I originally wrote this blog last December, but something happened today that made me want to add this story and re-post it. A client hired me to do a chapter 7 today. She first came to see me a year or two ago, but was so appalled by the concept of bankruptcy that she decided not to file. Instead she has spent the last year or two being harassed by creditors and visiting Lowell District Court for supplementary process hearings. What inspired me to re-post this blog is the way she found me. She had made a purchase at a department store. As the clerks usually do, the clerk asked her if she would like a store credit card. She declined, saying that she is already in default on several credit cards, and would not qualify. The department store clerk recommended that my new client see her bankruptcy lawyer. Fortunately for me, I was her bankruptcy lawyer. I think that it is important that people share their bankruptcy experience with other people. A lot of people are struggling needlessly with financial problems because they do not understand how effective bankruptcy is or how relatively painless bankruptcy can be. I am pleased to see that things are getting to the point where people are comfortable discussing their bankruptcy experience with strangers.
Last December I wrote:
I received this post yesterday from a bankruptcy lawyer in Washington State, which asks people to help him to help others during this holiday season by sharing the “Good News” about bankruptcy. Personally, I am not so sure that I would invoke the spirit of the holidays as a means of soliciting referrals, and I would hope that the “Good News” allusion was unintentional. Nevertheless, the basic point of the article is a good one:
“Plenty of people still face financial challenges. Can you think of anyone who needs a hand with figuring out their finances? I am sure that someone in your close circle of friends, family and coworkers can benefit from a little encouragement. If you open up a bit, you might help someone find the same freedom from debt that you have enjoyed through a bankruptcy case.”
Ten years ago, I had the largest bankruptcy practice in the City of Lowell, and it was almost entirely generated by advertising in the Yellow Pages. Today, I still have the largest bankruptcy practice in the City of Lowell, and it is almost entirely generated by client referrals. In fact, I had four (4) Bankruptcy Trustee hearings the other day, and all four clients were referred by former clients. Ten years ago, I used to complain that “people will talk about their accident lawyer; they will talk about their divorce lawyer; they will even talk about their criminal lawyer, but they will not, will not, will not talk about their bankruptcy lawyer”. The “Great Recession” changed that. Now I have people come to my office and tell me that they were referred to me by a co-worker who said “you should do what I did and contact Attorney Haskell and file bankruptcy”. Not only are people talking about their bankruptcy experience, but they are discussing it with friends, neighbors and coworkers. Ten years ago, most of my client referrals were of immediate family members.
I see this development as a positive, and not just because if I had to rely upon the Yellow Pages for clients, I would starve. In all other areas of my practice, my clients are, almost without exception, repeat clients or friends and family of former clients, and that is how it should be. There is no other reliable way to choose a lawyer, other than the referral by someone you trust. Like most lawyers, I have a website. I can tell you that every word on my website is true, but if you do not know me, then you have no way of knowing that. I once went on a website of a lawyer who claimed that he did nothing but consumer bankruptcies. Since I had never seen him in court, I looked up on PACER how many bankruptcy petitions he had actually filed. Back then, he had filed two (2)!!! He now advertises a more divers practice.
Similarly, the various rating sites cannot be trusted. Most attorney ratings are either by the attorneys themselves or their staffs, friends and family or by competing lawyers and their allies. The local bar had Google take down some guys ratings (I suspect I know who it was, but he used a pseudonym) a few years ago. He had slimed over two dozen local lawyers. The internet is anonymous, and that means you do not know who is really writing the reviews.
There are a number of lawyer referral services out there, but none of these actually vet the attorney in any meaningful way. Generally speaking, to be part of a lawyer referral service, a lawyer needs to pay a fee to the association or agency that is running the referral service, and advise the organization of what that lawyer’s specialties are, if it is not obvious. Even with the Better Business Bureau, which I am pleased to report gives me an A+ rating, which you can see here, nevertheless says that I am “not BBB accredited”, because I have not paid a fee to the Better Business Bureau. While I am pleased that they have given me their highest rating, they will not refer you to me because I have not paid for accreditation. Instead, if you ask the Better Business Bureau for a bankruptcy attorney in Lowell, they will send you to a lawyer in Woburn who only has an “A” rating. Maybe I should find out what the accreditation fee is.
You can get a little bit of objective information about us from our licensing board (http://massbbo.org/bbolookup.php), but only a little bit. If you look me up, you will see that I have been at it since December 21, 1987 and have managed to stay out of trouble for all that time. However, staying out of trouble only means that I have adhered to the minimum standards of my profession. It also says that I have malpractice insurance, which is a good thing. A lawyer who cannot get malpractice insurance would be a little scary to go to. Still knowing that I have stayed out of trouble and have insurance does not really tell you much about me. If you cannot get detailed information from my licensing board, and if you cannot trust my, or any lawyer’s, website, and you cannot trust what you read about individual lawyers on the internet or referral services, then where can you get good, reliable information about an attorney? The best answer in any area of practice is from a person you know and trust who has been to that attorney.
In the area of bankruptcy, getting information from a person you know and trust who has been to that attorney is especially important, because bankruptcy may still be the most misunderstood area of practice. Misconceptions about bankruptcy flourish to an extent not common in other areas of law. I suspect that part of the reason for these misconceptions is that the banks have put a lot of time, effort and money into trying to stigmatize bankruptcy, so that they can have their way with their victims, I mean customers. However, after the recent financial crisis in which so many people filed bankruptcy, including so many people who thought that their finances were solid, until one day they were not, bankruptcy lost much of its stigma. However, as a result of years of silence, it is still not that well understood. This is why it is important for people who have been through the bankruptcy process to share their experience with their friends and family who may also be in financial distress. People still believe that bankruptcy will ruin their credit, when in fact, bankruptcy is often the best, and sometimes the only, way to rebuild their credit. People still believe that bankruptcy will cause them to lose their home or car or other possessions, when in fact, bankruptcy is often the best, and sometimes the only, way to protect their home and car and other possessions. People still believe that bankruptcy is too stressful, when in fact, bankruptcy is often the best, and sometimes the only, way to stop the harassment and save their sanity. People still believe that bankruptcy will cause them to have wage garnishments, when in fact, bankruptcy is often the best, and sometimes the only, way to prevent wage garnishments. People still believe that bankruptcy is unaffordable for people in financial distress, when in fact, bankruptcy can be made to be very affordable by the right lawyer.
People do not know these things, because for years the people who actually filed bankruptcy have kept it a secret. Now that the stigma of filing bankruptcy has been removed, it is important that the people who know the system best share their experience with their friends and families.