Expert Advocacy in Bankruptcy, Trusts & Estates, Real Estate, Business Transactions, Commercial and Consumer Litigation
Wealth Preservation · Debt Relief · Business Reorganization
Good people get into financial binds — through no fault of their own. Medical emergencies generate debt that no one planned for. Job loss means the credit card carries the groceries for months. Divorce unravels finances that took years to build. Whatever brought you here, we look at the financial realities without judgment, and we find the path forward — resolving the immediate crisis and building the foundation that prevents the next one.
Some clients assume that a serious bankruptcy matter — especially a business restructuring — requires a firm with a St. Louis or Kansas City address. It doesn't. The law is the same. The federal courts are the same. The legal analysis and negotiating work are identical.
What differs is who actually handles your matter. At a large firm, the senior partner who took your call hands the file to an associate, who hands the paperwork to a paralegal. You may see the attorney at hearings. You will not have a direct line to the person making decisions about your case.
Here, the attorney who meets you at the consultation is the attorney who appears in court, structures your plan, negotiates with your creditors, and answers your calls. That level of direct, continuous attention — available without the rates that come with a downtown address — is what produces results.
Every case is different. These examples illustrate the range of outcomes that careful, hands-on legal work can produce for business and individual clients.
This client faced simultaneous foreclosure threats from two major lenders — one against the business, one against the owners' personal residence, which had been pledged as collateral for business debt. The situation required immediate action.
We filed on an emergency basis for both the business entity and the individual owners, and successfully obtained joint administration of both cases. That allowed us to structure a global resolution: business debt and assets were addressed in the reorganization plan, secured creditors received revised payment terms that allowed the business to fund operations and service its obligations simultaneously, and the owners' home was preserved. Secured debt was ultimately satisfied in full as the business recovered. Classes of unsecured debt that had been crippling operations were resolved at significant reductions.
This client carried substantial unsecured debt — a portion incurred by an identity thief — while facing foreclosure on their home. The case required careful exemption planning around a prized collector vehicle the client was determined to keep.
Through proper exemption structuring and a nominal payment arrangement negotiated with the trustee, the client retained both their home and the Corvette, preserved their equity, and received a discharge of over $200,000 in debt. Total cost: under $7,500 — less than many of the medical bills that contributed to the problem.
This married couple had over-invested in real estate during better times. When values shifted and carrying costs became unmanageable, they faced a stark choice: lose everything, or find a way to protect what mattered most. Their home — the one they lived in, with a mortgage they could actually afford — was the priority.
Through Chapter 13, we structured a plan that allowed them to surrender the investment property, removing that debt and its carrying costs from the equation entirely. The remaining unsecured debt — credit cards and personal liabilities that had accumulated — was folded into a plan with monthly payments set at a fraction of what the minimums on those accounts had been.
Chapter 13 is not painless. Some belt-tightening is part of the process, and we are honest about that from the beginning. But the goal — every time — is for the client to walk away from confirmation feeling that a weight has been lifted. These clients did.
Many clients come to us after spending months — sometimes years — enrolled in a debt relief program through an advertiser or debt settlement company, often without fully understanding how those arrangements actually work. By the time they find us, they have paid substantial fees and made little progress on the underlying debt.
Here is what those programs typically do not tell you upfront: the debts are not discounted. Monthly payments are divided between the agency's service charge and partial payments toward individual creditors. Debts are addressed one at a time, piecemeal — not resolved all at once the way a bankruptcy discharge works. Creditors are not bound by the arrangement and may continue collection activity.
We have had clients paying half of their Social Security income to a debt relief advertiser — toward a debt that, under federal law, was entirely exempt from collection and would have qualified for hardship relief. They were paying for nothing.
