A previous post on this blog discussed encouraging statistics showing that the number of bankruptcies has dropped, and some of this drop may be that more residents of Southern Tennessee and Northern Georgia have better health insurance that protects them from sudden and unexpected medical expenses.
The reality though is that many people in Bradley County and the surrounding areas run in to significant medical expenses, often with little or no warning. In some cases, the medical bills themselves pile up, and in other cases, a person chooses to pay off the doctors and hospitals with a credit card, but then the credit card bill piles up.
In either case, the end result is usually a lot of emotional stress, particularly when the bill collectors start calling and trying to contact a struggling family. Try as they might, the family could find that they just cannot catch up with their bills, particularly if the medical issue also left a person with a reduced income or unemployed outright. Left unchecked, a family’s creditors could start garnishing what wages they do still have, making their financial situation worse.
The good news is that our law office has been able to help lots of clients over our years of experience get out from under the grip of medical debt and related credit card bills. Because these types of bills are unsecured, meaning there is no collateral the creditor can take if the debt does not get paid, bankruptcy is a highly effective tool to get rid of these debts. Although we cannot promise that everyone who comes to our office will be eligible to file a Chapter 7 or that there won’t be trade offs, we do encourage anyone struggling with these types of debts to explore their options with our experienced legal staff. The end result may be a fresh financial start.
