Welcome to Bankruptcy Lawyer South Dakota.com

	Did You Know?
	Many family finances include a credit card debt The typical family filing for bankruptcy in 1997 owed more than one and a half times its annual income in short-term, high-interest debt. A family earning $24,000 had an average of $36,000 in credit card and similar debt.

Our South Dakota Bankruptcy Lawyers can help you set your assets in order and take care of all the files and red tape associated with bankruptcy in a smooth and efficient manner.

Bankruptcy can be a devastating blow to an individual, a small business, or a multi-million dollar corporation. The allocation of funds, audits, creditor claims, and claiming of assets may be too much for the staff of one corporation to handle, let alone a single individual.

Bankruptcy, as far as the US Federal Bankruptcy Code is concerned, is the process undergone when a business or individual seeks relief from their debts. The Federal Code Law provides for the development of a plan that allows a debtor, who is unable to pay his creditors, to resolve his debts through the division of his assets among his creditors. The proceedings involved in invoking bankruptcy are supervised by and litigated in the United States Bankruptcy Courts. The Bankruptcy Code provides that creditors must stop all collection efforts against the debtor, and allows the debtor to organize his assets and settle his debt and credit accounts in a feasible manner.

Federal bankruptcy laws also manage how private or commercial companies go out of business or recover from crippling debt. A bankrupt company, the "debtor," might use Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code to "reorganize" its business and try to become profitable again. Management continues to run the daily business operations but all significant business decisions must be approved by a bankruptcy court.

How Are Assets Divided in Bankruptcy?

• Secured Creditors - often a bank is paid first.
• Unsecured Creditors - such as suppliers and bondholders, have the next claim.
• Stockholders - owners of the company have the last claim on assets and may not receive anything if the secured and unsecured creditors' claims are not fully repaid.

What can our South Dakota Bankruptcy Lawyers do for you?

• Research all laws (recent verdicts, changes in legal doctrine) related to South Dakota bankruptcy
• File claim(s) of bankruptcy
• Appear in court for you

Contact our South Dakota Bankruptcy Lawyer Now!

South Dakota Audio & Video         Who Files for Bankruptcy? Audio, RM, 32 Kbps, 3:52, 7/26/2002 John Ydstie talks with Teresa Sullivan, co-author of The Fragile Middle Class, about the characteristics of people who file for bankruptcy. Sullivan says most Americans filing bankruptcy are solidly middle class and have either just lost a job, gotten sick or injured, or gotten divorced. Sullivan is vice president and graduate dean of the University of Texas in Austin. Source: National Public Radio

South Dakota External Sites         UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT - District of South Dako Provides administrative and procedural information about the court and its services. USBC - SD - Local Rules Local Bankruptcy Rules Committee (PDF document). In order to view PDF documents, the Adobe Acrobat Reader is required. It is available from www.adobe