Bains Legal, PC, (dba Sacramento Bankruptcy Lawyer) is a Sacramento, CA, based law firm that was founded in June 2016 by attorney Pauldeep Bains. Bains Legal, PC, as the dba might suggest, is a bankruptcy law firm that assists individuals file for either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy.
Founding and managing partner Pauldeep Bains was raised in the small town of Yuba City, CA, approximately 40 miles north of Sacramento, CA. From a young age, Pauldeep’s parents instilled in him that without hard work and having the courage to take risks, nothing would be handed to him. Pauldeep saw this firsthand from his father on a daily basis, who started with not even a penny to his name to owning several successful businesses, using the same principles that he instilled in Pauldeep—hard work and taking risks. Pauldeep kept these ideas close to him as he grew into a young man and pursued his education.
Mr. Bains attended the University of California, Davis, for his undergraduate studies and graduated with a major in Economics and a minor in sociology in 2006. Not wanting to stop there, Mr. Bains was then accepted to attend Thomas Jefferson School of Law and he began his legal education in the fall of 2006. While in law school, Mr. Bains participated in several internship programs to gain real-world legal experience along with his formal education. These internships included a semester with a prominent San Diego based personal injury law firm, the Public Defender’s office of San Diego County, and lastly, a solo-practitioner bankruptcy law firm. It is here that Mr. Bains fell in love with the practice of bankruptcy law and providing people with the second chance that they never thought was possible. Mr. Bains always knew he wanted to own his own business but it was now that he learned what his business would be—a bankruptcy law firm providing clients top notch legal representation.
To attain this goal, Mr. Bains knew that he needed to work hard and devote his full attention to the practice of bankruptcy law. Understanding that principle, Mr. Bains graduated from law school in the summer of 2009, passed the California Bar in the fall of 2009, and began working for a Roseville, CA, based law firm that focused the majority of their time on bankruptcy law in early 2010. For the next 2 years, Mr. Bains would soak up a vast amount of knowledge relating to the practice of bankruptcy from his senior attorneys, from real-world court experience, and thoroughly studying the bankruptcy code.
Wanting to grow and feeling ready to take on a larger role, Mr. Bains transitioned in mid-2012 to a Sacramento, CA, based law firm that had offices in four cities around Northern California and Nevada and focused 100% of their time to bankruptcy law. It was here that Mr. Bains was given the managing duties of two of the offices and handled everything from the initial consultation with a potential client to arguing intricate motions in front of the Federal Bankruptcy Judge. Mr. Bains thrived in this position and his passion for bankruptcy law only grew from here.
By 2016, Mr. Bains had spent the past six years practicing bankruptcy law with one of the principles he learned at a young age—hard work—and was flourishing. However, it was now time for Mr. Bains to take that second principle he learned—-having the courage to take risks—and implement it into his future plans. Being confident in the lawyer that he had become and ready to accomplish another goal, Mr. Bains now took a major risk and walked away from his amazing job and opened up his own practice in June 2016, Bains Legal, PC.
This new firm was designed to give clients the personal connection to their attorney that Mr. Bains felt was one of the most important principles of any practice. Bains Legal, PC, now provides clients full service attention to all of their Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy needs. Mr. Bains spends the time necessary with each and every client to make sure they fully understand the process of bankruptcy as through his legal experience, it has become obvious that most people are naive on exactly what advantages bankruptcy can provide a person and what that means for their daily lives.
What is Bankruptcy?
Bankruptcy is a legal process created by Congress that allows individuals and businesses to relieve themselves of their legal obligation to pay back some of their debts. Bankruptcy is governed by Title 11 of the United States Code. The two most common chapters of bankruptcy are Chapter 7 and Chapter 13.
Chapter 7 is a section of bankruptcy that involves a court appointed Trustee liquidating a person’s assets in order to pay their debt. In some cases, debtors in California are able to use the California Code of Civil Procedure to their advantage and protect their assets from the liquidation process. By doing this, the Trustee no longer has the ability to liquidate the assets of that individual. If no assets are liquidated, the debtor is able to keep possession of all of their assets. At the end of the case, the debtor would receive a discharge, which is a federal court order eliminating their obligation to pay back certain debt.
