The attorneys at Mickler & Mickler have significant experience assisting individuals and businesses reorganize their debts through Chapter 11. Our clients utilize Chapter 11 to protect their personal assets and retain ownership and control of their business assets. Chapter 11 offers a number of benefits to these companies and individuals such as time to repay debts, extension of balloon mortgage notes, reduced interest rates, time to repay taxes and in certain circumstances elimination of tax debt, and reduction of secured or unsecured debt.
Chapter 11 Reorganization
It is a common misconception that only large corporations qualify to file Chapter 11. To the contrary, Chapter 11 is available to both individuals and corporations (including C corporations, S corporations, limited liability companies, and partnerships). Whether a Chapter 11 might benefit you or your business depends on the facts and circumstances of your particular situation. In some instances, one might file Chapter 11 strategically in order to reduce debt service. In other cases, a Chapter 11 filing may be a necessity to avoid seizure of assets by a judgment creditor.
Unlike a conventional liquidating bankruptcy, otherwise known as a Chapter 7, Chapter 11 is designed to help you retain ownership of personal or business assets while restructuring debt. A Chapter 11 may help you to:
- Retain ownership of assets such as real estate, equipment, motor vehicles, etc.
- Decrease monthly debt payments by reducing the principal balance of debt, reducing the interest rate, or increasing the timeframe for payment (for example, you may be able to restructure mortgage debt on an investment property to a new thirty year mortgage with 4% interest and reduce the principal balance of the mortgage debt to the current market value of the property)
- Halt a pending lawsuit, judgment, garnishment or foreclosure sale
- Gain breathing room and time to continue to operate your business and formulate a Plan
Unlike a Chapter 13 reorganization, which is limited to a five-year Plan, a Chapter 11 Plan may stretch out payments over a longer period of time. Also unlike Chapter 13, your Chapter 11 Plan payments do not begin immediately. You may have a period of time while the case is pending where you make no payments to creditors or if you do make interim payments, such payments are typically less than the Chapter 11 Plan payments and substantially less than your obligations prior to filing Chapter 11.
If you are facing obstacles ranging from a foreclosure sale or simply high interest rates and debt service, Mickler & Mickler is here to help you with your problems, great and small. Our attorneys have experience with a wide variety of individuals and businesses including:
- High net worth individuals
- Single asset commercial real estate holding companies
- Hotels
- Construction companies (roofing, drywall, general contractors)
- Retailers
- Manufacturers
- Restaurants
- Developers
- Churches
- Trucking & towing companies
- Automotive repair shops
- Daycare providers
We want you to be equipped with all the information necessary to make an informed decision. To that end, we offer a free consultation. We also serve clients of varying sizes and degrees of complexity. Accordingly, we offer flexible and competitive fee arrangements; competitive both in terms of the requisite retainer and hourly rates.
Please e-mail Taylor King (tjking@planlaw.com) or Bryan Mickler (bkmickler@planlaw.com) or call us at 904.725.0822 to learn more or to schedule an appointment to speak with an experienced Chapter 11 attorney.