If you are enrolled in a debt relief program or considering one, a $100 consultation with this office will tell you exactly what your actual legal options are — including whether you need to pay anything at all.
| Debt Relief Program | Bankruptcy | |
|---|---|---|
| Debts discharged all at once? | No — settled piecemeal | Yes — upon discharge or plan completion |
| Creditors bound to stop collecting? | No — can continue pursuing you | Yes — automatic stay applies immediately |
| Debts actually reduced? | Often no — paid in full over time | Yes — most unsecured debt discharged |
| Service fees? | Yes — portion of every payment | Attorney fee, paid once, court-supervised |
| Legally enforceable outcome? | No — informal arrangement | Yes — federal court order |
When you contact this office, the first question is not which bankruptcy to file — it's whether a formal filing is necessary at all. Some clients are on Social Security or other income that creditors legally cannot touch. Others have debt that qualifies for hardship cancellation if properly documented. Filing costs time and money and appears on your credit record. If you don't need to file, you shouldn't.
When a filing is appropriate, we work through your situation together — income source, assets, the nature of each debt, and how imminent the collection risk really is. A foreclosure notice creates different urgency than a judgment still months from enforcement. We read those timelines carefully and help you act at the right moment.
You work directly with the attorney from start to finish. Every question gets an attorney's answer.
"Good people get into financial binds. Medical debt is especially difficult — the amounts are large and the circumstances that created it were often entirely beyond the patient's control. Credit cards get maxed when a period of unemployment leaves a family putting groceries on the card to get through. We look at the financial realities. We don't sit in judgment."
Every engagement begins with thorough analysis — before any decision about whether or how to proceed is made.
We run a credit report and review it with you — establishing the full scope of creditor claims, collection notices, foreclosure or repossession risk, and pending suits to gauge how urgent the situation actually is.
Before recommending any filing, we look at whether your income is legally exempt from collection, whether hardship documentation can result in debt cancellation, or whether direct creditor negotiation can resolve the problem entirely without a court filing.
If filing makes sense, we analyze income source, assets, and exemptions to choose between Chapter 7 and Chapter 13. Chapter 13 preserves equity and stops foreclosure; Chapter 7 resolves unsecured debt efficiently for those who qualify.
We sit down and complete as much of the petition as possible together — assets, liabilities, and proper debt classification. The schedules filed with the federal court must be accurate and complete; you don't figure that out on your own.
Most clients come to us carrying an immediate problem and no long-term plan. We address both — the debt situation in front of you today, and the financial foundation that protects what you rebuild.
A single hospitalization can generate bills far beyond what most families can absorb. Medical debt is often unavoidable and non-negotiable in scale. Bankruptcy's discharge provisions were built for exactly this kind of situation.
Credit cards become a lifeline during unemployment or emergencies — groceries, utilities, prescriptions on the card. When income returns, the balance may not be manageable. There's no moral failure in that math.
If your primary income is Social Security, SSI, or certain pension income, it may be entirely exempt from creditor collection — potentially making a formal bankruptcy unnecessary. We identify this at the first consultation.
A Chapter 13 filing immediately halts foreclosure and creates a structured path to cure arrears over the plan period — often the most powerful tool available to homeowners behind on payments.
Business owners facing creditor pressure have options across Chapter 7, 11, and Subchapter V — including emergency filings when the timeline demands it. The goal is a plan the business can actually execute.
A divorce decree divides debt between spouses — but it doesn't bind the creditor, who can pursue either party for the full balance of a joint obligation. We analyze co-debtor exposure carefully in these situations.
A revocable living trust, a properly drafted will, and clear beneficiary designations form the foundation of long-term financial security. We help clients build this foundation — often as the natural next step after resolving a debt crisis.
A durable financial power of attorney and a health care power of attorney ensure that someone you trust can act on your behalf if you cannot. These documents prevent the legal paralysis that accompanies a health emergency without them in place.
How assets are titled and owned affects how well they are protected from future creditors. We review ownership structures and beneficiary designations as part of comprehensive planning for long-term financial stability.
When a family member passes, debts do not always pass with them. Creditor claims against an estate must be properly identified, evaluated, and resolved during the probate process. We guide families through that process — protecting the estate from invalid claims and ensuring legitimate obligations are addressed correctly.
Quiet title, partition, boundary disputes, and easements. Mortgage financing and non-probate transfers. Real property issues frequently arise alongside debt, divorce, and estate matters — and require careful legal analysis at every stage.
Our consultation is a working session. We pull your credit report, review your obligations, assess the collection risk you face, and give you a candid analysis of every option available — bankruptcy and otherwise.
