Today we have a special guest Tyler Jensen with Lebaron & Jenson law firm
an attorney specializing in bankruptcy in Layton and really excited to have him today...Tyler
Welcome
thank you I'm glad to be with you today Josh
I totally appreciate your time and know you're busy but
I have a question in that is
a lot of people ask
about
bankruptcy attorneys and they
seem to be all over the place
there's all kinds of attorneys
you specialize in bankruptcy... correct? correct
that's right, a heavy amount of my practice is bankruptcy related
so there's there's not just bankruptcy law but there are various options when
it comes to financial
problems financial distress so bankruptcy is one of those possibilities
I guess the question is how do you choose
a good
attorney
and more specifically
a bankruptcy
attorney when
you need to look into this now a days nowadays
the yellow pages have
pretty much
become obsolete and people
go looking online
you know you can post anything online and people can look different online
do you have some pointers for us that
if people are looking, what
they can do to choose a good attorney, a good criteria that they can be guided by
certainly... the the first
thing that I would look for
if i were looking for a bankruptcy attorney would be experience!
and you can look online or you can even make a direct phone call to the
bankruptcy attorneys
office and one of the questions that you can ask them is:
how long they've been practicing bankruptcy law?
how many cases they filed?
whether they file
chapter seven bankruptcies
and chapter thirteen bankruptcies
those are easy questions that any
office staff for attorney should be able to answer for you
is it important that they do the
different types of bankruptcies? does
that add to their experience if they do seven, eleven, thirteen or do they need to specialize in just one
type?
no it does add to their experience level
the different options for bankruptcy
require that somebody be able to direct their client
down the correct path
and I
view my role as an attorney, not so much as the decision for my client but as
the person that provides them with all of their options...
both bankruptcy and non bankruptcy options
so
when you are interviewing an attorney you want to have a comfort level that
whether you need help with the chapter seven bankruptcy chapter thirteen
bankruptcy chapter eleven bankruptcy
that
they feel comparable helping you with you with those types of bankruptcy and
they cannot offer you all of the options
and not be limited to one type of bankruptcy solution
so that is an important aspect of
"experience"
does
the number of years they've been doing this really
is that really an experience variable or not as much? I know
in a lot of things, yes I've been doing it for x_ number of years
but that doesn't always seem to be use the exact
variable that determines whether they are are
truly experienced
sure number of years is a baseline
there are many attorneys out there who've been around for a long time
and who have done some kind of bankruptcy work in the past
the difference between
uh... people who just have a long track record and people who are experienced in
my mind
is
there was a law change in October october
2005 that dramatically changed the law with respect to bankruptcy
if most of the person's experience came prior to 2005 then they
may not be as well-versed in
the updated bankruptcy code
so you want somebody who has filed
as many bankruptcies since 2005...Since that law changed
so sounds like the number one factor for experiences is:
the number of... the amount of bankruptcy they've done in recent years
and then go from there...
correct that's my view, you know nothing teaches you like
experience
ok great...that's good to know
any other tips on how-to interview / choose you know
when you're reading online
had to decide?
sure let the bankruptcy markets are very competitive field where you have many
attorneys who have
similar prices
so in my view one of the other factors that distinguishes one bankruptcy
attorney from another
is the service that you receive
and
you'll be able to get a sense
of the service that you will received by a going to consultation the attorney
most bankruptcy attorneys offer a free initial consultation so
people should have no fear
in going to the attorney
because it'll be a free consultation
the question
becomes when they attend that free hearing
what is their comfort level? how well taken care of do they feel?
and that also couples with my 3rd
element which is they need to have a connection
with their attorney
within that period that free consultation
they'll gain an understanding, not only about whether the person is answering
their questions and offering them
options but also get a sense
whether or not that person is the easy to work with
easy to talk to you
for most individuals
filing bankruptcy is the most stressful thing that made me have ever
done
their lives are already in disarray financially didn't they want
somebody there who
can understand where they're coming from
who is the kind to them...who doesn't look down at them...
and who has a genuine interest in helping them
now that makes sense its a professional service so as a
provider of that service you
probably see a lot of people and I imagine that for some professionals
it would easy to start brushing over over
these things and not really taking it personal
on a case-by-case scenario
certainly...like in every field we have certain people who have a good bedside
manner
I'll call it and those who don't have a good bed side manner
you know feeling comfortated
in your hour of greatest
distress is important
so
first experience then
how
do two-three can come together
is there a connection and did
they treat you
like a person? not just like another file on our
you know I'd probably add on to that as well that there are lot of resources online now that
talk about how other people have felt in that situation as well would you
say that is a good way for people to get a feel as well?
to how your experience might be?
absolutely like everything in life
anybody can post anything they want to on the internet however
those are informative
uh...
statements typically where people can gain canteen
information about the attorney
by looking at what other people's experiences were
my only caution I guess would be that
you know like in anything you can not please everyone
in there are certain clients or prospective clients
who have a realistic expectations
so
it's better if you find out for yourself.. if you think
you are going to have a comfort level it's better if you find out for yourself whether that
comfort level exists and
who the be correct attorney for you would be
so taken with a grain of salt, it might be a good initial
sorting process if there's
lots of good
then go in and if there's lots of bad that might be
some/a reason to toss it early on and not even waste your time but
you know the smart about it...correct
great thank you very much that was really
informative and really good advice on how
to
you'll find the person / bankruptcy attorney that you're going to connect with you know I think you're
right you see a lot of
offers out there...free consultation, this person will do that
but to find the person, that one that is confident that can really
help you and then two
be able to interact with them so they actually
can help you in that time of need
so great
again your phone number is 801-773-9488
is that correct
that's correct
I would welcome any viewers
to call me
801-773-9488 and I'm located in Layton,
Utah
and there's a
no pressure free consultation
like I stated at the beginning... you know bankruptcy is an option but may not
be your only option
but the only way for you to understand what those
the options are is to sit down with me
and talk about your situation the facts the details
the things that are giving you pressure and pressure
stress and then we can come up with the different
paths that you can take to resolve those issues issues
additionally anybody who
responds
to this video will receive a free credit report
and a credit report is valuable and useful because typically you would have to pay for them
and
they allow us a baseline to discuss
your financial condition
so it makes that consultation a lot meaningful it sounds like instead of just
talking generalities and hey I've got this and I've got that you're able to sit down
and really drill down
specifically on what's
really and actually happening
that's correct we can in talk in specific terms about specific debt
specific amounts of debt
payments
and talk about their credit and how the bankruptcy will impact their
credit
that's a tremendous value I imagine
thank you for offering that to our viewers and with that we'll
wish you luck and encourage everybody that has questions even if
too
expound on this further to reach out out to
Lebaron & Jensen bankruptcy attorneys
and
until next time
thanks Josh