On behalf of Law Offices of Mark M. Kratter, LLC on September 17, 2012
Connecticut readers may be able to commiserate with a college football coach who recently filed for Chapter 7. The coach has cited real estate investment debts as the main reason for his decision to file the Chapter 7 petition. With the slump in the real estate market, many people are experiencing overwhelming debt related to their home or land purchases.
The coach told reporters that, although he was trying to avoid having to file for Chapter 7, he knew that he would ultimately have to file. Throughout the process, he has been open and candid about his financial struggles. The college he coaches for has supported him from the beginning and places no blame on him for the situation. The athletic director for the college has stated that there were no hard feelings about it, especially with the current state of the economy.
The filing has listed his assets at somewhere between the amounts of $1 million to $10 million, but his debts are somewhere between $10 and $50 million. There will be more details added to the petition at a later time, as the current filing is preliminary. The coach claims that several years ago he made real estate investments that lost money once the real estate market slumped. While he tried to avoid bankruptcy, he ultimately filed but refused to be embarrassed about it. He said he knows that financial troubles can happen to anyone.
Chapter 7 is used as a way to liquidate a person's debts. In this case, the coach will likely be able to discharge a significant volume of his debts with this bankruptcy petition, and hopefully begin again with a clean financial slate. Consumers who are saddled with debt or unable to recover from bad investments should look to this case as an example that financial turmoil can happen to anyone, and is not cause for shame or embarrassment. Bankruptcy could be a viable way for Connecticut readers to escape some of their financial problems and start over.
Source: Yahoo! Sports, "Arkansas' Smith files Chapter 7 bankruptcy," Chuck Bartels, Sept. 6, 2012
