Hallaq Law Bankruptcy Attorneys Bellevue & Kent, WA

Hallaq Law Bankruptcy Attorneys Bellevue & Kent, WA Are you stressed and anxious about growing credit card and/or medical debts? Are creditors calling on old bills and threatening garnishments?

Hallaq Law can help with debt relief and the first step is to call our firm for a free initial consultation. https://twitter.com/HallaqLaw

Another fantastic review for Hallaq Law! Thanks, Sarah.
05/13/2026

Another fantastic review for Hallaq Law! Thanks, Sarah.

When I was in Law School, one of my professors constantly said “there is no such thing as a free lunch”. Of course, wha...
04/29/2026

When I was in Law School, one of my professors constantly said “there is no such thing as a free lunch”. Of course, what he was saying is don’t expect the world to come and give you anything for free that you didn’t earn or pay for.
The same thing could be said about the myriad of advertisements that you get bombarded with on social media claiming to provide “free debt relief”. These advertisements make it sound like there is some government program that you aren’t aware of that will remove your debts if you just apply.
Another term I learned in Law School was “caveat emptor”, which is Latin for “let the buyer beware”. These “debt relief” programs are “for profit” companies that sound like they are non-profits, because their web sites have a lot of generic information that make them look like charities rather than companies who want to earn money off of you. What is even more insidious is that they have partnered with many long-standing reputable names of companies, especially famous news outlets, that make them sound very legitimate. Please understand that they are just using those names to get through the internet algorithm to reach you, but you will quickly be re-routed to a different company.
These companies basically offer two solutions, both of which are of marginal benefit to you. The first one is some sort of loan to pay off existing credit cards or medical debt. They will call this “debt consolidation”, but all they are “consolidating” is a bunch of your smaller loans into one big loan. Passing the same debt from Company A, B, and C, to Company D does not solve your problem, and unless they are offering you very favorable terms, you haven’t really resolved anything.
The second option is some sort of “debt relief” company. Now I’ve discussed these types of companies in the past. My general feeling is that they do not offer you anything that 1) you couldn’t do yourself without paying their fees, and 2) they do not actually get you on a path towards being debt free. What they do an amazing job at is getting the creditors to stop calling you, and that makes you believe that they have done something. In point of fact, all that they have done is have you sign a power of attorney form that forces your creditors to send all correspondence to them instead of to you. If you want to try one of these companies out, make sure that you get, in writing, a firm explanation of where your payments are going each month, and how long it will take you to be debt free.
I had a client call yesterday, and he wanted to know about how to get rid of his debt other than 1) paying off his debts, or 2) filing for Bankruptcy. Unfortunately, the way that the world works, those are really the two options. See link below to continue reading this blog

A good reminder for folks to do their research before hiring an attorney. Thanks, Raul.
04/14/2026

A good reminder for folks to do their research before hiring an attorney. Thanks, Raul.

We highly recommend that everyone does what Cassie did which is to research any attorney you want to hire.
03/19/2026

We highly recommend that everyone does what Cassie did which is to research any attorney you want to hire.

Thanks for another great review for the Kent Bankruptcy attorneys, Alex.
03/12/2026

Thanks for another great review for the Kent Bankruptcy attorneys, Alex.

We love when folks who don't end up being clients write us a great 5 star review!
02/12/2026

We love when folks who don't end up being clients write us a great 5 star review!

So, in a recent article from Nerdwallet that got a lot of coverage by media outlets, their writer extolled the virtues o...
01/29/2026

