How to Select a Bankruptcy and Debt Attorney: A Step-by-Step Guide

Before you compare bankruptcy attorneys, it helps to know which paths the Bankruptcy Code may leave open on your facts, because that decides what kind of attorney you need. The Code sets debt limits for some chapters, a credit counseling requirement before filing, and special rules for people who filed before. It also requires written contracts and disclosures from paid bankruptcy helpers, which gives you a concrete way to compare the people you meet. Federal law governs bankruptcy; the property you can protect depends partly on state law, and the state examples are Georgia’s.

Step 1: Sort Your Debts and Your Situation

Start with a list. Write down each debt, the creditor, the approximate balance, and whether the debt is secured by property (such as a mortgage or a car loan) or unsecured (such as credit cards or medical bills). Note whether each debt is a personal or household debt or a business debt. Then add:

any lawsuit, judgment, garnishment, or foreclosure notice you have received;
any bankruptcy case you or your spouse filed in the past, with the date and how it ended;
the property you own and its rough value.

This list is not a legal analysis. It is the information an attorney needs to tell you which chapter may fit, and it lets you give every attorney the same facts so their answers can be compared.

Step 2: Learn Which Chapters the Code May Allow

Several provisions of the Bankruptcy Code turn on dollar amounts that are adjusted periodically under § 104; the most recent adjustment took effect April 1, 2025, and the current figures appear in the notes to each section.

Chapter 13. Under 11 U.S.C. § 109(e), an individual with regular income may be a Chapter 13 debtor only if noncontingent, liquidated debts fall below two separate limits: unsecured debts below $526,700 and secured debts below $1,580,125 (11 U.S.C. § 109). A temporary combined limit of $2,750,000, enacted in 2022, has ended; the statutory notes record that subsection (e) was restored to read as it did before that law.

Subchapter V of Chapter 11. Subchapter V is available to a “small business debtor,” which § 101(51D) defines by reference to aggregate noncontingent liquidated secured and unsecured debts. The current limit is $3,424,000 (11 U.S.C. § 101). The higher temporary limit used in 2020 through 2024 no longer applies.

Chapter 7. Chapter 7 has its own eligibility rules. Ask the attorney how those rules apply to your income and debts.

For selection, these limits matter in two ways. If your debts are close to a limit, the attorney needs to calculate carefully which chapter is available. And if your debts include business debts, you may need an attorney who handles Chapter 11 or Subchapter V, which is a different practice from consumer Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 work.

Ask each attorney: which chapters do my debts and income make available, which limit is closest, and how did you calculate it?

Step 3: Check the Two Pre-Filing Requirements That Change Timing

Credit counseling

Under § 109(h)(1), an individual “may not be a debtor under this title unless such individual has, during the 180-day period ending on the date of filing of the petition by such individual, received from an approved nonprofit budget and credit counseling agency described in section 111(a) an individual or group briefing.” The briefing can be “conducted by telephone or on the Internet.”

For selection, ask each attorney when you should complete the briefing relative to the planned filing date, and whether the firm will confirm that the agency you use is approved.

A prior case that was dismissed

The automatic stay is the Code’s pause on collection. Under § 362(a), a petition “operates as a stay, applicable to all entities,” of actions to collect from the debtor, among other things (11 U.S.C. § 362).

A previous case changes that protection:

If an individual had one case pending within the preceding year that was dismissed (with an exception the statute describes), the stay in the new case “shall terminate with respect to the debtor on the 30th day after the filing of the later case” for certain actions, unless the court continues it on motion (§ 362(c)(3)).
If “2 or more single or joint cases of the debtor were pending within the previous year but were dismissed,” the stay “shall not go into effect upon the filing of the later case” (§ 362(c)(4)), unless the court orders otherwise as the statute provides.

A prior case can change the whole filing, so tell every attorney about it in the first meeting. Then ask how the earlier case affects the protection you would get this time, what the firm would ask the court to do about it, and how soon after filing that request would go in. A date and a plan, rather than a reassurance, show that the 30 days have been counted.

Step 4: Decide What Kind of Help You Need

Whether to file bankruptcy, and whether you need an attorney, are your decisions. What the Code does settle is how it treats the different people who offer help.