Text or email preferred · (410) 212-4650 · salevy@att.net
Steven Levy is an experienced federal and state court practitioner whose practice spans bankruptcy and debt relief, business law, consumer protection, civil litigation, family law, and estate planning. He has been admitted to practice in Missouri, Maryland, and multiple federal courts for over three decades. He knows both sides — as an advocate for businesses and as a tireless protector of individuals navigating debt, creditor pressure, and the legal systems that govern both.
He brings a deliberate, hands-on approach to every engagement. Clients work directly with him throughout the process — not a form-completion service, not a call center. The attorney who meets you at the consultation is the attorney who appears in court, negotiates with creditors, and answers your calls.
That direct relationship matters most in bankruptcy and debt restructuring, where the facts of your individual financial life determine which options are available and how they should be structured.
Before recommending any course of action, Mr. Levy conducts a thorough assessment of the client's financial position — beginning with a credit report review that establishes the full scope of creditor claims. Collection risk is evaluated across all active threats: pending suits, foreclosure notices, repossession timelines, and judgment status.
Income analysis is equally important. Social Security, SSI, and certain other fixed income sources are legally protected from most creditor collection. Clients whose income is substantially exempt may not need to file at all — and may be better served by asserting those protections directly or pursuing hardship relief.
On the business side, Mr. Levy brings the same analytical rigor to complex reorganizations — including situations requiring emergency filings. In one representative matter, simultaneous foreclosure threats from two major banks against both a business and the owners' personal residence required emergency Chapter 11 filings for both the entity and the individuals. By obtaining joint administration of both cases, a global restructuring was achieved: the business reorganized, operations continued, secured creditors were ultimately paid in full, and the owners' home was preserved.
Mr. Levy's practice spans work for businesses and for individuals — and that dual perspective matters. He has represented creditors and debtors, businesses and consumers, plaintiffs and defendants. He understands how the other side thinks, what creditors are actually willing to accept, and where the leverage in a negotiation actually lies. That is not experience you get from a practice that only handles one type of client.
His office is in Steelville, in Crawford County. Bankruptcy cases are filed in the Eastern District of Missouri. State proceedings are handled in Crawford, Phelps, and surrounding circuits. Clients who have worked with large city firms often find that the attorney they paid a premium for was rarely in the room. Here, that is not a concern.
His broader background — civil litigation, family law, trust and estate disputes, commercial cases, partition actions — gives him perspective on how financial distress intersects with other areas of a client's life. A bankruptcy during a pending divorce, a business restructuring with personal guarantee exposure, identity theft debt layered into a discharge proceeding — these are not routine matters handled by rote. They require judgment.
Office: 107 S. 3rd Street, Steelville, MO 65565
The right answer isn't always a bankruptcy filing. When it is, the right chapter depends on your income, your assets, and what you're trying to protect. Here's how we think through it.
Bankruptcy is a powerful tool — but it is a formal legal proceeding with real consequences and real costs. Our first obligation to every client is to make sure a filing is actually warranted before recommending one.
Some clients come to us in situations where the answer is no — or not yet. Federal and Missouri law exempt significant categories of income and assets from creditor collection. In some cases, a properly documented hardship position results in debt cancellation with no court filing. And when a filing is necessary — even on an emergency basis — the right structure can produce outcomes far beyond what clients initially believed possible.
Social Security, SSI, and certain disability and pension payments are protected from most creditor collection under federal and Missouri law. If your income is primarily from these sources, a formal bankruptcy may be unnecessary — and we'll tell you so at the consultation.
Many creditors — including student loan servicers, medical providers, and financial institutions — have hardship programs that, properly documented and presented, can result in debt reduction or cancellation without any court filing.
For businesses and individuals with structured debt, direct creditor negotiation can produce revised payment terms, extended timelines, and partial relief — without the cost and complexity of a formal bankruptcy proceeding.
Not all collection threats are equally imminent. A foreclosure sale scheduled for next month is different from a judgment not yet docketed. We assess each threat on its actual timeline so decisions are made clearly, not in panic.
