Bankruptcy Basics

The term bankruptcy comes from the two Italian words “"banca rotta”. In medieval Italy, if a merchant owed someone else a debt and didn’t pay, his creditors often got together and broke his trading table. Later on in England, you could be put in jail and even hanged for owing money! The United States adopted the original bankruptcy laws of England, and so even the US had debtor’s prisons (a State Supreme Court Justice of Rhode Island, William West, was put in a debtor’s prison).

Bankruptcy is not right for everyone. Sometimes a person may be in debt, yet there may be ways to avoid bankruptcy by negotiating payment terms with the creditor, or learning how to organize and live on a budget while slowly repaying your debts. In today’s economy, bankruptcies are on the rise, and it seems like more people are choosing (or almost forced) to go that route. Overall, drowning in debt can have major emotional and physical consequences on a person and their loved ones; if debt is having this effect on you, it may be time to file for bankruptcy.

Call Gersten Law Group Today for help.