Burbank Bankruptcy Lawyer
The goal for most people who call about debt is simple: the collection calls stop, the paycheck or bank account is no longer at risk, and there is a realistic way forward. Wadhwani & Shanfeld is a consumer bankruptcy and debt relief law firm that handles Chapter 7, Chapter 13, debt settlement, foreclosure defense, wage garnishment, creditor lawsuits, and IRS tax debt for Burbank residents and families across Los Angeles County and Southern California. If you are searching for a Burbank bankruptcy lawyer, you can speak with an attorney by phone, video, or email without making a trip anywhere first.
Burbank households tend to reach this point through a familiar set of pressures. Entertainment-industry income that comes in bursts and then stops, hours cut at a studio vendor or hospital, rising rents and mortgage payments, and medical bills that arrive after an illness all push people behind on credit cards and loans. Once a creditor sues, the clock starts running on a response deadline, and the decisions you make in the following weeks matter more than the original balance.
Where your case is heard also affects how it unfolds. Burbank sits within the territory of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, and a bankruptcy filed by a Burbank resident is assigned to a division based on the debtor’s street-address zip code, not on a preference. Your attorney confirms that before anything is filed, which is one of the small details that separates a clean filing from one that gets delayed.
How a Burbank Bankruptcy Case Actually Unfolds
The first conversation is a review of what you owe, what you earn, what you own, and what is coming at you next: a court date, a garnishment notice, a foreclosure sale, a repossession. That last question drives the timeline. A case with nothing imminent can be prepared carefully over a couple of weeks. A case with a sale date or a levy days away gets filed fast, often with the full schedules completed afterward within the time the court allows.
The moment the petition is filed, the automatic stay goes into effect. Creditors must stop calling, lawsuits freeze, bank levies and wage garnishments halt, and foreclosure and repossession proceedings are suspended. After filing, you attend a meeting of creditors, which is a short, usually uneventful session with the trustee where you answer questions under oath about the paperwork. In a Chapter 7 case, most filings wrap up in roughly four months, ending in a discharge of qualifying debt. In a Chapter 13 case, a plan is proposed, the court confirms it, and you make one monthly payment over three to five years before the discharge arrives.
Most people worry about what happens in the middle: the stretch between filing and discharge. During that time you keep your exempt property, keep living in your home, and keep driving your car, provided you stay current on secured payments you intend to keep. Surprises are rare when the exemption work is done correctly up front, and that work is where an attorney earns the fee.
Why Burbank Clients Choose Wadhwani & Shanfeld
Together with their associate attorneys, the firm brings more than 90 years of combined legal experience to cases across Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties. Clients get direct access to an attorney from the first call, a free consultation, and the option of handling the entire case remotely by phone, email, video, and online chat, including 100% virtual consultations.
Raj Wadhwani, a Southwestern Law School graduate, helped pilot the Best Case Bankruptcy software in 1998 and was the first attorney to file a bankruptcy case electronically in the Central District of California. That matters in practice because emergency filings depend on getting a petition in front of the court quickly and correctly. Greg Shanfeld earned his law degree from the University of Southern California and has handled more than 10,000 bankruptcy cases over three decades, which means the unusual problems, such as a trustee objecting to an exemption or a creditor contesting a discharge, are familiar ground.
The firm files in every division of the Central District, so Burbank clients are not limited by where a case lands. Because the practice also includes debt settlement, loan modification, IRS representation, and second mortgage settlements, the recommendation you get is based on what fits your finances, including the cases where bankruptcy is not the right answer.
Debt Situations We Handle for Burbank Households
- Credit Card and Medical Debt: Unsecured balances are the most common reason for a Chapter 7 filing. Cards that were carried through a gap in employment and hospital bills that outran insurance can usually be discharged if you pass the means test, which compares your household income to the California median for your household size.
- Creditor Lawsuits and Judgments: Collection firms file suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court, and a default judgment can be entered if no written answer is filed. Bankruptcy halts the suit, and a judgment already entered can often be dealt with as part of the case.
