Law Offices of John A. Comerford

This law firm is founded on the principle that America is a nation where people of all backgrounds, races and cultures should have the chance to come and better themselves in a spirit of cooperation and mutual understanding. The small part we play in that great dream is to help people free themselves from financial burdens and personal difficulties, to make a fresh start and get back on the road to success, to work hard to make a better life for themselves and their children. It is the greatness of America that people are entitled by law to learn from and recover from mistakes, and if we can help that effort in even the smallest way it will be our great pride to do so. To that end we dedicate ourselves to making America a nation of opportunity and hope, where people can have the chance to try, to learn, and eventually to succeed. This is our mission. We pledge to fulfill it to the best of our ability and do our part to further the greatness of this magnificent country.

One of my first clients came to me with a lawsuit in his hand from a credit card company he hadn't been able to pay for a while, and told me that he was out of work and had little money, but wanted to do his best to pay back his creditors. He was exactly the kind of person the bankruptcy code is intended to help - honest, hard-working, and just temporarily a little bit down on his luck, as many people are these days. He was willing to make minimal payments on his credit card debt, which was never going to go away at that rate, but he insisted on holding off on declaring bankruptcy and instead trying to negotiate with the credit card companies to let him make those minimal payments until he could get back on his feet. I respected his wishes and I began a long journey into credit card debt negotiation, in which I learned the ins and outs and dark secrets of the world of debt.

In the end, they wouldn't budge enough to let him make those minimal payments, and we did declare bankruptcy and ended it all right then and there, but to this day we remain close friends, and I still respect him for his pride and determination (though rather misguided, perhaps) to pay his debts. I believe that had the credit card company been more reasonable, he would have been able to eventually, somehow, pay them off in spite of the horrible interest rates they were charging, and when honest people come to me with debts they cannot pay, usually for reasons that they could not control, I do not hesitate to use the awesome power of bankruptcy to help them start a new life. I believe giving people the chance to make a fresh start is part of the greatness of America.