Chapter 7 discharges most unsecured debts — credit cards, medical bills, personal loans — within three to six months of filing. A trustee reviews assets and may liquidate non-exempt property, though Missouri's exemptions protect meaningful amounts for most filers. Careful exemption planning before filing is critical — including for assets of significant personal or monetary value.
Eligibility requires passing the Means Test, comparing income against the Missouri median. Below-median income generally qualifies automatically. Above-median filers may still qualify through detailed expense analysis. We run this calculation at the initial consultation so there are no surprises.
Chapter 13 allows individuals with regular income to restructure debt through a three-to-five year repayment plan. You keep all property — including your home — while making structured plan payments supervised by the court. For clients facing foreclosure or with equity they want to preserve, Chapter 13 is often the most powerful tool available.
Plan structure matters greatly. Payments must satisfy required distributions to secured and priority creditors while remaining genuinely affordable. In appropriate circumstances, plans can be structured with lower early payments that step up over time — preserving feasibility during the months when cash is tightest while satisfying the court's confirmation requirements.
Chapter 11 allows businesses to reorganize debt while remaining operational. The core challenge in any business reorganization — in court or out of court — is the same: debt must be structured so that ongoing operations can be funded and obligations serviced simultaneously, without the cushion of new credit lines. That discipline in plan construction is what separates a reorganization that works from one that fails.
For smaller businesses, Subchapter V significantly streamlines the process — eliminating the creditors' committee, simplifying disclosure, and permitting the owner to retain equity without paying unsecured creditors in full, provided disposable income is committed to the plan. This firm has handled Subchapter V matters in the Eastern District of Missouri, including contested confirmation and secured creditor cramdown proceedings.
Resolving a debt crisis is only half the work. Once the immediate pressure is removed — through discharge, reorganization, or restructured payment terms — the question becomes: what does a financially stable future look like, and how do you protect what you have rebuilt?
This office provides the estate planning tools that anchor long-term personal financial security. These documents are not bureaucratic formalities. A properly drafted power of attorney or trust can be the difference between a family navigating a health crisis with full legal authority and the right resources — and a family paralyzed by court proceedings at the worst possible moment.
Many clients who come to us for debt relief have never had basic estate planning documents in place. We address both — the crisis that brought you to us, and the foundation that ensures you don't return.
When a loved one passes away, the legal and financial work is not always over. Debts do not simply disappear at death. Creditors have the right to make claims against the decedent's estate during the probate process — and those claims must be properly identified, evaluated, and either paid or contested before the estate can be distributed to heirs.
This is an area where families without legal guidance can make costly mistakes in either direction: paying claims that are time-barred, invalid, or improperly documented, or ignoring legitimate obligations that create personal liability for the personal representative. We guide personal representatives and family members through that process with the same analytical approach we bring to any creditor situation — looking carefully at what is actually owed, what the estate is actually obligated to pay, and what defenses or reductions may be available.
Common issues we address in the probate context include:
A well-drafted estate plan — including a properly funded trust — can reduce or eliminate the assets that pass through probate entirely, limiting creditor exposure and simplifying administration for the family. This is one of the strongest arguments for estate planning before a crisis, not after.
Quiet title and partition · Boundary disputes and easements · Mortgage financing · Non-probate transfers
Real property issues rarely arise in isolation. A clouded title surfaces during an estate administration. A partition action follows a divorce or the death of a co-owner. A deed needs to be restructured as part of an asset protection plan or a bankruptcy. Mortgage financing questions come up in the context of a Chapter 13 plan. This office handles the full range of real property matters that intersect with the work we already do — and many that stand alone.
Quiet Title & Ownership Disputes. When the chain of title to a property is unclear — due to an old lien, a missing deed, an heir whose interest was never resolved, or a disputed boundary — a quiet title action establishes clean, unencumbered ownership. These cases require careful title research and often arise in the context of estates, tax sales, or long-held family property where paperwork was never properly completed.
Boundary Disputes & Easements. Property line disputes between neighbors — over fences, encroachments, access routes, or the location of a surveyed boundary — require both legal analysis and a clear understanding of survey evidence, deed descriptions, and the history of use. Easement disputes raise related questions: whether an easement exists, what it permits, how it was created, and whether it has been abandoned or exceeded. These are matters where early legal intervention often prevents years of neighbor conflict and significant legal cost down the line.
