22 Feb 2023 18:40:26 GMT

Wills and Probate in Arkansas, A Brief Overview

It’s never too early to try to get a plan for an estate. If there is one lesson that families have learned, it is that a difficult time can be made even harder by a lack of planning. It can also prove to be more expensive to not have a plan. Accordingly, here are some basic issues in the nuts and bolts of why it is not just helpful but also even cheaper to hire an attorney than to fail to hire one.

Sometimes the default way assets are handled when somebody passes away turns out to be ok, but far more often the default way is like a trap for the unwary and does not accomplish what a person wants. In addition, some asset issues are far better and cheaper to handle than a full intestate probate case that might be needed for somebody who dies without a will. Talking to an attorney about your options and preparing a will and addressing other asset issues (beneficiaries of retirement accounts, etc) can save money and trouble for your family after you are gone.

What are some concrete examples? Well, if somebody had a relative with special needs or who is a minor, it is best to have a specific provision for that. If one relative got more help than the others while a person was alive the will can be used to balance that out. Also, a method to ensure that funds are held in trust for a minor would be better than leaving it up to perhaps an impersonal bank. There are many other possible things that could go wrong in an absence of planning. Most people would like to not overly burden their relatives already dealing with grief with a chaotic distribution of assets that takes longer and costs more than it could. Laws are passed mainly because somebody with money pushed the issue through their lobbyists and that tends to make the default choices the worst choices because the offerings beyond the default are highly valuable even for a family that isn’t made of millionaires. While wealthy people die without wills sometimes, usually they have planned ahead to take advantage of laws and those laws can work for non-wealthy people also. Caring for your family while alive makes a big difference, and caring for and planning how you leave the world can also make a big difference to your family to reduce the inevitable pain of that event.

Debt Collections and Bankruptcy in Arkansas

Mon, 23 Jan 2023 15:59:12 GMT

Debt Collections and Bankruptcy in Arkansas, A Brief Overview:

Despite world events and the Covid-19 pandemic, lawsuits are continuing at very high levels in Arkansas after a drop for part of 2020 and many national sources indicate that consumer debt is hiking at dramatically high levels particularly in 2022 according to the Fed. You are not alone if you find yourself in a situation where you simply cannot make ends meet without borrowing from high interest credit cards and internet loans and the like. Debts are seldom ignored by lenders like they were decades ago because even if a lender doesn’t want to spend time and money suing you, they almost always sell the account to a collection agency happy to sue over any amount. Sometimes the lender ‘writes off’ or ‘charges off’ the debt on their taxes and sometimes even get lazy and report the debt as zero rather than being more specific and this can lull you into a false sense of safety. No matter what your credit report says, that account can be sold to a collection agency and a lawsuit can be filed by that agency.

There are many ways a lender with a lawsuit judgment can hammer a person in Arkansas. These include garnishing bank accounts, garnishing wages, putting liens on your house or other land that prevent the sale of property without those debts being paid (note that there is a special motion only available in a bankruptcy that can remove that lien without paying it usually), and even a form of debtor prison that is being used more and more often. If an Arkansan ignores a judgment for more than 45 days by not filing a detailed list of their property and other info like your employer to help the lender collect the debt, that lender can have the judge issue a bench arrest warrant and have you picked up by the police and held until you post a bond that is usually in the amount of the debt. What to do?

Sometimes, the best solution is a Chapter 7 bankruptcy which is what I offer if you have not completed one within the last 8 years. This is cheapest and quickest form of bankruptcy ending after 4 months normally with most of that being a wait for notice deadlines to end. Debts that can be discharged are permanently forgiven and only a tiny percentage of cases have so much in property that they lose anything to a bankruptcy trustee. While this is a simplified summary, Chapter 7 will get rid of any debt unless it falls under limited exceptions. Credit cards to repo deficiencies to some taxes more than roughly 4 years old to even non-fraud benefit overpayments from governments like social security and unemployment are normally automatically discharged in a successful chapter 7. Typically, if you want to keep your house or car that is no problem as long as you are current on payments.

Exceptions to discharge that you cannot erase with chapter 7 include taxes filed after the April 15 ^th deadline (or October 15 if extended) or which are less than roughly 4 years old, debts with fraud or criminal aspects, student loans, or (if the lender objects) debts that were charged right before filing a bankruptcy. There is a possible student loan discharge under 11 USC 523(a)(8), but I do not handle these at this time as I feel they are so seldom granted that the expense of filing a special Adversary Proceeding is not justified by the chances of victory-but I am open to starting to do these if that changes enough.

Chapter 13 bankruptcy is also an option. Those are necessary if you are NOT current on a house or car but have resumed regular income and can afford a reorganization. I do not handle these anymore, but I maintain a list of excellent referral attorneys to send you to if you need one, so contact me anyway. Unfortunately, the attorney fees are kept artificially low in Arkansas such that few firms can handle these cases with good customer service, and I do strongly suggest that you consider only the ones on my list as I do not get such complaints about those on my list.