Will Anyone Know if I File Bankruptcy in New York City?

Will Anyone Know if I File Bankruptcy in New York City?

If you file bankruptcy in New York City it is technically a matter of public record, but practically speaking it is very unlikely people will learn about your filing. The ironic thing is if you are having trouble paying your bills already, people are more likely to hear about your situation if you don’t file bankruptcy. Without bankruptcy protection creditors can harass you with constant letters, phone calls, emails or worse. When a creditor attempts to garnish your wages your whole workplace could find out about your financial troubles, and if your car gets repossessed it could be a scene for the entire neighborhood.

Bankruptcy quietly eliminates these problems and puts you into a healing process for your bad debt. Avoiding bankruptcy when you really need it could actually lead to more people hearing about your financial woes.
When you file bankruptcy a notice will be sent to your home from the bankruptcy court in New York City. The letter could be noticed by a nosy neighbor since it is clearly addressed from the bankruptcy court in big bold letters, but the endless stream of creditor letters is probably raising more attention already. If you have a P.O. Box we can of course have the bankruptcy notice sent there instead. The only other parties that are given notice of your bankruptcy are the creditors in your mailing matrix whose addresses we provide to the court. So in short, we will know exactly who and where the bankruptcy notices are sent. Your attorney will obviously know about your filing, but our relationship is confidential so we’re not talking either.

Nosy people that want to dig into your personal life will not easily find out about your bankruptcy even if they actively search for it. Without your full name and social security number they can’t run a public records search on you, and these searches cost money as well. The word “bankruptcy” will appear on your credit report, but the amounts of your discharged debts will not. You also have control over who may pull your credit report in the first place.

Not filing bankruptcy when you need it could lead to a lot of people finding out about your financial troubles that might not have known otherwise. Piles of creditor letters, wage garnishment, car repossession and home foreclosure are much more noticeable then one envelope sent from the bankruptcy court. Even if someone finds out, who cares? You have a right to bankruptcy protection and hundreds of thousands of people use bankruptcy every year to get a fresh start from their bad debt. If you need discreet and affordable bankruptcy assistance Contact the Law Office of William Waldner online or at 212.244.2882 to arrange a free bankruptcy consultation today. Our law firm maintains a 99% Chapter 7 Bankruptcy discharge record in New York City as of 8/31/16, and only practices bankruptcy law.

**** DISCLAIMER: This article is intended for educational purposes only. By reading no attorney-client relationship has been created. Prior results do not guarantee a similar result for future clients.