What is a Virtual Bankruptcy Assistant?
By: Victoria Ring | Posted: 13th December 2006
A virtual bankruptcy assistant works from their home office for bankruptcy attorneys nationwide.
What types of jobs do virtual bankruptcy assistants perform for bankruptcy attorneys?
** Drafting of Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy petitions.
Just like a tax preparer takes your information and completes your 1040 form, it requires training to learn where to place debt information in the proper areas of the federal bankruptcy forms and schedules. But once you acquire this skill, you can use it to build a profitable and long-term business career. Or, you can use the skill as a "stepping stone" to move on to other areas of bankruptcy, such as Chapter 13s and Chapter 11s.
Below are links to a few of the companies who provide virtual bankruptcy assistant services to bankruptcy attorneys:
http://www.bankruptcyplus.com
http://www.professionalva.com/
http://www.prioritybankruptcy.com/
http://www.bankruptcyprep.net/
http://www.paralegalservicesusa.com/
** Online research for property records, judgments, liens, motor vehicle values and other debt-related research.
When you are drafting a bankruptcy petition, you need to perform online research in order to obtain verification of information on the Client Intake Forms. But you can also provide online research for a variety of attorneys on an outsource basis.
Below are links to a few of the companies already performing research services for attorneys:
http://www.nationwideappeals.com/
http://www.briefwise.com/
http://www.nlrg.com/
http://rapidlegal.com/
** Foreclosure mediation.
A foreclosure mediator negotiates a resolution between the mortgage company and the borrower to enable them to keep their home. Foreclosures are a common occurrence in Chapter 7 bankruptcy cases. In fact, in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy a borrower can easily lose their home if they are unable to make payments and pay back all the arrearages. A foreclosure mediator will work under the direction of a bankruptcy attorney in order to negotiate a settlement between the parties.
For more info, purchase the eBook: "An Introduction to Foreclosure Mediation"
http://www.713training.com/shop/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=9
** Drafting of pleadings.
Transcribing and dictation services are needed by all attorneys. Before the internet existed, attorneys used tape recorders to dictate legal documents to their secretary. The secretary placed the tape into a transcribing machine and typed legal documents for the attorney to edit and revise. Today, attorneys digitally record their dictation and email their file to a virtual bankruptcy assistant who types out the legal documents and emails the draft back to the attorney in MS Word or PDF format.
Below are links to a few of the companies who provide virtual transcribing services to attorneys:
http://www.traceylawton.com/
http://www.superiortyping.com/
http://www.wordprocessingplus.com/
http://www.datalystcorp.com/services.html
http://www.123transcriptions.com/
Do I have to be a paralegal to work virtually for bankruptcy attorneys?
No! Drafting bankruptcy petitions is not a skill taught in law school or any paralegal course. Paralegals normally focus their duties on more advanced areas of bankruptcy law including trial preparation, appeal procedures and working on more high profile cases. In the past, drafting bankruptcy petitions was considered to be nothing more than filling in forms. When the forms were filled out wrong or were missing information, the bankruptcy court rejected the filing and the attorney and the staff inherited more work in filing amendments, motions and other legal documents to correct the errors and omissions.
Why is there now a focus on skilled virtual bankruptcy assistants?
On October 17, 2005, the bankruptcy law underwent major changes. Suddenly, the bankruptcy petition was elevated to the status of a very important document. The new law even imposed sanctions on attorneys who submitted a bankruptcy petition with incomplete or non-verified information. Unfortunately, since a large majority of bankruptcy attorneys did not have access to skill training in this area they had very limited choices.
Learning the skill of drafting well detailed bankruptcy petitions is your key to a long-term future career.
Ask any bankruptcy attorney if they are satisfied with the petition drafting skills of their office staff and most of them will say "no." Due of the lack of education in this area, the law office staff had to learn how to draft bankruptcy petitions from their co-workers. The co-workers normally learned from past errors and mistakes they made. Therefore, when you learn the skills to become a trained virtual bankruptcy specialist, your skills are rare and your opportunities are endless.
