You’ve Decided to Hire an Attorney for your Personal Injury… Now what?

You’ve been injured in an accident. You’ve met with an attorney, who has decided to represent you. Now what?

The process of recovery for a personal injury is necessarily drawn out in many cases. There is a great deal of fact-finding and information gathering required before a settlement can be discussed. Generally, an attorney will consider certain factors and information when determining the merit of a particular case and a ball park of what amount the injured party may be able to recover as some form of relief.

My small business has been sued, Do I need a lawyer?

Answer: Yes. If your business has been served with a lawsuit you need to hire an attorney for your business to respond in court. When a person is sued, or served with a lawsuit, they have the option to appear on their own behalf in court to answer the charges. A business, however, is a fictional person in the eyes of the law, and only a licensed attorney can represent a business in court under the Arizona Rules. The law recognizes a corporation or LLC as a different person from the owner or officer, and since the corporation itself cannot appear in court, it cannot appear to represent itself. Although in some scenarios such as small claims matters the Plaintiff may not know any better and therefore may not raise the issue, technically Arizona law requires that a business be represented by legal counsel.

If You’ve Been Injured, It May Not Be in Your Best Interest to Accept a Settlement without Speaking to an Attorney First

Accidents and injuries are unfortunate events that most of us have to deal with at some point in our lives.  Over the years, our attorneys have helped hundreds of clients obtain fair compensation for their losses.  We have represented individuals involved in a wide array of matters including  motor vehicle accidents, slip and falls from improperly maintained premises, animal bite injuries, and a host of similar matters.  

The Difference Between the Discharge and Closing of a Bankruptcy Case

Toward the end of bankruptcy are two separate events: one is receiving a discharge, and the second is the closing of the case.  In almost every case the discharge is granted and an order is sent by the courts about 110 days after the filing of the bankruptcy.  Once the discharge is entered the automatic bankruptcy stay ends, and creditors are allowed to foreclose if they still have a valid lien.  In most case the creditors with valid liens wait for the case to be closed or pay for a motion for relief from the automatic bankruptcy stay so that they have a court order stating that they can foreclose.

Receiving the discharge does not mean that the case is closed, as the trustee will still need to determine what assets if any need to be collected, and distributed to creditors.  This process can take a few months or over a year.

The trustees operate under a set of guidelines directing them to make sure a case is fully administered, with all assets collected and distributed within 2 years from the filing date.  Trustees want to get things handled as fast as possible, but they have a lot of cases, and may take time to get to your case.  If the trustee determines that there are no assets the case will close a lot faster than if there are assets.

Selling an Underwater Home

Estimates are that more than half of the homes in Arizona are underwater, meaning the amount owed on the mortgage balance exceeds the current value of the property.  A homeowner that wants to sell an underwater home is faced with the unpleasant task of bringing money to the table in order to pay off their loan balance.  The alternative is to either “short sell” the home or to just walk away and let the home go to foreclosure.

Over the past few years I have observed several homeowners that have listed their homes at a price that would just be enough to cover the payoff of any loans and the closing costs.  However, the listing price ends up being much higher than the current value and the home just sits there with no interest from potential buyers.  If they do happen to find a buyer that wants to buy the property, the deal often falls apart when an appraisal for a value that is much lower than the contract price prevents the buyer from obtaining a sufficient mortgage.  I have seen properties go through this process for two years or more, only to end up in foreclosure when the seller falls hopelessly behind in their loan payments.

Several years ago, it was very difficult to short sell a property.  The banks were not prepared to handle the rising number of requests for short sale relief, and it would take months to get an approval.  By the time the approval was obtained, the property would have dropped further in value, and the potential buyer would no longer want to purchase the property.  However, foreclosures continued to rise, and banks soon realized that they were in a much better position short selling a property than going through a foreclosure which took longer and netted them less.  These days many banks are encouraging underwater homeowners to short sell their home and the process has been expedited.  There still is quite a bit of paperwork that needs to be completed to obtain the approval, but most real estate agents have negotiators that will work with a seller to that end.  A SHORT SALE WILL NEGATIVELY IMPACT YOUR CREDIT, but your credit score will improve again over time.