Szaferman Lakind represents both debtors and creditors in bankruptcy proceedings. For individuals and small businesses, we advise our clients on how to manage their debts and negotiate with their creditors on their behalf, to reduce the amount of the debt or arrange payment plans to work their way out of debt. When the debts are too large to manage, or there are too many creditors to allow for a feasible plan of payments, we file Chapter 7 Petitions to discharge personal and business debts or Chapter 13 Petitions to allow individuals to keep their houses or cars.

When our clients are notified that people or businesses who owe them money have filed for bankruptcy, we protect their claims in the bankruptcy by filing Proofs of Claim and, when circumstances warrant it, Motions for Relief from the Automatic Stay to allow them to proceed against collateral for their debts or to pursue certain types of actions in state courts (such as evicting non-paying tenants or enforcing child support orders).

Sometimes, clients are notified that the Trustee in Bankruptcy is seeking to have them return money they received from the debtor within 90 days of the bankruptcy filing, known as a “Preference Claim”. There are some defenses to Preference Claims that require sophisticated financial analyses and careful reading of the Bankruptcy Code. Szaferman Lakind has achieved a great deal of success in defending our clients against Preference Claims, resulting in much reduced payments from what was demanded and even dismissal of the claims entirely.