How is telling someone to attempt to work out a low monthly payment over declaring bankruptcy terrible advice? lol. "No offense, but" -- dis guy. If you're going to be smug, at least get your facts right. You have no idea what financial position he is in to make $50-100 payments per month until he gets back on solid footing. You're an attorney, so you should know better about judgments -- collection agencies don't pursue judgments, that only happens when they can't collect and it gets kicked down to the collection attorneys who then files a lawsuit. By statute, interest does accrue -- by reality, interest is never attached when working out a settlement/payment plan. A judgment is NOT worse than Ch7 (what?!) -- a lot of civil judgments are agreed judgments that do not hurt your credit unless you default on the payment plan and they execute the judgment. You also forgot about court cost, filing fees, etc -- so you should double your legal bill estimate. One of us told him to use bankruptcy as a last resort and attempt to negotiate a small monthly payment -- the other wants him to destroy his credit right away to start the ten year clock. If I had to label either as terrible advice, it wouldn't be mine, sir.
A great deal depends on the state you live in - if you live in Texas and have unsecured credit card debt your best option may be to walk it and ignore the collection agencies. You absolutely can find an attorney to sit down with you for a free consultation. There is also a trove of information available on the net to take you step by step through whatever process you choose. Filing for bankruptcy doesn't necessarily need to be your first option, but it certainly isn't the end of the world if you have to go that route. One of the most important things is to not let debt collectors to ruin your life there are options to get them off your back.