Chapter 13 bankruptcy does not involve liquidating any assets. It allows the debtor to avoid the liquidation process by entering into a Court administered reorganization payment plan wherein they pay back certain portions of their debt over a 3 to 5-year term. In that payment plan, a debtor is able to cure a delinquency on their mortgage, eliminate their obligation on a junior mortgage, reduce the amount they owe on their auto loan, pay back their tax obligation, and/or pay back their unsecured debt in one simple monthly payment.
What are 5 advantages of filing for Bankruptcy?
- Stop Collection Attempts – Upon the filing of a bankruptcy, all creditors that are owed money are required by law to cease attempting to collect on their debt.
- Stop Lawsuits – Once a bankruptcy is filed, a lawsuit wherein the debtor is being sued for a sum of money must be put on hold until the bankruptcy case is complete or the Bankruptcy Court grants permission to continue the lawsuit.
- Halt a Wage Garnishment – After the debtor’s bankruptcy case is filed and notice is given to the creditor garnishing the wages, that creditor is disallowed from garnishing any further wages.
- Prevent a Foreclosure – A lender is unable to continue with a set foreclosure sale upon the filing of a bankruptcy. Moreover, by filing Chapter 13, a debtor is able to cure the delinquent mortgage payments over a 3 to 5-year payment plan without risking the foreclosure to occur.
- Eliminate Credit Card Debt – By filing for bankruptcy relief and receiving a discharge, a debtor eliminates his or her obligation to pay back their credit card debt and the credit card companies are required by law to cease collection attempts, including reporting a balance owed to the credit bureaus.
What are 3 misconceptions everyone considering (or avoiding) bankruptcy should know?
- “If I file bankruptcy, my credit score will be ruined forever” – This is the biggest misconception people face and it is completely inaccurate. Of course, filing for bankruptcy will, in the short term, negatively impact your credit score. However, people fail to realize the long term positive effects receiving a bankruptcy discharge will have on them. A person that is overwhelmed with debt likely has several reasons their credit score is already diminishing—-missing payments, bad debt-to-income ratio, too much overall debt. However, upon receiving a bankruptcy discharge, a creditor is no longer able to report missed payments to the credit bureaus; instantly, the debtor’s debt-to-income ratio is fantastic; and the discharge eliminates the debtor’s debt and thus, there is no debt being reported on the credit bureaus. Thus, each of those factors actually start assisting the debtor by positively effecting their credit score, not to mention the things the debtor can do post-discharge to further assist in their credit score increasing—getting a secured credit card and making timely payments.
- “If I file bankruptcy, I’ll never be able to purchase a home again” – Again, this is completely false. The legal waiting period to be approved for a mortgage loan is 2 years post-discharge. Thus, if you have no intention of purchasing a home in less than 2 years, you shouldn’t even worry about this. And even if you do have dreams of purchasing a home, you would only be required to wait 2 years until you could purchase that home.
- “I need to buy a car and if I file bankruptcy I won’t be able to get one” – Out of the three misconceptions discussed here, this one actually has the quickest turn-around of them all. Unlike the 2-year waiting period to get a mortgage loan, there is no such equivalent to be approved for a car loan. We regularly have clients who purchase a new car just days after receiving a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy discharge. Think about it—all of your debt is wiped away, you aren’t eligible to file another Chapter 7 for years—why wouldn’t they approve you?
Current Status of Bains Legal, PC
After experiencing phenomenal growth in the first year of business, Bains Legal, PC, opened it up its second office in neighboring Roseville, CA, in July 2017. Now operating two offices that both focus solely on bankruptcy law, Mr. Bains is making sure that he still treats every client with the full attention that they deserve. Mr. Bains continues to use the two basic principles that he was taught at a young age to continue to grow Bains Legal, PC—working hard and taking risks.
Sacramento Bankruptcy Lawyer
180 Promenade Circle #300
Sacramento, CA 95834
916-800-7690
https://www.norcalbkattorney.com
