how do i pay a lawyer and will i lose my personal assests

If you are asking if you will lose your personal assets, I must be assume you are not discussing a chapter 13 bankruptcy, as you may retain your assets such as your house, car and anything else in a chapter 13 bankruptcy which allows you to repay your debts not simply discharge them. So I must assume your discussing chapter 7 bankruptcy, if your concern is the loss of your personal assets. The simple answer is it depends. It depends on the exemptions allowed in your state. Where I practice in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the rest of the states of New England, they allow both federal exemptions and state exemptions. You will want to Google the state exemptions for the Commonwealth of Virginia to determine which personal assets you will be able to exempt from your chapter 7 bankruptcy and retain. In states such as Massachusetts they are very generous exemptions and things such as cars and up to $11,000 in home furnishings and many other personal assets may be retained. When looking at your chapter 7 bankruptcy exemption list for your state consider garage sale prices for all items, except for homes and cars, for homes I would check the silo or Yahoo to determine the price of your home and for vehicles Kelly blue book is usually the standard. If your exemption does not cover the amount of the personal asset you will most likely lose it in chapter 7 bankruptcy the liquidation unless there is a mortgage or loan which you will continue to pay, as you cannot have assets liquidated that have a lien by a bank, if you do not wish to repay the mortgage or loan on your car the bank will reclaim the property, not the bankruptcy trustee.   I have responded to your inquiry according to the laws of Massachusetts, where my firm is located. Laws can vary significantly from state to state and cases tend to be rather fact-specific, so you are best served by consulting with a knowledgeable attorney in weighing your options. Email messages/Online Correspondence are akin to conversations and do not reflect the level of analysis applied to formal legal opinions. Email/Online responses do not form an attorney-client relationship.    Joseph F. Botelho, Esq. BOTELHO LAW GROUP Attorneys At Law www.botelholawgroup.com 901 Eastern Ave.  Unit 2 Fall River, MA 02723  Office:  888-269-0688 FAX:    877-475-8147