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Ignore the ‘virtual’ part for a moment: What is a bankruptcy assistant? Your right hand. An experienced bankruptcy assistant knows client intake, petition preparation, trustee quirks, court rules and the issues common to bankruptcy. Depending on the experience and needs of the consumer bankruptcy practice (CBP), a bankruptcy assistant will work with clients from their first contact til long after the discharge is granted.
In every successful bankruptcy practice there must be at least one experienced assistant capable of discussing a client case at any stage of the process with a trustee, a creditor’s attorney or court staff.
If you were around in 2005, everyone knew that the rush to file before the law took effect was going to temporarily overwhelm even the best office staffs and systems. We knew that it was a short term spike. Today, we are approaching pre-2005 filing levels and the phones are ringing off the hook and clients are coming out of the woodwork. This is not a short term spike. For the foreseeable future, consumer bankruptcy filings are going to continue to grow into record territory.
Your choices are few: find additional experienced staff; hire and train someone capable of learning; or contract out some of the workload. Or you could just pay overtime for the next year or so to your current staff and hope you can keep burnout to a minimum – for you and them.
Coming back to the ‘virtual’; it does not mean some disembodied head on a computer screen. Virtual assistants (VAs) are there when you need them and not there taking up space and money when you don’t. They can be in the same building or in a different state. VAs can handle the simple to the complex; petition preparation to research for briefs.
Yes, I said it. Petition preparation can be a simple task. Just like changing the oil in your car, hitting a golf ball, or pulling a tooth, it is the experience level of the person doing the task that makes it look easy.
At a basic level, your clients are hiring you for your knowledge and experience. VAs are hired for exactly the same reasons. For the most part, there is no training time, no learning curve. VAs hit the ground running, they contribute from the first hour of work. Tapping into that level of experience is the primary benefit of working with VAs.
Whether you need an assistant for an hour a month, or 10 hours a week, VAs give your business the flexibility to adjust to changing business situations and access to experience levels seldom found in temp agencies.
As the court system pushes ECF to it’s limits, a CBP lends itself to using technology for more and more work. The VA takes advantage of technology to improve the productivity and profitability of your practice.
Tracy Coyle is a virtual bankruptcy assistant working with consumer bankruptcy lawyers nationwide. She can be contacted by email at tracy.coyle@gmail.com.
Image courtesy of ~Aphrodite.
Related posts:
How does one locate a VA of your caliber?
How can one determine the abilities of a potential VA by a mere telephone discussion or interview.
Finding a virtual assistant can be easy once you understand what you’re looking for, as well as the core capabilities you need to get the job done. Most of it is in the organization of your workflow, though; you need to be able to tightly define the duties to be performed. By standardizing your workflow processes and flowcharting in detail, you can plug-and-play a person into the job. Then it becomes a question or oversight, which is critical in any office.
Good questions.
1. How do you find a good VA? Ask! Often people you know use VAs but don’t necessarily call them VAs. “I have this person come in or do some work from home that is great!” There are some associations that have sprung up for VAs that help people start a VA business, offer educational benefits and assist in marketing. I am not a member of any of them. Not because I think there is anything wrong with them, but many of the benefits offered are of little value to me, for now.
Can you find a VA online? Yes. There are many that advertise, but of course, that leads to your second question:
2. How do you find a good VA using just an interview – especially on the phone?
A post on some questions to ask a potential VA is forthcoming here, but at a minimum, a VA should be able to speak intelligently about petitions, clients and legal processes concerning bankruptcy. The more consistent the response, the more likely you have someone with actual knowledge and experience. Whether others do or not, I don’t know, but I offer every potential client a petition prepared without cost. Some have given me a simple case they already filed, others a complicated case ready for filing. (Confidentiality issues need to be addressed.)
The more you ask, the better you will be able to judge the candidate.
Dear Jay,
I, as a furloughed airline pilot, was searching the internet the other day when I came across a site discussing Virtual Bankruptcy Assistants. I am also a Notary here in MN and thought this might be another avenue of income until I get back flying and even while I am flying. While investigating this further I discovered one little hiccup. I use a MAC and the majority of BK software out there is for use on Windows based machines. Upon further investigating I stumbled upon a site that listed numerous different MAC programs for BK prep but the links were mostly dead, then I discovered your site. Have you discovered anything that can handle the job but on the MAC platform? I was wondering if you have any suggestions that you think might work for my possible endeavor.
Mark, I use Parallels for Mac and can run any Windows-based petition preparation program I choose. Unfortunately, there are no major ones out there for the Mac lovers among us.
Thanks for the response Jay. I anticipated that was going to be the answer.
Thanks for the response Jay. I anticipated that was going to be the answer.