Borowitz & Clark, LLP

09/04/2026

“I don't want to file bankruptcy because it'll ruin my credit."

It's one of the most common things we hear. And for years, debt settlement companies have built their entire pitch around it.

New research from TransUnion one of the three major credit bureaus, not a bankruptcy law firm put real numbers to it.

Among people who were still current on their bills when they enrolled in a debt settlement program:

📉 Median credit score dropped 96 points.

Bankruptcy filers over the same window?

📉 20 points.

About half of the people who enrolled in debt settlement were current on their payments when they signed up. Many had been doing everything right and were then told to stop paying in order to build a settlement fund.

This doesn't mean bankruptcy is right for everyone. It isn't. But it does mean the "settlement protects your credit" promise deserves a much harder look.

If a debt settlement company has handed you a proposal, bring it to us. We'll go through it with you free, no pressure even if the honest answer is that you don't need us.

📖 Read the full breakdown: https://www.borowitzclark.com/new-research-about-debt-settlement-and-credit-score/
📞 877-439-9717

[ DebtSettlement, CreditScore, TransUnion, BankruptcyFacts, DebtRelief, CreditMyths, FinancialResearch, Chapter7, FreshStart, LosAngeles, California, BarryBorowitz, ErikClark, BorowitzAndClark ]

New TransUnion research shows how debt settlement can affect credit scores, how it compares with bankruptcy, and what California consumers should know.This keeps the primary search intent—debt settlement + credit score—front and center, while the description highlights the article’s strongest ...

09/01/2026

We've sat across from people who could discuss their finances with complete clarity until one word entered the conversation.

Bankruptcy.

And then something shifted.

“I'm a business owner."
“I've always paid my bills on time."
“My parents taught me better than this."

What was a practical problem became a personal one. A legal tool became a moral verdict.

Research on small business owners shows the stigma isn't about the money. It's about what people believe the money says about them.

But here's what 30 years of these conversations has taught us:

The people who struggle most with asking for help are often the ones who least deserve to feel ashamed.

A financial event is not a character assessment.

What happened to you is not who you are.

📞 877-439-9717
Free consultation · No judgment · borowitzclark.com

[ BankruptcyStigma, IdentityAndDebt, BusinessOwner, DebtShame, NoJudgment, FinancialHardship, RationalDecision, FreshStart, BankruptcyLaw, LosAngeles, SoCal, BarryBorowitz, ErikClark, BorowitzAndClark ]

08/24/2026

25 years ago, Nancy B. Clark was admitted to the California Bar.

She's spent every one of those years doing one thing: standing next to people on the worst financial day of their life and helping them find their way out.

Thousands of debtors represented. Cases won in front of the Ninth Circuit. Two terms as President of the CDCBAA. The first-ever recipient of the Thomas B. Donovan Excellence Award.

But ask anyone who's worked with her and they won't lead with the résumé they'll tell you she actually listens.

25 years in, that's still what makes the difference.

Happy anniversary, Nancy. 🎉

[NancyClark] [BorowitzAndClark] [ConsumerBankruptcy] [25YearsStrong] [BankruptcyAttorney] [DebtRelief] [CaliforniaLaw] [WomenInLaw] [LegalExcellence] [SouthernCaliforniaLaw] [ClientFirst] [BankruptcyLawFirm] [PartnerSpotlight]

08/21/2026

This is something experience teaches not textbooks.

Over the years, we’ve sat across from people from every profession imaginable.

Business owners who built something from nothing.
Teachers who spent their careers investing in others.
Nurses who worked double shifts to keep their families afloat.
Engineers. Veterans. Military families who gave everything and came home to a different kind of battle.

Most of them walked in expecting to explain themselves.

To justify how they got here. To defend decisions made during seasons of their life that were harder than anyone around them knew.

What they didn’t expect was to leave feeling understood.

Financial hardship doesn’t arrive because someone stopped caring. It arrives because life doesn’t always follow the plan and the gap between what was expected and what actually happened can quietly become impossible to manage alone.

Our job has never been to assess how someone arrived at our door.

It’s to make sure they leave knowing exactly what’s possible next.

No lectures. No judgment. Just clarity, honesty, and a path forward built around their actual situation.

Because moving forward with confidence starts with talking to someone who has seen every version of this story and knows that none of them define the person telling it.

📞 877-439-9717
Free consultation · 100% virtual available
borowitzclark.com

[ NoJudgment, EveryProfession, MilitaryFamilies, SmallBusinessOwner, FinancialHardship, DebtRelief, FreshStart, HumanFirst, BankruptcyLaw, LosAngeles, SoCal, WestCovina, BarryBorowitz, ErikClark, BorowitzAndClark ]

08/18/2026

We’ve sat across from people who could discuss their finances with complete clarity until one word entered the conversation.

Bankruptcy.

And then something shifted.

“I’m a business owner.”
“I’ve always paid my bills on time.”
“My parents taught me better than this.”

What was a practical problem became a personal one. A legal tool became a moral verdict.

Research on small business owners shows the stigma isn’t about the money. It’s about what people believe the money says about them.

But here’s what 30 years of these conversations has taught us:

The people who struggle most with asking for help are often the ones who least deserve to feel ashamed.

A financial event is not a character assessment.

What happened to you is not who you are.

