The
state of the economy, mounting medical bills, the increase in foreclosures,
loss of employment, the shipping of jobs overseas and other factors have
contributed to the increase in Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy filings.
Click
here to visit the American Bankruptcy Institute website and view the
statistics.
And with the changes in the
bankruptcy law in 2005, this has also increased the need for professional
training in the area of preparing bankruptcy petitions because the court
requires much more detail in the documents submitted for filing.
However, as the virtual assistant
industry continues to grow, bankruptcy attorneys are finding that virtual
bankruptcy assistants provide a compliment to their law firm. Four of these
benefits are:
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Attorneys do
not pay the standard overhead costs associated with hiring a full-time
or part-time employee. VBAs charge one flat fee. |
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Attorneys do not pay for
services until they are satisfied with the quality of work produced by
the VBA. There is no financial risk for the law firm. |
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Attorneys do not invest
in additional computer equipment or software. VBAs maintain their own and
are highly skilled in using it. |
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Paralegals and other law
firm personnel are freed up to work on more complex cases. Besides, the
typical employee preparing petitions in a law firm is interrupted several
times and the information on the bankruptcy petiton is not consistent and
precise, resulting in paperwork errors. |
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The virtual bankruptcy assistant
field was started in March 2001 by Victoria Ring. After building a successful
online paralegal business called The Lawyer Assistant, her virtual bankruptcy
business grew to the point where she needed to hire help. However, Victoria
found no virtual assistants, let alone people who were trained in preparing
well detailed bankruptcy petitions.
When Victoria discovered
there was a great need for training in this area, she sold her company
and dedicated her career to training others. From attorneys, paralegals,
law firm personnel and virtual assistants, Victoria has traveled the United
States training others the methods she learned first hand. Besides,
when the bankruptcy petition is prepared right, deficiency notices and
a vast amount of time is reduced for the attorney, law firm and court personnel.
Therefore, Victoria has conducted a wide range of experiments since 2001
with 100s of attorneys and court personnel to develop training materials
and methods that work consistently. Her training methods have been approved
for CLE credits by The Ohio Supreme Court, National Association of Legal
Assistants and the National Federation of Paralegal Associations; plus
she has won many honors for her books and training videos.
We hope you enjoy the information
on this website and will consider purchasing some training materials as
well as joining The NAVBA (National Association of Virtual Bankruptcy Assistants.)
We also encourage you to join other virtual assistant organizations such
as the IVAA, VA
Chamber of Commerce, International
VAs and the Alliance
for VAs. All of these organizations are part of the big picture
and virtual bankruptcy assistants fill a nitch within the industry. |