Can You File Bankruptcy Without a Lawyer? 6 Facts About Filing on Your Own

A person may file bankruptcy without a lawyer, and a company may not, and nearly everything worth knowing about filing on your own follows from that one asymmetry. The individual who files alone has a right the law protects and a set of deadlines the law enforces with equal indifference. The owner who hopes to file alone for an LLC has no right at all.

The six facts below cover both sides of that line, the people who sell help to self-represented filers, and the places where free help can sometimes be found.

1. An Individual Has the Right to File Pro Se, and the Court Will Not Advise It

The federal judiciary's page on filing bankruptcy without an attorney states the rule in its first line: "Individuals can file bankruptcy without an attorney, which is called filing pro se." The next sentence says that "seeking the advice of a qualified attorney is strongly recommended," and the page twice repeats that "court employees and bankruptcy judges are prohibited by law from offering legal advice."

Those two sentences, read together, describe the arrangement. The forms are free, the rules are published, and the clerk will accept the petition, but no one employed by the court will tell a filer which chapter suits the facts, which exemptions to claim, or whether a particular debt will survive. The page adds that self-represented filers are expected to know the Bankruptcy Code, the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, and the court's local rules. That expectation is written with the same calm as a sign in a museum asking visitors not to touch the paintings, and it is enforced with considerably more consequence.

2. A Company Cannot File for Itself, in Any Chapter

In Rowland v. California Men's Colony, decided in 1993, the Supreme Court treated as long settled the principle that "a corporation may appear in the federal courts only through licensed counsel," and applied it to artificial entities generally. The judiciary's instructions for non-individual bankruptcy forms put it more bluntly: "Non-individual debtors must be represented by an attorney." An LLC, a corporation, or a partnership that files without one has filed a petition exposed to being struck or dismissed.

This is the answer to anyone asking how to file chapter 11 without an attorney for a business. The chapter does not matter. A sole proprietor is different, because a sole proprietorship is the owner, files on the individual 100-series forms, and may in principle file pro se under any chapter the owner qualifies for, chapter 11 included. In principle is carrying most of that sentence. A chapter 11 debtor proposes a plan, meets confirmation standards written for lawyers, and in a traditional case answers to a creditor's objection under section 1129(a)(15); an individual doing that alone is attempting something the system tolerates rather than expects.

3. A Petition Preparer Types, and the Statute Forbids Nearly Everything Else

A self-represented filer will meet non-attorney petition preparers, and 11 U.S.C. 110 governs them closely. A preparer is a person, other than a lawyer or a lawyer's supervised employee, who prepares a document for filing for compensation. Before preparing anything or taking a fee, the preparer must give the debtor written notice that the preparer "is not an attorney and may not practice law or give legal advice," and every document the preparer touches must carry the preparer's signature, name, address, and identifying number.

The prohibitions run longer than the permissions. A preparer may not sign any document on the debtor's behalf, and may not advise whether to file, which chapter to choose, whether a debt will be discharged, whether the debtor will keep a home or car, what the tax consequences are, how to characterize property or debts, or anything about "bankruptcy procedures and rights." A preparer may not use the word "legal" in advertising and may not collect the court filing fee. The judiciary's own summary is shorter: preparers "can only enter information into forms."

The preparer may write down your answers. The preparer may not tell you what the questions mean.

The remedies have teeth. For a violation or a fraudulent, unfair, or deceptive act, the court must order the preparer to pay the debtor actual damages plus the greater of $2,000 or twice the amount the debtor paid, along with reasonable attorney's fees, and each failure to comply may bring a fine of up to $500, tripled when the preparer advised hiding assets or concealed the preparer's own identity. The statute sets no national fee cap; maximums come from court rules or guidelines, which differ.

And none of this helps a business, since a preparer cannot stand in for the lawyer an entity must have.

4. The Case Usually Fails on Paper, Not in Argument

Most of what ends a self-represented case is clerical. Under section 521(i), an individual in a voluntary chapter 7 or 13 case who has not filed the required schedules, statements, and payment information within 45 days faces dismissal effective on the 46th day, though a request made inside that period can buy up to 45 more. The most recent federal tax return, or a transcript, must reach the trustee at least seven days before the date first set for the meeting of creditors, and a failure there leads to dismissal unless it was beyond the debtor's control. The exemption choice is another trap: section 522(b) makes the filer choose between the federal list and the state's alternative, where state law allows the choice, and the right choice depends on facts no form explains.

Whether the court would have excused a careful filer's honest mistake on the forty-sixth day is a question the statute does not stop to consider.

The schedules are signed under penalty of perjury, and 18 U.S.C. 152 punishes a knowing and fraudulent false oath in a bankruptcy case with up to five years in prison. That statute requires knowing and fraudulent conduct, so the confused filer who leaves off an account has not committed a crime. The confused filer is, however, the one who must explain the omission to a trustee under oath at the meeting of creditors, which is its own kind of proceeding.

5. Free Help Exists for People, Not for Companies

The judiciary's pro se page points filers who cannot afford a lawyer to the American Bar Association's Legal Help directory and to the Legal Services Corporation, noting that such filers "may qualify for free legal services." Eligibility is income-based and individual. In New York, the State Bar's lawyer referral service offers an initial half-hour consultation with a participating attorney for no more than $35, a fee that may be waived, though the service does not cover New York City's five counties and several others.

An LLC will not qualify for legal aid, and a referral line is not a retainer.

6. A Settlement Route Does Not Need a Lawyer, and Does Not Replace One

Owners who search for how to file bankruptcy by themselves are often trying to save the one fee they can see. The cheaper question, for a company, is whether the debts can be resolved without a court at all. Delancey Street works on that question as a settlement negotiator, not a law firm; it files nothing, gives no legal advice, and negotiates what a company owes its funders and lenders, beginning with a review of the contracts and bank activity that costs nothing and stays confidential. Where a matter turns legal, it involves attorneys licensed independently of it.

The honest limit belongs here too. A company that must file needs a lawyer because the law says so, and an individual whose schedules are complicated needs one because the forms will not say so.