Attorneys and other paid helpers are “debt relief agencies”

The Code defines a “debt relief agency” as “any person who provides any bankruptcy assistance to an assisted person in return for the payment of money or other valuable consideration,” and “bankruptcy assistance” includes “providing legal representation with respect to a case or proceeding under this title” (§ 101(12A), (4A)). An “assisted person” is a person “whose debts consist primarily of consumer debts” and whose nonexempt property is below a dollar limit, currently $256,800 after the April 2025 adjustment (§ 101(3)).

If you are an assisted person, a paid attorney you hire is acting as a debt relief agency, and the requirements in Step 6 apply.

Petition preparers are not lawyers

A bankruptcy petition preparer is a non-attorney who prepares documents for filing. Under 11 U.S.C. § 110, a petition preparer “may not offer a potential bankruptcy debtor any legal advice” (11 U.S.C. § 110).

For selection, this is the dividing line. If what you need is a decision, such as which chapter to file, whether a debt can be discharged, what property you can keep, or what to do about a prior dismissed case, that is legal advice, and a petition preparer may not give it. If someone offering help cannot tell you whether they are a licensed attorney, ask before you share financial information.

When the matter is not bankruptcy

Some debt problems are not bankruptcy questions. Collection conduct, for example, has its own federal statute: under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, “any debt collector” that fails to comply is liable for actual damages and, in an individual action, “such additional damages as the court may allow, but not exceeding $1,000,” plus costs and attorney’s fees in a successful case (15 U.S.C. § 1692k). The statute applies to debt collectors as it defines them. If your concern is how a collector is treating you rather than whether to file, ask whether the attorney handles collection-practices claims or refers them.

Step 5: Ask About the Property You Want to Keep

Which property you can protect depends on exemptions, and Georgia has its own exemption statute, O.C.G.A. § 44-13-100. Georgia amended that section in 2026: according to the Legislative Counsel’s summary, House Bill 1024 “increases, for purposes of bankruptcy, the amount of aggregate interest a debtor or the debtor’s dependent may exempt from levy and sale” in property used as a residence, and provides for inflation-based adjustments beginning July 1, 2031. The Act took effect July 1, 2026.

The new amounts should be read from the amended statute itself, so no figure is given. For selection, the fact of the change matters more than the number: an attorney who quotes you a Georgia homestead amount should be able to say whether it reflects the 2026 amendment, and whether the timing of your filing matters. Ask, too, which exemptions would apply to your home, car, retirement accounts, and household goods, and whether there is any property you could lose and what the options for it are. A plain answer to the last question covers the risks as well as the protections.

Step 6: Use the Contract Rules to Compare Attorneys

The Code gives you a concrete way to compare paid bankruptcy help. Under 11 U.S.C. § 528(a), a debt relief agency must, “not later than 5 business days after the first date on which such agency provides any bankruptcy assistance services to an assisted person, but prior to such assisted person’s petition under this title being filed, execute a written contract” that “explains clearly and conspicuously” the services it will provide and “the fees or charges for such services, and the terms of payment” (11 U.S.C. § 528). It must also give you “a copy of the fully executed and completed contract.”

For selection, this means:

The written contract is not optional for an assisted person. If a paid helper starts work and no written contract follows within the time the statute sets, that is a concrete warning sign.
The contract has to state the services. Use it to compare scope between attorneys. Read what is listed and what is not.
The contract has to state the fees and payment terms. Compare the structure, not only the total.

What an advertisement must say

The same section reaches the advertising you may be reading. A debt relief agency must disclose in any advertisement of bankruptcy assistance directed to the public that the services are “with respect to bankruptcy relief under this title,” and must use the statement “We are a debt relief agency. We help people file for bankruptcy relief under the Bankruptcy Code.” or a substantially similar one. The rule also covers advertising that talks about “credit defaults, mortgage foreclosures, eviction proceedings, excessive debt, debt collection pressure, or inability to pay any consumer debt,” which must disclose that the assistance may involve bankruptcy relief. And phrases such as “federally supervised repayment plan” or “Federal debt restructuring help” count as bankruptcy advertising when the service is in fact a Chapter 13 plan or other bankruptcy relief (§ 528(a)(3)-(4), (b)).