- Wage Garnishment: An ordinary judgment garnishment is capped by statute, but even a capped garnishment can sink a monthly budget. Filing Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 stops most garnishments when the case is filed.
- Foreclosure and Missed Mortgage Payments: Chapter 13 lets you catch up on arrears over time and stop a scheduled sale, and in some cases strip off a wholly unsecured second mortgage.
- Car Repossession and Deficiency Balances: Chapter 7 can eliminate a deficiency balance after a repossession, while Chapter 13 can protect a vehicle you are behind on.
- IRS Tax Debt: Some older income tax debt can be discharged if it meets timing rules, and other tax debt is handled through payment arrangements or a Chapter 13 plan.
- Personal Loans and Student Loan Debt: Personal and payday loans are generally dischargeable; most student loans are not, so we look at strategies for them separately.
- Small Business Debt: Burbank’s freelancers, contractors, and small business owners often carry personal guarantees, which can make a personal filing the practical route to resolving business debt.
What to Do Right Now if Creditors Are Closing In
Start by sorting your paper by urgency. A court summons has a response deadline, a notice of default or notice of sale in a foreclosure has its own statutory timeline, and a garnishment notice or bank levy affects your next paycheck. Do not throw away anything from a collector, a court, or a lender, and write down the dates you received each item. If you were served with a lawsuit, the deadline to file a written answer is short, and a default judgment can be entered if you miss it. The statute of limitations on a debt, which is four years for written contracts and two years for oral ones, is a defense only if you raise it in a written answer. Also be cautious with partial payments and signed letters: a payment cannot revive a debt that is already time-barred, but a signed written acknowledgment can restart the clock on one that is not.
In a foreclosure, the sale cannot be set earlier than three months and 20 days after the notice of default is recorded, the notice of sale must be mailed and posted at least 20 days before the sale, and a monetary default can be reinstated until five business days before the sale. If your car was repossessed, the lender generally must give at least 15 days’ written notice before selling it, and you can ask in writing for a 10-day extension of the redemption period. Those windows are real leverage, but they close.
Bankruptcy filings for Burbank residents are made electronically with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, and the division is determined by your street-address zip code through the court’s locator. Civil collection suits against Burbank residents are generally heard in Los Angeles County Superior Court, which operates a Burbank courthouse among its many locations. Avoid the common mistakes: paying one favored creditor a large lump sum right before filing, moving or transferring property to a relative, running up new charges or taking cash advances, or hiring a document preparer who cannot give legal advice or choose your exemptions. Call an attorney before any of those steps, ideally before a response deadline or a sale date passes.
Keeping Your Property: California Exemptions for Burbank Filers
California has opted out of the federal exemption scheme, so filers choose between two state systems for the entire case: the standard system, which includes a homestead exemption tied to county home prices and adjusted annually, or the alternative system, which has smaller dollar amounts but a flexible wildcard that can cover almost any asset. Homeowners with equity often lean toward the first; renters and people with little home equity often do better with the second. Choosing wrong can expose property that would otherwise have been protected, which is why the exemption analysis happens before filing rather than after. To use California’s exemptions, you generally must have lived in the state for at least 730 days.
Wages and bank accounts have their own protections. Wage garnishment on an ordinary judgment is limited to the lesser of 20% of weekly disposable earnings or a figure based on how far your earnings exceed a multiple of the minimum wage, and you can ask the court to exempt more if you prove it is necessary to support your family. A bank levy is subject to an automatic deposit account exemption, though it does not apply to child or spousal support or debts owed to the state. An employer cannot fire you because your wages are garnished for a single judgment.
Collectors also have rules to follow. California’s Rosenthal Act covers original creditors as well as third-party collectors, allows a consumer to recover actual damages and, for willful and knowing violations, an additional award, and lets a prevailing consumer recover attorney fees. The suit deadline is short, one year, so harassment should be documented promptly.
Burbank Bankruptcy Questions, Answered
Do I need to leave Burbank or go downtown to file?
