Put off till tomorrow what isn’t due today. That is the student’s motto that accompanies nights of dorm room revelry, late-night debauchery. All splendid till the sleepless night-before exam cramming and sweating. But it works out in the end, even if it takes a toll. But in real life, procrastination is fatal. For the lawyer, there are no kind professorial extensions. Only a swinging gavel, an executioner’s axe if you’re late. If you’re late, you’re history. So I’m never late. But alas, it pains me to say that sometimes a client delays.

In chapter 7 bankruptcy, attorney fee payments are required in advance. A debt to an attorney would be discharged once the bankruptcy is filed and the attorney would go out of business and not be able to help anyone. Many clients don’t have the ability to pay even our modest fee in a lump sum. No worries: we provide easy, convenient payment plans. We are not a debt collector, no siree! Payments apply to future services. However, we deliberately adhere to the installment plan’s schedule so that we can timely file the bankruptcy petitions. This inures to the client's benefit. However, sometimes the client delays in payment, because it's tempting to put things off till the conceptual tomorrow. However, this is perilous. Filing for bankruptcy is preventive medicine, it is the rotation that keeps the tires turning, the jog that keeps the heart pumping. As old Dick quoted in his eponymous Poor Richard’s Almanac: a stitch in time saves nine. (The almanac was Benjamin Franklin’s pseudonymous compendium of maxims and good stuff. Okay: no more “onymous” words, I promise.) Often, there may be greater costs if the bankruptcy filing is pushed out. Example?

Take Horatio. Here’s what transpired when he opened his door:

Horatio? Horatio Alger?

Yes.

You’ve been served! [papers are shoved in Horatio's face]

Now, he may be plucky, but Horatio is still shocked. And that’s a typical service of process. It’s also what I call stage 3 in the three stages of debt collection. Stage 1: creditor harassment. Stage 2: collection agency harassment. Stage 3: lawsuit. Before they know it, even clients who have signed on with us well in advance get garnished and find judgment liens encumbering their real property. Delay is a dangerous path and ultimately it causes undue expenses and stress.

But payment's just one part of the preparation. There is homework! And you thought school was out forever! As a standard industry requirement, we must ask our clients to provide a healthy dose of information and documentation. While we provide the legal know-how, only the client possesses access to her own financial affairs and records. It requires prompt diligence and attention to give the attorney what he needs to help you. Help me, so I can help you. Pretty please.

Best,

Asaph