For selection, that gives you a simple test of an advertisement. An offer of “debt help” that never says the help may mean bankruptcy is either not a bankruptcy service or not following the rule. Ask which it is before you call.

Ask each attorney to show you a sample of the firm’s contract before you commit, and read it with these questions:

Does the fee cover attendance at the meeting of creditors?
Does it cover responses to objections, motions about the automatic stay, or a motion under § 362(c)(3) or (c)(4) if you filed before?
Does it cover amendments to your schedules if new information comes up?
In Chapter 13, does it cover plan modifications, and how is the fee paid over the life of the plan?
What happens to the fee if the case is dismissed or converted to another chapter?

Step 7: Check the License, the Court, and Any Certification

Search the attorney in the bar directory of the state where he or she practices. In Georgia, the State Bar publishes a member directory. The listing confirms a license and its status, and nothing about bankruptcy work or your district’s court.

Bankruptcy cases are filed in the federal bankruptcy court for your district. Ask whether the attorney is admitted there, how many cases the firm filed in that district in the last year, in which chapters, and what the attorney’s own role was. Volume shows activity; it says nothing about how well a case was handled. If an attorney describes a bankruptcy certification, ask who issued it and on what basis, since it reflects that organization’s requirements rather than fit for your case.

Step 8: Ask How the Attorney Would Handle Your Case

Practice varies, so look for specific answers. Start with the recommendation: which chapter the attorney recommends and what would change it. Naming the facts that would change the recommendation shows it was reasoned from yours rather than from a default.

Then the limits. Ask which of your debts the attorney expects will not be discharged, and why, and what you should stop doing and keep paying before you file. Those answers show whether you are hearing the limits of bankruptcy as well as its benefits.

Then the people and the long run: whether the attorney will personally review your schedules before filing, who will attend the meeting of creditors with you, what happens if your income or expenses change during a Chapter 13 plan, and whether the firm also handles collection claims or business restructuring or would refer them. Lay those answers next to your Step 1 list to see whether one attorney can cover every issue on it.

Step 9: Avoid Pre-Filing Moves That Create Problems

The Code allows a trustee to look back at certain transfers. Under 11 U.S.C. § 548(a)(1), the trustee may avoid certain transfers “made or incurred on or within 2 years before the date of the filing of the petition,” and § 548(e) extends the period to “10 years” for transfers to “a self-settled trust or similar device” in the circumstances the statute lists (11 U.S.C. § 548).

Separately, § 523 presumes certain recent consumer debts nondischargeable. After the April 2025 adjustment, the thresholds are consumer debts to a single creditor aggregating more than $900 for “luxury goods or services” within 90 days before the order for relief, and cash advances aggregating more than $1,250 within 70 days (11 U.S.C. § 523).

Practical guidance before you hire:

Tell each attorney about any property you transferred, sold, or gave away in the last several years, including to family members.
Ask before taking on new debt, taking cash advances, or making large purchases.
Ask before repaying a family member or a favored creditor.
Keep every notice, statement, and court paper, and bring them to each consultation.

Step 10: Compare Contracts, Chapters, and Exemption Plans

Bankruptcy gives you a document to compare, so start there: lay the § 528 contracts side by side, then add each attorney’s answers on the same points: which chapters each said your debts allow and how each calculated the limits; whether each asked about prior bankruptcy cases and what each would do about § 362(c); what each said about your property under Georgia’s current exemptions; whether each provided the written contract § 528 requires; what each contract covers; and who would review your schedules and attend the creditors’ meeting.

The prior-case question comes first, because a filing made without it can bring a stay that ends in 30 days or never starts. A paid helper who begins work without a written contract is not following § 528. Legal advice from someone who is not an attorney is advice § 110 prohibits a petition preparer from giving. And an exemption figure that does not account for the 2026 Georgia change may be out of date.

Payment plan terms are worth comparing on their own, since they can decide when you are able to file; but they come after the written contract and disclosures the Code requires, not before.

Legal disclaimer: This guide provides general information about federal bankruptcy law, Georgia exemptions, and selecting an attorney. It is not legal advice. Dollar amounts are adjusted periodically; confirm current figures and how they apply to you with the attorney you hire.