Partition Actions. When co-owners of real property cannot agree on what to do with it — whether to sell, how to divide proceeds, or whether one owner's improvements entitle them to a greater share — a partition action resolves the dispute through the court. We have handled partition matters involving long-term co-tenancy, disputed improvement credits, and rental value offset claims, and understand how to present the financial arguments that determine the outcome.
Mortgage Financing. Real estate transactions and refinancings involve legal review of loan documents, title commitments, and closing conditions. Whether you are purchasing, refinancing, or restructuring a property obligation, proper legal review protects your interests at the closing table and after.
Non-Probate Transfers. Missouri law provides several mechanisms for transferring real property at death without passing through probate — including beneficiary deeds and properly structured trusts. A beneficiary deed, executed and recorded during the owner's lifetime, conveys property directly to the named beneficiary upon death, outside the probate estate and its associated costs and delays. These instruments are a critical part of estate planning for anyone who owns real property and wants to control where it goes.
Most people who contact a bankruptcy attorney are focused entirely on the immediate problem — the foreclosure notice, the garnishment, the creditor calls. That is understandable. But the attorney's job doesn't end at discharge or confirmation.
Financial stability over the long term requires a foundation: an estate plan that protects your assets and your family, powers of attorney that ensure someone you trust can act on your behalf when you cannot, and an ownership structure that does not inadvertently expose rebuilt assets to future risk.
We help clients build that foundation as part of a coherent strategy — not as a separate engagement years later, but as the natural next step once the immediate crisis is resolved.
Bankruptcy, restructuring, exemption assertion, hardship relief — whatever the situation requires, addressed promptly and completely.
Asset protection planning and proper ownership structure to ensure that what you rebuild is not unnecessarily exposed to future creditor risk.
Estate planning documents — trusts, wills, financial and health care powers of attorney — that protect your family and carry out your wishes. And when a family member passes, probate administration that protects the estate from invalid creditor claims.
A divorce court can apportion marital debt between spouses — but that apportionment only binds the parties to the divorce. The creditor is not bound by it, and retains the right to pursue either spouse for the full balance of a joint obligation. When one spouse files bankruptcy on a joint debt, the other may face immediate collection pressure on obligations they believed were resolved. We analyze co-debtor exposure and available exemptions carefully before recommending any course of action.
Federal law protects Social Security and SSI from most forms of creditor collection. Missouri law adds protections for pension and other income categories. Clients whose income is primarily exempt may be effectively judgment-proof — creditors have legal claims but no practical means of enforcement. In these situations, the right answer is often to assert those protections directly, not to file a bankruptcy case that imposes unnecessary cost and credit consequences.
Debt created by identity theft is legally dischargeable in bankruptcy. Proper documentation of the fraudulent origin of the debt matters both in the bankruptcy proceeding and in any dispute with the creditor. We have handled cases where identity theft debt constituted a significant portion of the total obligation being discharged — including in a Chapter 7 where over $200,000 in total unsecured debt was eliminated.
One of Chapter 13's most important functions is protecting equity that would be at risk in a Chapter 7 liquidation. The plan must satisfy the "best interests" test — unsecured creditors must receive at least what they would in a Chapter 7 — while remaining genuinely affordable. Plans can be structured with ramping payments when early cash flow is tight. We build these plans with care, not from a template.
We'll review your credit report, assess your collection risk, and give you a candid analysis of every option available — bankruptcy and otherwise.
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Submitting this form does not create an attorney-client relationship. Do not include Social Security numbers or sensitive identification information. The $100 consultation fee is due at the time of your appointment — nothing is charged in advance or by submitting this form.
Bankruptcy cases filed in the Eastern District of Missouri. State court matters handled in Crawford, Phelps, and surrounding circuits.
The information on this website is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is formed by viewing this website or submitting the contact form. Past results described on this site do not guarantee future outcomes; every case depends on its own facts and circumstances. Steven A. Levy is licensed to practice law in Missouri and Maryland.