So, in a recent article from Nerdwallet that got a lot of coverage by media outlets, their writer extolled the virtues of an unconventional way of entering into home ownership.
The trend is called “co-buying” and lest you think that this is some new cool way of buying a home; this was always an option, but a risky one. “Co-buying” is just a different way of saying that you are having someone “co-sign” for your loan. Basically, the idea is that you purchase a home, which is financed using one or more co-signers who have no legal connection to you, such as a friend or a non-spouse family member. Remember, this is different from a spouse where there are set legal rules (such as contribution, community property, community debt, and equity rules) that govern that relationship. Remember, a marriage still means something. A spouse can’t simply walk away from a home without any consequence from a divorce court. But a boyfriend, girlfriend, ordinary friend, or a sibling could absolutely do that.
As a Bankruptcy attorney for over 27 years, I can categorically say that co-signing is generally a terrible idea unless you have absolute trust in the person that you are co-signing with. Of course, when I looked up the credentials of Nerdwallet’s “mortgage expert”, she has a degree in sociology. I couldn’t find any relevant experience, outside of being an online influencer, writer, and blogger that qualifies this person to give you advice on home mortgages.
This is not meant to be a dig on this particular writer. It is a cautionary tale about listening to anecdotal experiences from select people before making a huge financial decision. Her thesis needs to be carefully examined and scrutinized.
Let me start by saying that there is nothing illegal or inherently wrong with co-signing for a loan. I have seen many instances of parents, for example, co-signing with their child for a home loan to get them on their economic feet.
These advocates of “co-buying” make it sound like an easy way to seize upon a hot real estate market that you would not ordinarily be able to access because of your credit. There are even “co-buying strategists” online that will encourage you to “co-buy” a home but all they do is extol the virtues and none of the liabilities associated with this option. This is particularly popular among increasingly single women who are not waiting to find a committed romantic partner and want to enter the home market on their own. While on the surface this might seem like a good solution to a problem, it is absolutely a serious financial risk, despite not seeming so at first glace.
Let’s put it another way, using an analogy. According to the Pew Research Center, marriage is on a dramatic decline in the United States. Among the top reasons given by young people on why they do not want to get married is feeling “financially unprepared” for marriage. OK, so the typical home mortgage is for a 30-year term. How many people do you know that have been married for 30 years? But on the one hand while getting married seems like a serious economic risk to a large segment of the population, that same group will have no problem co-signing with a “friend” on a 30-year loan for the biggest purchase they will ever make in their life. How does that seem like a good idea?
Remember, that when you purchase a home, it isn’t just a home. There are ongoing costs beyond the mortgage, including upkeep, property taxes, property insurance, and perhaps home owners’ association expenses. What happens when one half of this pair wants to move on? If you couldn’t finance the property on your own, who says that you will be able to refinance the property and buy them out? What happens when you can’t get along with the co-buyer on fundamental questions? Who is going to live there? Who can store their belongings there? How are expenses going to be allocated?
Essentially being a co-buyer on a house is the equivalent of acquiring a business partner, and those relationships oftentimes don’t work out. Someone that you may get along with on many different issues may not be someone that you will get along with when it comes to money.
And that is when the Bankruptcy attorney steps in. Every Bankruptcy attorney has dealt with this type of scenario. Perhaps we can protect the equity in the home if both people are living there, but what if your “co-buyer” files for Bankruptcy and doesn’t live there? There would be no “homestead exemption”. It is possible that if there is enough equity for the Bankruptcy Trustee to sell the home you might lose the home. What if one person wants out? I have had to file lawsuits in my career for “partition by sale”, which essentially means that one person wants out of a home while the other person is unwilling to sell. How do they get cashed out? What if one person doesn’t want to contribute anymore? How do you legally enforce that obligation? What happens if one of the co-buyers loses their job? What happens if only one of the co-buyers lives at the property; do they pay rent to the other co-buyer?

So, when you have been doing Bankruptcy law for 27 years you have had a chance to see a lot of ups and downs in the econ...
12/04/2025

