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Re Establishing Your Credit After Bankruptcy

Learn the Best Practices for Re-establishing Your Credit After Bankruptcy

Building a Better Credit Report

Your credit report is a file about you. It is full of information on where you live, how you pay your bills, whether you have been sued, arrested or filed for bankruptcy. Creditors use this information to evaluate your applications for credit, insurance, employment or a lease. A credit score is a way for creditors to find out whether to give you credit and how much to charge you for it. A credit score is a total of points from different factors. The factors are your bill-paying history, the number and type of accounts you have, late payments, collection actions, outstanding debt, and the age of your accounts. The higher your credit score, the better the chance of you getting a loan.

To re-establish your credit, consider applying for a secured credit card. A secured credit card requires you to open and maintain a bank account or other asset account as a financial institution as security for your line of credit. Your credit line is usually a percentage of your deposit, typically from 50 to 100 percent. It is not uncommon to incur application and processing fees. Further, secured credit cards usually have higher interest rates than non-secured cards.

Improving your Credit Report

Ensure that your credit report is accurate and complete. The creditor and credit bureau are responsible for correcting inaccurate or incomplete information. To correct any erroneous information, follow the instructions at www.equifax.com, www.experian.com, or www.transunion.com. Once the erroneous information has been verified, all three consumer reporting agencies will correct the information and send you a free credit report with the correct information. This credit report does not count as your free annual credit report.

If you have any negative information on your report, which is accurate, time is the only way for it to be removed. Most accurate negative information stays on your reports for seven years and bankruptcies stay on for ten years.

Identity Theft and your credit report

Here are some indications that you may have been the victim of identity theft:

  • Failing to receive mail, signaling an address change by the identity thief.
  • Receiving credit cards for which you did not apply.
  • Receiving calls from debt collectors about merchandise or services you didn’t buy.
  • Denial of credit for no apparent reason.

If you suspect that your identity has been stolen then there are two important steps to take right away.

First, place a fraud alert on your credit reports. Contact any of the three nationwide consumer reporting companies and place a fraud alert on your credit report. The initial credit bureau will contact the other insurance companies and they will also put an alert on your report.

Equifax: 1-800-525-6285 or www.equifax.com.

Experian: 1-888-397-3742 or www.experian.com.

TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289 or www.transunion.com.

Second, close the accounts that you know or believe have been tampered with or opened fraudulently and contact the security or fraud department of each company. Follow up in writing and include COPIES of supporting documents.

The Fair Credit Reporting Act

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) promotes the accuracy, fairness, and privacy of information used by nation’s consumer reporting companies. There were recent amendments that were made to the FCRA. Those amendments expanded consumer rights and placed additional requirements on consumer reporting companies and businesses that provide information about consumers to consumer reporting companies.

Types of Information that Can be Collected

There are four basic types of information that consumer reporting companies can collect and sell:

  1. Identification and employment information: This includes your name, birth date, Social Security number, employer, and your spouse’s name. It also includes your employment history, home ownership, income, and a previous address.
  2. Payment history: This shows you how much credit has been extended and if you have paid on time. Also, it shows if a creditor has referred your account to a collection agency.
  3. Inquiries: The consumer reporting companies must keep a record of all the creditors who have asked for your credit history within the last year. They must also keep a record of individuals or businesses that have asked to see your credit history for employment purposes within the last two years.
  4. Public record information: This shows events that are a matter of public record, such as bankruptcies, foreclosures, short sales, or tax liens.

If you have questions about rebuilding your credit after Chapter 7 bankruptcy then contact the Dunaway Law Group at 480-389-6529 or message us HERE.

Deposition

What is a deposition?

Deposition is the oral testimony of a witness taken under oath before trial at which time most of the objections available at trial do not apply; the basic rule being that the questions asked need only address themselves to information that is relevant to the case or to discovering relevant facts.  Anything said at the deposition can be used as evidence at trial.  

A deposition is a question-and-answer session. Attorneys for the other side will ask you questions, and you will answer the questions. When you answer, you will be testifying under oath, just as if you were testifying in court.  A court reporter will make a record of what is being said, which will later be transcribed into booklet format. When you are answering questions, you should relax and speak openly and frankly. The following pointers may be of some help:

The opposing party has a right to find out what information you have about the dispute so they can be prepared for trial, if the case does not settle.

What Happens at a Deposition?