No. Petitions are filed electronically, and the firm handles cases fully by phone, email, video, and online chat. You attend the meeting of creditors as the court directs, and your attorney tells you in advance what to expect.
How quickly can bankruptcy stop a garnishment or bank levy?
The automatic stay takes effect the moment the petition is filed. When a garnishment, sale, or levy is days away, the firm can often prepare and file quickly to get the stay in place.
Will I lose my house or car if I file Chapter 7?
Most clients keep their homes and vehicles. The question is whether your equity is covered by the exemption system you choose and whether you are current on secured payments. If you are behind or have equity beyond the exemptions, Chapter 13 may let you keep the property.
What debts cannot be wiped out?
Child support, alimony, most student loans, most government fines, and debts from injuries caused by drunk driving generally survive. Some older income taxes can be discharged if timing rules are met.
Can I file bankruptcy again if I filed before?
Yes, subject to waiting periods: 8 years between Chapter 7 filings, 4 years to file Chapter 13 after a Chapter 7, 2 years between Chapter 13 filings, and generally 6 years to file Chapter 7 after a Chapter 13, though that last period can be shortened if the plan paid enough to unsecured creditors.
Will my employer find out?
Not automatically. An employer may learn of it if it is a creditor, if a garnishment has to stop, or if Chapter 13 payments come out of your paycheck. Employers cannot fire you solely because you filed.
A collection firm sued me. Should I just ignore it?
No. If you do not file a written answer, the court can enter a default judgment even on a time-barred debt. A judgment is enforceable for 10 years and can be renewed in some cases, so it can follow you for a long time unless it is addressed.
Can a debt be too old for them to sue me over it?
Possibly. Written contract and book account claims generally carry a four-year limit and oral contracts two years, but the deadline is a defense you must raise in the lawsuit, and a signed acknowledgment can restart it. Bring the account history to your consultation.
Is a judgment against me permanent if I never pay it?
No, but it lasts a long time. A California money judgment is generally enforceable for 10 years from entry, after which enforcement stops and enforcement liens are extinguished. Renewal is possible, though recent law limits renewal to once, for five years, for certain medical and personal debt judgments under set dollar amounts.
Is Chapter 13 or debt settlement better if I make decent money?
It depends on what you owe, whether the debts are secured or unsecured, and whether you are at risk of losing property. Income above the Chapter 7 means test often points to Chapter 13 or negotiation, and the firm can compare both against your actual numbers.
How long will I wait before rebuilding credit or buying a home?
Rebuilding can start right after discharge with a secured card and on-time payments. Many clients see scores begin to recover within the first year, and depending on the loan type, buying a home can be possible within a few years.
Serving Burbank and the Surrounding Los Angeles County Communities
From Burbank, the firm represents clients throughout the San Fernando Valley and the surrounding region, including North Hollywood, Sherman Oaks, Van Nuys, Encino, Woodland Hills, Reseda, Northridge, Granada Hills, North Hills, Mission Hills, San Fernando, Sylmar, and Hollywood. We also serve the Westside, including Santa Monica, and clients across Los Angeles County in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Torrance, Inglewood, Compton, Lakewood, Santa Clarita, Lancaster, Palmdale, and the Antelope Valley community of Acton.
Beyond the county line, the firm helps clients in Orange County, including Anaheim, Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, and Newport Beach, and throughout the Inland Empire, including Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Upland, Fontana, San Bernardino, Riverside, Pomona, Chino, and the Coachella Valley. Because every case is filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, a Burbank resident gets the same representation whether the case is handled remotely or in person.
Talk to a Burbank Bankruptcy Attorney Today
If you are weighing whether to file, whether to fight a lawsuit, or whether there is a way out that does not involve a courtroom, a conversation with a Burbank bankruptcy attorney at Wadhwani & Shanfeld will give you straight answers. Call for a free consultation, speak directly with an attorney, and get an honest recommendation about which path gives you the best chance at a fresh start. If a garnishment, foreclosure sale, or repossession is close, tell us at the start of the call so we can move quickly.
