Delaware County Bankruptcy Lawyer

If you are looking for a bankruptcy lawyer in Delaware County, you have found one. One thing up front: our office is not inside the county. It sits just over the city line in Center City Philadelphia, at 1819 John F. Kennedy Blvd, Suite 307, Philadelphia, PA 19103, a short drive from Upper Darby, Darby, Lansdowne, and the rest of eastern Delco. That closeness matters less than you would think, because almost everything gets handled by phone and Zoom now. What matters more is that we file in this court, and your free consultation is with Mike himself.

Delaware County packs a lot of working life into its 49 towns. Boeing builds Chinook and Osprey aircraft in Ridley Park, UPS moves freight through its hubs, Wawa runs its whole operation from a headquarters here, and Villanova and Widener anchor thousands of jobs. Crozer Health hospitals, Harrah’s in Chester, the Monroe Energy refinery in Trainer, the Port of Chester, and Philadelphia International Airport right on the border all feed paychecks into households across the I-95, I-476 Blue Route, and US-1 corridors. When a plant slows down, a hospital reorganizes, a shift gets cut, or a medical bill lands after an ER visit, the debt does not care how hard you worked for that paycheck. A layoff, a divorce, a surprise hospital stay, or a car that died at the wrong time can put an honest person behind fast. That is not a character flaw. It is exactly what bankruptcy law is for.

Here’s what actually matters.

Your Delaware County case at a glance

Where your case is filed	The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, at 900 Market Street, Suite 400. That is the court for everyone in Delaware County.
The 341 meeting of creditors	Held by Zoom as standard practice. Most Delaware County filers never see the inside of the courthouse.
Sheriff foreclosure sales	Delaware County sheriff sales run the third Friday of each month at 11 a.m. at the county Government Center in Media. The time to act is before the sale.
Nearest office	1819 John F. Kennedy Blvd, Suite 307, Philadelphia, PA 19103, in Center City, just over the line from eastern Delaware County. We have no office inside the county, and we are upfront about that. Nearly everything is handled by phone and Zoom.

Filing bankruptcy from Delaware County

Every Delaware County bankruptcy is filed in the same place: the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. A few weeks after filing, you attend one short meeting called the 341 meeting of creditors, and these days it happens by Zoom, so you can do it from your kitchen table. From there the path splits into two chapters. Chapter 7 wipes out qualifying debt like credit cards, medical bills, and personal loans in about four to six months, and most people keep everything they own. Chapter 13 is a three- to five-year plan that lets you catch up on a mortgage or car loan while you keep the property. If a foreclosure is bearing down, that timing is everything. Pennsylvania foreclosure is judicial, so the lender has to send Act 6 and Act 91 notices, file a complaint, and win a judgment before any sheriff sale. Delaware County sheriff sales are the third Friday of each month at 11 a.m. at the Government Center in Media. Here is the part people miss: unlike New Jersey, Pennsylvania generally gives you no right of redemption after a mortgage foreclosure sheriff sale, so once the gavel falls, the house is gone. A Chapter 13 filed before the sale stops it cold through the automatic stay and lets you spread the past-due amount over three to five years.

The Delaware County towns we serve

We help people across every corner of Delaware County, from the densely packed rowhome blocks of Upper Darby and the riverfront city of Chester to the leafy streets of Havertown, the county seat of Media, and the suburbs of Springfield and Broomall. We work with clients in Ridley, Darby, Lansdowne, Yeadon, Collingdale, Sharon Hill, Glenolden, and Clifton Heights, along with Aston, Brookhaven, Newtown Square, and Marcus Hook. We also serve Aldan, Colwyn, Eddystone, Folcroft, Morton, Norwood, Prospect Park, Ridley Park, Swarthmore, Trainer, Upland, Marple, Haverford, Middletown, Nether Providence, Concord, Bethel, Chadds Ford, and every other borough and township in the county. To be clear, this list is not the limit of our reach. We represent people in every town in Delaware County and everywhere else in Pennsylvania.

What people in Delaware County worry about losing

The first question almost everyone asks is whether they will lose their home or their car. For most people the answer is no. Pennsylvania filers get to choose between the federal bankruptcy exemptions and the state exemptions, and most choose the federal set because Pennsylvania has no general homestead exemption. Those federal exemptions are built to protect a modest home, a reliable car, household goods, retirement accounts, and the tools you need for work. In a county where so many families own a rowhome or a twin in Upper Darby, Darby, Lansdowne, or Collingdale and rely on one car to get to a job at the airport, the hospital, or a warehouse, that protection is the whole point. Before you assume you will lose something, let a lawyer actually run your numbers against the exemptions. The picture is usually far better than the worry.

Medical and credit card debt after a rough year

A lot of Delaware County debt is not from overspending. It is from a hospital stay, a stretch out of work, or a few months of putting groceries and gas on a credit card to stay afloat. Medical bills and credit card balances are unsecured debt, which is exactly the kind of debt Chapter 7 is designed to erase. If your income is modest, you may qualify to wipe those balances out entirely in a matter of months and start the next year with a clean slate instead of collection calls. If your income is higher or you have a house to protect, Chapter 13 can fold that debt into one monthly payment you can actually manage. Either way, the collection calls and any wage garnishment stop the day we file.

What it costs

The first conversation is free, and it is with Mike, not an intake rep. Our fees are affordable, and we go over them with you before you decide anything, and we offer payment plans because most people looking at bankruptcy are not sitting on a pile of cash. Qualifying Chapter 7 filers may get the $999 flat-fee Chapter 7. You can book a free consultation at our scheduling page or just call (609) 808-3300 and we will find a time that works.

Common questions about bankruptcy in Delaware County