Michael Nicholas Nicastro

Mike and Ro saved my life. I was frozen in fear with what I knew was going to be a challenging Chapter 7 case and, in turn, waited so long that multiple creditors were suing me. I was referred to Mike and he walked me through the entire process while educating my wife and I about the pros and cons... of each decision we had to make. In the end, we ended up in a better situation— both personally and financially than we could have ever fathomed. Highly recommended to anyone afraid to pull the trigger on bankruptcy.

My wife and I were talking the other day, comparing out situation today to where we were one year ago. After the industry I work in collapsed in 2008, I had built up quite a bit of debt. Some was personal debt and some was business related. I did not want to file bankruptcy, and would at times be abl...e to pay down some of the debt. But just when it looked like I could make it, a few slow months would hit and we'd be back in a bad situation financially. With children getting close to college age , we really didn't know how we were going to be able to ever pay for college, or anything for that matter, with the huge debt load we were carrying. It was tough enough paying the interest charges, let alone actually paying the principal. Still, we were doing it, and with no late payments. But we were "slow paying" a few of my old business accounts. Even without a late payment we were beginning to get phone calls from a few creditors. Realizing it was about to snowball, and not liking the fact that I couldn't seem to stop the phone calls, my wife and I finally came to the realization that filing bankruptcy was the only way to go. When we walked into Mike's office, we felt like losers. But honestly, the way he explained the process, and discussed our options, really helped us to feel confident that we were making the right decision. We came out of the meeting with a big homework assignment, but also for the first time in several years, feeling like we had a plan that would change our financial course for the better. Mike's staff was very helpful in guiding us through the paperwork we had to complete and soon we were ready to officially file. The best day, and I only say "best day" because my wife and I thought it could potentially be the worst day, was when we went to court for the hearing. And this is where I truly saw the value in having Mike as our attorney. After meeting with Mike prior to entering the court room, we felt confident once again. (he's good at that.) But once we were in the court room, we lost some of that confidence when we saw other people ahead of us getting their cases torn apart by the Trustee. We will never forget. A corrections officer, with his wife, up at the front of the court, being questioned as to why he was paying for extra life insurance when he could be paying some of his debts down. They questioned his retirement account funding, child care, etc. My wife and I were thinking, "They're tearing apart a corrections officer. What will they do to us? We're in trouble". When our name was called, we went to the front. The Trustee asked a bunch of questions, which Mike had already coached us on, and that was it. We were done. That was awesome. And that is where Mike's preparedness truly showed. I remember asking Mike about that, and he just said "that is the difference between an attorney who does his homework up front and makes sure the numbers are all locked down tight (can't remember his exact words, but something along those lines), and an attorney who wings it, probably because they are trying to do a huge volume of bankruptcies." Within a few months of that court date, our bankruptcy was discharged. It turns out the process was much easier than we expected. Now, few months after the discharge, the stress is gone and we begun the rebuilding process. Mike was great!