The first thing that happens is the court reporter will ask you to swear or affirm to tell the truth. Then the other attorney will usually ask you to follow his or her rules. Ninety percent of the time, these rules are a) don’t talk over his questions because the court reporter can’t get down two people talking at once, b) if you don’t understand the question please ask for clarification, and c) if you need a break ask for one. Then the questions and answers begin. Once the deposition starts, you cannot talk to your attorney about your testimony. Your attorney is only there to protect you from improper questions. If your attorney objects, stop talking. Let the attorney get the objection out and then he will tell you whether to answer or not. Most of the time, objections are “for the record” only, because there is no judge present. So, a lot of times, attorneys object to questions and then tell their clients to go ahead and answer. Do not be surprised if that happens.

A deposition is a question-and-answer session. It is not a conversation. The pattern of the deposition should be:

You need to make sure that after you hear the question, you pause and think your answer through. After you are sure that the answer in your head is the best, most accurate answer, then you say it. Taking a pause and thinking through what you are going to say has two benefits:

Second, it lets you take control of the deposition.. But you still maintain 49% control over the way the deposition goes by controlling the pace.

TIPS FOR ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS

1.  Tell the Truth– It is your sworn duty. At your deposition, as in all other matters, honesty is the best policy. You must testify accurately about what you know.

2. Understand the Question– You cannot possibly give an accurate answer unless you understand the question. If you do not understand the question, say so. The lawyer will either repeat the question or rephrase it. Listen carefully to make sure that you understand. Some questions may have more than one meaning or may assume that you have testified to a fact when you have not done so. Listen to the entire question before answering.

Do not be afraid to say, “I don’t understand” or “I’m not 100% sure what you’re asking”. People do not like to admit they do not understand the question. If you are not 100% sure what something means, ask.

QUESTION . . .    PAUSE . . .   ANSWER . . .

QUESTION . . .   PAUSE . . .   ANSWER . . .

3.  Answer the Question that is Being Asked– If the question can be answered with a “yes” or “no”, do so and then stop. By attempting to go beyond the pale of the questions, it may well appear that you are attempting to persuade the questioner rather than answer the question.  Leave the persuasion to your lawyer.

Your answer should be a sentence long. It should not be a paragraph, a chapter or a book. If your answer is longer than a sentence, you are giving too much information.

You may feel that your answer is incomplete, and you will want to further explain so that the lawyer gets what you are saying. Fight the urge. You never want to volunteer something that was not asked for in a deposition. If you get the feeling that you should give more information to fully explain something, just remember that we can talk about it after the deposition is done and write a letter to the other attorney if we really have further explaining to do.

4. “I Don’t Remember”– Do not be afraid to say, “I don’t remember”. If you do not remember something, just say so. Do not guess!  If you don’t know, say you don’t know. Your testimony should consist of your personal observations and knowledge, not your guesses. If you do remember an event but do not remember all the details with absolute certainty, you should qualify your answer by saying, “To the best of my memory” or in some other way.

5. ‘Yes” or “No” Questions– Just the attorney asks you a “Yes” or “No” question does not mean that you have to give a “Yes” or “No” answer. One of the reasons for taking your deposition is to lock you into an answer. Instead of saying “Yes”, try saying “As far as I can recall”. Instead of “No”, you could say “I don’t recall that happening”. That way, you are not really locked into that answer. If you remember the information later, you can change your answer to make it true.

6.  Breaks– A deposition is taxing. On top of the anxiety that everyone naturally has, you are going to basically ask your brain to run a mini marathon. Therefore, the night before the deposition, have a decent dinner then get a good night’s sleep.

What is Voir Dire

What is voir dire & why is it important?

Voir dire is the process of questioning potential jurors to determine whether they are fit to serve as jurors for a particular trial. For Arizona lawyers, the goal of the voir dire process is to ensure that no members of the jury harbor biases that could jeopardize the outcome of the case.

Without a strategic, well-prepared voir dire process, you run the risk of starting from behind with the jury when the trial begins.

The voir dire process

Each judge in Arizona handles the Voir Dire process differently but the process typically looks like this:

  1. Potential jurors are randomly selected from a pool of people who show up for jury duty.
  2. The judge asks standard questions to ensure that everyone is capable of serving on a jury. For example, if they’re a U.S. citizen, don’t have any hardships that would prevent them from sitting through the entire trial, etc.
  3. After those who are deemed incapable are excused, the Arizona attorneys deliver a mini-opening where they offer a 3-5 minute overview of the case.
  4. Following the mini-openings, both Arizona attorneys ask questions of the remaining potential jurors to determine bias.
  5. Following the questioning period, the Arizona attorneys can request that potential jurors be removed with cause of potential bias, with the judge holding the power to deny the requests.
  6. Arizona attorneys also have the right to reject a limited number of potential jurors without cause. The attorneys may feel these individuals have potential biases, but aren’t able to fully justify their feelings to the judge.