Bankruptcy is essentially court-supervised financial rehabilitation for people or businesses who have, for a variety of reasons, fallen too far into debt to ever have a realistic chance of recovery. In these cases, the attorney for the debtor (the person who has fallen behind on her debts) compiles a list of information the bankruptcy court requires to review the bankruptcy petition. Eventually, the debtor’s attorney meets with representatives for the creditors with the bankruptcy court overseeing the proceedings. At this meeting, (called 341 meetingof creditors) the debtor’s financial and personal situation is reviewed, and the bankruptcy court will allow that certain debts be “discharged in bankruptcy” – essentially forgiven. Of course, this is only a very brief overview of the bankruptcy process, and many factors (such as a pending foreclosure case or whether a person is married) come into play. Generally speaking though, it is fair to say that for those debtors for whom bankruptcy is an option, it allows for a “fresh start” where that person’s finances are concerned. For most cases, after debts are discharged in bankruptcy, a debtor no longer has any obligation to repay them, and creditors are forever barred from collections attempts on those debts. Credit score is often affected, but for many debtors a “fresh start” is a better option than years spent making only minimum payments and thus treading water financially indefinitely.