So, when you have been doing Bankruptcy law for 27 years you have had a chance to see a lot of ups and downs in the economy. Whenever there is economic upheaval, we see a natural increase in the number of home foreclosures.
Normally foreclosures are done in a very up-front way. I have been on the opposing side of foreclosure companies and banks my entire career, but for the most part, the things we fight about are how much money my client owes, or technical rules about the mortgage. I have rarely seen a foreclosing company try to “sneak” a foreclosure past the homeowner, so when somebody comes into the office saying that they didn’t know about a foreclosure, I get very skeptical.
But recently I’ve had some folks come and see me with a very strange story. Their homes were either being, or have been foreclosed on and they were completely unaware that this was happening. After my initial skepticism, I found out what happened and it is a cautionary tale for anyone who is behind on their home mortgage.
Generally speaking, there are two ways of performing a foreclosure: a judicial foreclosure (also called a “Sheriff’s sale”) and a non-judicial foreclosure (sometimes called a “Trustee’s sale”). The traditional method of foreclosure was the “judicial foreclosure”, which starts out as a lawsuit in the county in which your property is located. At the conclusion of the lawsuit, the Judge signs an order directing the Sheriff to sell your house at an auction. There were some problems for the bank with this method of foreclosure. First, it was expensive because it involved attorneys. Second, it had a built-in safety feature called a “right of redemption” which basically meant that you could buy your property back from the high bidder at the auction for the same amount that they paid (plus interest). This was designed to prevent the Sheriff from conducting the sale at 1 a.m. on a Tuesday morning and selling your home to his brother-in-law for $1 because he was the only person that knew about the auction. You would have six months to pay $1 to the brother-in-law and you’d have your house back.
So, for those reasons about 60 years ago, non-judicial foreclosures became popular. In this method the bank runs the foreclosure through a (supposedly) neutral third party called a Trustee. As long as the Trustee followed the statute to the letter, they could sell your house at a public auction. It was generally cheaper and had no pesky right of redemption to discourage buyers at the auction. For the most part, Sheriff’s sales became disfavored.
Recently, however, Sheriff’s sales have become more popular. The advantage of a Sheriff’s Sale over a Trustee’s sale is that if the home sells for less than what you owed to the bank, then the bank could come after you for the deficiency, which was something that generally does not occur in a Trustee’s sale.
OK, that’s the setup, so here is the problem on how the loophole works. In recent years, many people have gone to government agencies to help them buy their home, usually with some interest rate reductions, down payment assistance, or other incentives to make it easier to qualify for the home. In some cases, those government agencies (such as DSHS, HUD, VA, & others) have their names attached to the home for purposes of making sure that the homeowner follows through with their requirements for that government program.
Since a Sheriff’s sale starts off as a lawsuit (i.e. Bank v. You), in these cases, the government agency is also listed as a co-defendant to the lawsuit. What has happened in some of these cases is that the attorney running the foreclosure only serves the lawsuit on the government agency in Washington D.C., and does NOT serve the home owner. Technically, you can get a judgment when only one of the defendants in a lawsuit is served. The lawyer then takes that judgment and tells the Sheriff to auction the property, and you (the homeowner) never know that it is happening (or in the case of the gentleman that I spoke to today…already happened).
Most people who fall behind on their home mortgage depend on the bank to tell them their options in correspondence, but there is no requirement for them to do so, or to respond effectively to you after receiving that correspondence. In worst case scenarios, people can file a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy case to stop the foreclosure, and assuming that their financial situation can support it, re-organize their mortgage arrears in a way that allows them to keep their home.
But in this case, if your home was already foreclosed on based upon a State court action that went against you, a Bankruptcy case cannot operate as a de facto appeal to that action, so a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy is useless. See link below to continue reading this post.

There is no doubt that AI (artificial intelligence) will have profound aspects on how we do things in the future. In ma...
11/18/2025

There is no doubt that AI (artificial intelligence) will have profound aspects on how we do things in the future. In many ways, the ability to synthesize information in a coherent way has created great labor savings and increased productivity for many people.
Unfortunately, at this point in time, many people look to AI as an all-encompassing solution to every problem and this greatly overestimates what AI can and can’t do. For example, it is no secret that in many professions, such as accounting or the legal field, AI will change the way that business is done. Already in the legal field, many transactional practices are quickly slipping away, such as the preparation of simple Wills, lease agreements, LLC formation, and simple contracts. In this way, the strengths of AI show through. It finds examples of work previously done, collates various samples into one well drafted version and produces it in seconds without the need for an attorney or the costs associated with retaining a lawyer.

