PR Newswire, July 18, 2010
If you can’t pay your debts, how do you pay the costs to go bankrupt?
SALT LAKE CITY, July 18 /PRNewswire/ — Utah Bankruptcy Law Center (UBLC) www.ublconline.com has made it a primary goal of the organization to help financially stressed consumers afford to file for bankruptcy. “The main mission of the UBLC law firm is to assist regular people and small businesses to navigate through the legal bankruptcy maze, and actually be able to afford to obtain debt relief,” says Sarah J Beck, UBLC’s supervising attorney. “Sadly, people find that the costs that most lawyers charge, coupled with the credit counseling fees required by Congress and the bankruptcy court filing fee, are the final straws that ultimately break their backs,” Ms. Beck believes.
Consumers feel creditors have the upper-hand and economic means to pulverize them in a financial fight over things like lenders liability and usury. In fact, Congress passed The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005, largely in response to the whining by bank and credit card company lobbyists, who said that it was too easy for consumers to file for bankruptcy. Forget that the majority of banks and other credit providers charge outrageous 20% to 80% interest, as well as disguised or hidden fees. It’s akin to the proverbial David and Goliath story of old: consumer as David, financial companies as Goliath. UBLC wants to help the consumer aim their stones strategically at the spots that will drop the greedy financial giants.
According to Ms. Beck, UBLC has established a means-based policy for establishing fees on both a client-by-client and circumstance-by-circumstance basis. UBLC will also help clients by financing their legal fees, free of charge. “If we could do all the legal work pro bono, we would in many cases. Unfortunately, that is not possible. The UBLC law firm would also go broke in the process,” said Ms. Beck.
“We get calls every day, where people express suicidal thoughts because of the extreme stress caused by their loss of a job, wage garnishments, repossessions – and the real biggie – a looming foreclosure of their home
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