Free consultation · No judgment · borowitzclark.com

[ BankruptcyStigma, IdentityAndDebt, BusinessOwner, DebtShame, NoJudgment, FinancialHardship, RationalDecision, FreshStart, BankruptcyLaw, LosAngeles, SoCal, BarryBorowitz, ErikClark, BorowitzAndClark ]

08/12/2026

Most people who come to us for the first time don't need a lecture.

They need someone to sit down, listen to their full situation, and give them a straight answer about where they actually stand.

That's been the foundation of this firm since day one.

Before we talk about options, we listen. Before we recommend anything, we understand. And before you make any decision you'll know exactly what your choices are, what each one means, and what happens next.

No pressure. No judgment. No opinion before you've had a chance to be heard.

Because people deserve answers before they deserve opinions.

If you've been looking for someone who will actually listen first that's exactly what we do.

📞 877-439-9717
Free consultation · 100% virtual available
borowitzclark.com

[ ClientFirst, PeopleMatter, ListenFirst, LegalAdvice, BankruptcyLaw, DebtRelief, FreeConsultation, HonestAnswers, TrustworthyLawyer, LosAngeles, SoCal, WestCovina, BarryBorowitz, ErikClark, BorowitzAndClark ]

08/06/2026

It’s one of the most violating feelings debt brings your workplace becoming part of it.

The short answer: in most cases, once you tell a collector your employer prohibits such calls, they are legally required to stop. That’s the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

The longer answer: even if they stop calling your job, they don’t stop collecting. The debt doesn’t pause. The pressure just moves somewhere else.

What actually stops all of it every call, every letter, every collection attempt across the board is a bankruptcy filing. The automatic stay goes into effect the moment you file and applies to every creditor simultaneously.

No more calls to your job.
No more calls to your home.
No more calls, period.

You have more legal protection available to you right now than most collectors want you to know about.

📞 (626) 332-8600
Free consultation · Confidential · 100% virtual available
borowitzclark.com

[ StopCollectorCalls, DebtCollectors, Harassment, KnowYourRights, AutomaticStay, BankruptcyProtection, DebtRelief, FDCPA, LosAngeles, SoCal, BarryBorowitz, ErikClark, BorowitzAndClark ]

08/04/2026

It’s rarely one reckless decision that changes everything.

It’s one difficult season.

A business that slowed down.
A medical emergency that wiped out savings.
A divorce. A layoff. A year that just didn’t go the way it was supposed to.

And the plan, at the time, felt completely reasonable:

“I’ll make the minimum payment until things get better.”

Then interest took over.
Months became years.
One temporary solution quietly became a permanent way of living.

Most people trapped in long-term debt aren’t there because they made one catastrophic choice. They’re there because they kept making the only choice that felt possible month after month until the options narrowed without them noticing.

One of the most useful things an experienced eye gives you isn’t a legal answer.

It’s the ability to see clearly when a coping strategy has become the problem itself.

If you’ve been asking yourself “how much longer can I keep doing this?” that question is worth exploring with someone who has seen this pattern hundreds of times before.

📞 (626) 332-8600
Free consultation
borowitzclark.com

[ DebtCycle, BreakTheCycle, MinimumPayments, DebtFree, FreshStart, FinancialFreedom, BankruptcyLaw, DebtRelief, RealTalk, LosAngeles, SoCal, BarryBorowitz, ErikClark, BorowitzAndClark ]

07/30/2026

If this is the question keeping you up at night here’s an honest answer.

Three months behind does not mean you’ve lost your home. But it does mean the window to act is getting smaller.

Here’s what most people don’t know:

The moment a bankruptcy filing goes through, foreclosure stops. Not eventually that same day. It’s called an automatic stay, and it’s one of the most powerful legal protections available to homeowners in California.

From there, a structured plan can allow you to catch up on those missed payments over time while staying in your home, keeping life running for your family, and finally getting some sleep.

We’ve spoken with thousands of California homeowners who were convinced it was already too late.

For the vast majority it wasn’t.

One conversation is all it takes to know exactly where you stand.

📞 (626) 332-8600
Free consultation · Takes less than an hour · 100% virtual available
borowitzclark.com

[ MortgageHelp, Foreclosure, SaveMyHome, BehindOnMortgage, HomeProtection, StopForeclosure, BankruptcyLaw, Chapter13, DebtRelief, LosAngeles, SoCal, BarryBorowitz, ErikClark, BorowitzAndClark ]

07/28/2026

First you’re not out of options. Not even close.

Wage garnishment feels like the moment everything becomes real. Money disappeared from your paycheck before you ever saw it. And unless something changes, it will happen again next pay period. And the one after that.

Here’s what most people don’t know:

Garnishment can be stopped. Filing for bankruptcy triggers an automatic stay a legal order that halts the garnishment immediately. Not next month. Not after a hearing. The same day the filing goes through.

Depending on your situation, it may also be possible to recover wages that were recently garnished before you filed.

Yesterday feels like a crisis. But it’s also the day most people finally make the call that changes everything.

📞 (626) 332-8600
Free consultation · We can move quickly when timing matters.
borowitzclark.com

[ WageGarnishment, GarnishmentHelp, StopGarnishment, AutomaticStay, BankruptcyLaw, DebtRelief, Chapter7, LegalProtection, LosAngeles, SoCal, BarryBorowitz, ErikClark, BorowitzAndClark ]