And for these practice areas, lawyers are quickly realizing that AI will change our field. Unfortunately, this has led ordinary people, and even some lawyers to use AI in ways that it is not ready for. In the legal field, we will regularly read stories of some attorney that used AI to produce a legal brief complete with citations for an important case, only to find out that when the Judge’s legal clerk double-check’s the lawyer’s work, they find out that all the information is wrong. Why is that? Well, AI wants to help you out and right now it is notorious for producing material that it thinks that you want to see, so it will do that even if it has to make up the information. In the legal field we read about these stories and snicker at the lazy lawyer that lost his case and became famous for all the wrong reasons.

But we are also seeing this among regular people who, having gotten a taste of AI’s powerful tools, start to think that they can satisfy all their legal needs pro se (i.e. representing yourself without an attorney).

In my practice area of Bankruptcy, I have spoken to several people, including Bankruptcy Trustee’s and a Judge and this is becoming something of a problem. Now don’t get me wrong, you absolutely have a right to file Bankruptcy without the aid of an attorney, and in fact, many people successfully do so. In almost every case the reasons that the person was successful have to do with 1) they are highly organized, 2) they like to do research, and 3) their cases were fairly simple. In such a scenario, I see no reason why a person couldn’t file a Bankruptcy case without an attorney.

But AI creates a deceptive impression that all cases can be filed without an attorney. AI loves to produce quick and digestible answers, and it lulls you into believing that your Bankruptcy case will be just like the Will you created, or the simple divorce you filed. Here is the factor that you are missing. AI is great at giving you simple and researchable facts. When is this document due? What information has to be disclosed on what form? What AI doesn’t know how to do is predict the human factor.

In Bankruptcy, the human factor is called a “Trustee”. In every Ch. 7 or Ch. 13 case, a Trustee will be assigned to your case. The Trustee has multiple responsibilities and they also have to compensate themselves through the tools that the Bankruptcy process affords them. This is something that AI does not yet have the ability to predict.

Some Trustee’s love taking a hard look at your house. Some love potential legal claims you might be entitled to. It takes Bankruptcy attorneys years to understand what aspects of our client’s lives a particular Bankruptcy Trustee will take an interest in. Bankruptcy can be fairly simple, but it has highly technical rules, and those rules don’t always seem obvious on their face. AI won’t understand that.

The reason that this is important, is that most experienced Bankruptcy attorneys won’t take on someone’s case if they started it themselves and botched something up. AI is starting to convince people that they can fill out the Bankruptcy forms by themselves, file them, and everything will be OK. Then I usually get a call because a Bankruptcy Trustee is doing something terrible to them, or one of their relatives, and they need help. In pains me to do so, but the amount of frustration that their case will produce is not worth it. I just got off a painful 15-minute phone call yesterday where a woman must have asked me 100 times, “why won’t you take my case?”. She did her research on AI and was convinced that her plan for a Bankruptcy would have no downside for her family. I told her that I know of two Bankruptcy Trustees (at least) that would completely derail her case and go after her relatives for a huge sum of money. She had no good options. Lying on Bankruptcy forms is a very serious crime for which you can go to prison. Disclosing everything in that case would have resulted in 6 months of misery for her and her family. But AI had convinced her that it knew more than my 27 years of experience.

So, the lesson is, absolutely use AI for what it is good for. Personally, I love those talking baby videos. But at this point in time, AI can’t predict the human factor and if your legal case (bankruptcy, divorce, criminal matters, litigation) involves a human on the other side, AI tools are not going to replace an experienced and competent attorney.

Hallaq Law won the 2025 Silver Award for Best Bankruptcy Law firm! Thanks to everyone who voted for us!
11/03/2025

Hallaq Law won the 2025 Silver Award for Best Bankruptcy Law firm! Thanks to everyone who voted for us!

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40 Lake Bellevue Suite 100
Bellevue, WA
98005

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