Our Bankruptcy and Reorganization Department  provides the excellent proactive planning, analysis of strategy, and leadership that are necessary to advise a client facing financial distress. In the bankruptcy and debtor/creditor context, certain decisions, once made, chart the course of the matter and cannot be undone. This makes getting up-front and timely advice extremely important.

Goldman Gruder & Woods, LLC provides proactive, in-depth evaluation of alternatives to help clients make the best informed decisions possible when under financial pressure. The firm handles the following types of bankruptcy and commercial litigation services:

• Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Liquidations (individuals and businesses)

• Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Reorganizations

• Bankruptcy litigation

• Foreclosure defense

• Short Sales (of real property)

• Lawsuits and defense of lawsuits

Our clients include individuals, closely-held and family businesses, and very large corporations. We represent many different types of businesses and are familiar with the types of issues of the day that vex entrepreneurs and homeowners: job losses, increasing uncollectable receivables, restrictions on bank lending to small business, increased regulation and the real estate debacle. Typical clients are real property owners and investors, financial and mortgage professionals, construction companies, and businesses whose customers have been negatively affected by the recession. The firm is sensitive to the needs of individuals who have created companies through personal investment of time and finances.

Bankruptcy Halts the Lawsuits Foreclosure Process (temporarily)

A bankruptcy filing acts as an immediate and automatic stay (halting) of virtually all civil lawsuits against the debtor, including foreclosures, prejudgment attachments, property seizures, and garnishments. For this reason, when Bankruptcy is in the client’s best interest, we often recommend timing the bankruptcy filing in a manner that will set back the opponent’s foreclosure case or other type of asset seizure for as long as is possible in order to achieve the client’s legitimate objectives.

We are a debt relief agency. We help people file for bankruptcy relief under the Bankruptcy Code.

Business Bankruptcy Lawyers (Chapter 11)

A Chapter 11 Reorganization is designed to adjust the business’ debts through modification, discharge or forgiveness so that the company can emerge from bankruptcy and operate successfully thereafter. These are complicated cases that involve many strategic decisions. We spend significant time with the client in order to understand the business, its cash flow, assets and liabilities, and the different resources. Our advice and legal strategies are geared towards these interests. We never loose sign of the fact that ultimately the legal practice is about people and families regardless of the size of the problem or the business. Chapter 11 lawyers work within a system that includes Unsecured Creditors’ Committees, Bankruptcy Trustees, and mandatory periodic meetings of creditors that can be very intimidating to a client. Not every lawyer who handles bankruptcy cases has a strong track record of having Chapter 11 Plans confirmed by the Bankruptcy Court, and only a subset of those cases with confirmed Plans end with the debtors emerging from bankruptcy. We are proud of our attorneys experience and track record in these regards. Sometimes we are able to file confirmable Chapter 11 Plans for individuals who are engaged in businesses as sole proprietors

We are a debt relief agency. We help people file for bankruptcy relief under the Bankruptcy Code.

Asset Protection

Certain personal assets are exempt from claims of creditors and other assets are frequently protectable if the clients engage our firm well enough in advance of when they get sued or have to file for bankruptcy. We can help sort out your alternatives best to achieve your objectives. Often, this proactive advice and planning is the most important way to protect a client’s of business, home, investment property, business equipment, and other valuable assets. Being proactive may also help reduce a client’s exposure on his or her personal guaranty of business debts and shelter assets in lawfully created accounts that will be available for the client’s retirement or the education cost of their children.

We are a debt relief agency. We help people file for bankruptcy relief under the Bankruptcy Code.

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Attorney

Under a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, the applicant’s non-exempt assets are liquidated and, unless a “means test” requires some repayment of debts, discharged. Often, all the assets that the debtor desires to protect (not counting assets secured by liens) can be protected. Chapter 7 most often benefits people who cannot repay their unsecured consumer debts, although oftentimes, small business owners can also utilize Chapter 7 to gain a fresh start. Since Chapter 7 affects one’s credit and can expose liened assets (like homes), a Chapter 7 sometimes is best when combined with other strategies. We attempt to avoid Chapter 7 when the client has engaged his services at the beginning of a foreseeable financial crisis. We are keenly aware of the permissible strategies that are available to clients of all sizes that can minimize the impact of chapter 7 or avoid the process entirely and still relieve the client of the pressures of financial difficulties. Included in all Chapter 7 filings that are absolutely necessary is a strategy to re-establish the client’s credit worthiness.

We are a debt relief agency. We help people file for bankruptcy relief under the Bankruptcy Code.

Bankruptcy Litigation

Litigation within a bankruptcy court entails Adversary Proceedings (which is a common misnomer) and Contested Matters that are similar to “mini-trials” . These types of disputes can involve the validity or amount of a debt, an attempt by a creditor to block a discharge or render a particular debt non-dischargeable, the amount of salaries to be paid to the bankrupt company’s employees, fraud claims, confirmation of a Chapter 11 Plan, exempt property, motions to terminate the automatic bankruptcy stay, an attempt by a creditor to convert a reorganization to a liquidation, or a plethora of other types of disputes. The attorneys at Goldman Gruder & Woods, LLC have many years’ experience in handling adversary proceedings in the bankruptcy court for consumer debtors, business debtors, secured creditors and unsecured creditors’ committees.

Our lawyers can represent and prepare your case involving a variety of complicated and contentious issues ranging from simple debt collection to multi-party suit involving esoteric areas of the law. A good deal of the services provided by the firm includes the anticipation of potential litigation and thoughtful strategies to avoid the actions prior to them becoming inevitable. The value of this approach is that it saves the client from incurring fees that would make the reorganization or workout impossible.

We are a debt relief agency. We help people file for bankruptcy relief under the Bankruptcy Code.

Short Sales and Modifications

Although a mortgage is not often terminated through bankruptcy, one can sometimes achieve a loan modification in a bankruptcy case that could not be achieved directly with the lender outside of bankruptcy. Sometimes, bankruptcy can enable the client is able to achieve a sale of a home or business under circumstances that is advantageous to the client while comporting with the rules that favor fairness to creditors.

Foreclosure Defense

Because of the lack of regulatory controls and a poor economy, many clients find themselves in foreclosure actions which could lead to the loss of their homes, business premises or real estate investment. Oftentimes the situation is a consequence of questionable lending practices or events beyond the owner’s control. Goldman Gruder & Woods are experienced in recognizing the potential liability of lenders and illegal lending or collection practices that can place the client in a position that appears on its face as a routine default but is actually the fault of the lender or its unscrupulous practices.

Connecticut law recognizes many rights of borrowers of all kinds who are victims of this type of conduct and has been successful in leveraging the lenders’ unlawful behavior as a tool to either avoid the foreclosure, rehabilitate the relationship between the creditor/debtor or provide other alternatives to the borrower that appear unattainable prior to seeking their attorney’s advice.

The attorneys at Goldman Gruder & Woods, LLC in Connecticut are knowledgeable of the Court-sponsored mortgage mediation process and have successfully assisted clients who were many months behind on their debts, both to retain their homes and re-establish workable loans through forgiveness of debt, reduction of interest rates and other forms of mortgage modification that avoid the disastrous consequences of being uprooted from one’s family home.