How much money can you earn as a virtual bankruptcy assistant?
No one can predict how much money you will earn working any type of business. That answer depends on you. However, you have the potential to make as much money as you want. Because bankruptcy is federal law, you can live in any state and work for any bankruptcy attorney in any other state. There are no jurisdictional limits. You can work for 1 or 100 attorneys. The sky is the limit.
However, on the average, a skilled and trained virtual bankruptcy assistant earns $300 or more for drafting a Chapter 7 petition and $400 or more for drafting a Chapter 13. Additional services are normally billed at $75 per hour.
One of the most successful virtual bankruptcy assistants to date was Victoria Ring. In 2001 she started the first virtual bankruptcy assistant service for attorneys nationwide. The company was named The Lawyer Assistant. Within 9 months after start-up, Victoria had a client base of 56 attorneys and was processing on the average of 125 bankruptcy petitions per week. Although at that time she only charged $150 for each one, she still netted around $18,700.00 per week. She later sold the company due to the inability to keep up with the growing workload and dedicated her career to training virtual bankruptcy assistants so they could fill this great need in the legal field.
How long does it take to draft a bankruptcy petition?
When you first begin learning the skill of drafting bankruptcy petitions it can take from 4 hours to 15 hours to complete your first petition. But the more practice you have, the faster and better you will become. Angie Boyd, CEO of Bankruptcy Plus said: "It took me 9 hours to do my first bankruptcy petition and I made several mistakes. But after I did about 15 or so, I could easily complete an average petition in under 90 minutes."
Think about it . . .
You can spend four years in college, go into debt $100,000 and when you graduate you may be able to get an entry-level job paying a salary of $35,000. Or, you can invest about $1,000, train for 2-6 months and have an earning potential of $50,000 or more per year immediately.
How to get started:
1. Join the Bankruptcy Club
https://www.713training.com/administrator/signup.php
For only $15.99 you can sign up and become a member of The Bankruptcy Club for a period of 30 days. During that time, you will have access to all the previous teleconferences at no additional charge. Download the audios, listen to them and learn more about the field from experienced virtual bankruptcy forms processors. Also, join in on weekly live teleconferences. Ask questions and get answers. Then, after 30 days you can cancel your membership by logging in or do nothing and your credit card will be billed automatically for $15.99 on a monthly basis while you remain a member.
2. Download the eBook: "The Introductory Training Course for Virtual Bankruptcy Assistants"
http://www.713training.com/shop/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=15
This 30-page ebook will answer all of your questions plus provide you with self-assessment tests to help you determine what area of bankruptcy law may be best for you based on your skills. For only $9.99 this eBook will help you understand the virtual bankruptcy assistant field before you make an investment.
3. Determine your training method.
http://www.713training.com/shop
Do you learn best by reading a book or visually by watching a training video? Perhaps you need both, or perhaps you prefer hands-on training, or perhaps you learn better in a seminar atmosphere. The choice is yours. 713Training.Com offers a wide range of products and services, including ongoing support to help you learn and build your skills as a virtual bankruptcy assistant. Simply choose the products and services that fit your budget and your preferred training method.
4. Take the AVBA Exam and Become Accredited
http://www.713training.com/avba
The Accredited Virtual Bankruptcy Assistant Exam was developed to test your skills and provide you with an accreditation that will set you apart from others in this field.
No-Cost Research
Below are links to help you find out more about the virtual bankruptcy assistant field before making an investment:
Listen to a Teleconference
http://www.713training.com/teleconference/
View Online Training Video
http://www.713training.com/videos/start/
Read the ebook: How to Increase Profits for Your Law Firm that details (for an attorney) the benefits of a virtual bankruptcy assistant.
http://www.713training.com/attorneybook/
Free Online Tests
http://www.quia.com/pages/713training.html
For more information, contact 713Training.Com at:
http://www.713training.com/contact.html
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Tags: term business, stepping stone, chapter 13 bankruptcy, chapter 7 bankruptcy, tax preparer, mortgage company, home foreclosures, business career, bankruptcy petition, bankruptcy attorneys