Personal Bankruptcy

Personal Bankruptcy: When credit problems and financial difficulties seem insurmountable, knowledge of your rights and options becomes an important first step toward "getting back on track". The Trustee, John Bottom has been a licensed Trustee for over 30 years, and will help to solve your financial problems.

At Bottom & Associates we offer a free initial consultation, with no obligation, where we look to explore avenues that are available to you. Options may include consolidation, a proposal or, as a last resort, filing for bankruptcy. We see these steps as a start to rebuilding your financial future, and also offer financial counselling to assist in your future planning.

Personal bankruptcy is a legal process that is available to give you a fresh start. It immediately stops all collection efforts and legal actions by your unsecured creditors. This includes lawsuits, seizures of assets and garnishments of earnings. It affords you and opportunity to free yourself from debt and to start over.

Filing for bankruptcy does not automatically mean that you lose all of your assets. Some assets may be kept (see "Frequently Asked Questions - What Can I Keep?"). However, other assets are valued by the trustee and sold unless arrangements are made with the trustee to keep them.

Call for a free consultation at (604) 540-1920

Consumer Proposal: As a means to resolve your financial situation without going into bankruptcy, a proposal may be an appropriate alternative. A proposal is an agreement with your creditors to pay all or part of your debt, as a final settlement of the debt, over a period of time - usually three years. The payment can be made in a shorter time but generally cannot go longer than five years. The immediate advantage of the proposal is that your creditors cannot pursue any legal action against you. The creditors will be notified of the proposal within five days of signing and will be given the opportunity to call a meeting, or to reply to the proposal by voting letter. If, at the end of thirty days, no-one has called for a meeting to be held, the trustee will then look to the voting letters to determine whether the proposal has been accepted or rejected. If a majority in number and in dollars of the proven claims vote for the proposal, the proposal is deemed to have been accepted and is binding upon all of the creditors.

A proposal will generally offer a better return to the creditors than a bankruptcy and for that reason in majority of cases, they are accepted.