Bankruptcy has long-term financial and legal consequences, and hiring a competent attorney is strongly recommended. Only an attorney is qualified to give you legal advice, such as how to best accomplish a particular goal, how to apply a rule or statute, or how to accurately complete a bankruptcy form or file a motion.

Petition preparers or document preparers are not permitted to give you legal advice. Their role is strictly limited to typing information into the required forms.

Neither the Clerk’s Office and nor the judge’s staff is authorized to give you legal advice. But you can review court files at the Clerk’s Office to see how an attorney has handled other bankruptcy cases and to see the fees an attorney has charged other debtors. You may also attend any public hearings the court conducts to observe attorneys.

If you wish to obtain legal advice, you may use the MyDCLawyer service available through the D.C. Bar, or contact the Lawyer Referral Service available through the Bar Association for the District of Columbia by emailing LRS@badc.org.

Below are some other options by which you may be able to find an attorney to represent you in your bankruptcy case or related proceeding.

1. The D.C. Bar Pro Bono Center offers assistance to individuals, nonprofits, and small businesses. You may obtain free advice on many legal problems, including bankruptcy and debt collection, consumer law, housing law, and landlord-tenant matters, at the Advice and Referral Clinics.
2. The Bar Association of the District of Columbia’s Bankruptcy Access to Justice Project aims to provide free or reduced-fee legal services to individuals filing under chapter 7 or chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code.
3. The Bankruptcy Resources page created by the American Bankruptcy Institute includes a list of common bankruptcy questions with straightforward answers.

 Finally, if you are indigent and need legal representation to pursue or defend against a proceeding within a bankruptcy case, you may be eligible for free representation upon application to the court. Contact the Clerk’s Office for the form used to request free representation.

Examples of proceedings to which this program applies are:

• an adversary proceeding brought against a debtor to determine dischargeability of a particular debt;
• an adversary proceeding brought by a debtor to determine dischargeability of a student loan debt;
• an adversary proceeding to deny a debtor a discharge or to revoke a discharge;
• an adversary proceeding to recover a judgment against an individual, such as a bankruptcy trustee’s or a debtor’s complaint against someone for having allegedly received property from the debtor for inadequate consideration or for having received payment of a debt that gave the creditor preferential treatment in comparison to other creditors;
• an adversary proceeding to enjoin someone from undertaking certain acts in the future;
• a motion by the debtor to avoid a lien that impairs the debtor’s exemptions; or
• a motion to hold a creditor in contempt for violating the automatic stay, co-debtor stay, or discharge injunction.

This program does not include pursuing or defending against a motion for relief from the automatic stay.