Clearwater Florida Bankruptcy Attorneys
Stop wage garnishment, debt lawsuits, and foreclosure with a Florida bankruptcy attorney protecting Tampa Bay families since 2012 — Mike Ziegler has 16 years of legal experience and the firm just turned 14. Boutique firm. Direct attorney access. Honest answers.
Florida Bar admitted · 408+ five-star Google reviews · 16+ years practicing in Florida bankruptcy and consumer protection · BBB Accredited
📞 (727) 538-4188
Free Debt Freedom Strategy Session · Decade-plus experience · 408+ five-star reviews
Ziegler Diamond Law is a trusted law firm serving the Clearwater community and beyond. The firm provides bankruptcy services specifically tailored for Clearwater residents and the greater Tampa Bay area, including Port Richey. With a focus on helping individuals and businesses achieve financial stability, Ziegler Diamond Law is dedicated to supporting clients throughout the Tampa Bay area.
The experienced bankruptcy lawyers at Ziegler Diamond Law are members of the Florida Bar and have extensive experience representing clients in complex bankruptcy cases. Their team is committed to guiding clients through every step of the legal process with professionalism and care.
Located conveniently on or near Mcmullen Booth Rd, Ziegler Diamond Law offers local expertise and accessibility for clients seeking legal options in Clearwater and the surrounding areas.
The firm is dedicated to helping clients regain control of their finances. Among the services provided are foreclosure defense, debt relief, and asset protection, ensuring comprehensive support for a variety of client needs.
Ziegler Diamond Law offers Free Debt Freedom Strategy Session to new clients, providing an opportunity to discuss your situation and receive guidance at no cost.
Whether you are an individual or a business, Ziegler Diamond Law works closely with each client to deliver personalized service and strong legal advocacy. Their commitment to understanding and addressing each client’s unique needs sets them apart as a leading choice for bankruptcy and financial legal services in the Tampa Bay region.
Why this page exists
If you’re reading this, you’re probably running out of options. The creditor calls won’t stop. A garnishment is hitting your paycheck. A bank is threatening foreclosure. A lawsuit landed in your mailbox and the response deadline is coming up fast.
You don’t need a lecture about what bankruptcy is. You need to know whether it can stop what’s happening to you — and whether the lawyer you talk to next is actually going to fight for you, or just take your money and run you through a template.
Ziegler Diamond Law has been serving Florida residents for 14 years — Mike Ziegler personally has 16 years of legal experience. Mike (Florida Bar No. 74864) and Kaelyn Diamond (Florida Bar No. 125132) handle every case personally. We’re a boutique Clearwater firm — not a national bankruptcy mill. You’ll talk to a real attorney on every call, not a screener.
What a Clearwater bankruptcy attorney can actually do for you (with the right tool)
Bankruptcy isn’t one thing. It’s a federal legal tool with two main forms — Chapter 7 (liquidation) and Chapter 13 (reorganization) — and the right one depends on what you have, what you owe, and what you want to keep.
Here’s what a properly filed Florida bankruptcy can do:
- Stop wage garnishment immediately. The moment your case is filed, the automatic stay (11 U.S.C. § 362) makes it illegal for creditors to garnish your paycheck. We’ve seen garnishments stop the same day for Clearwater clients.
- Halt a debt-collection lawsuit. Same automatic stay. Lawsuits freeze. Sheriff’s sales pause.
- Protect your home with Florida’s homestead exemption. Florida’s homestead is unlimited in equity if you’ve lived there long enough — meaning even a paid-off house can stay yours through bankruptcy.
- Stop foreclosure and catch up on missed mortgage payments through a Chapter 13 plan. Chapter 13 lets you restructure mortgage arrears over 3–5 years while keeping the house.
- Discharge most unsecured debt. Credit cards, medical bills, personal loans, deficiency balances on repossessed cars — most of it goes away.
- Apply the 910-day rule on vehicle loans in Chapter 13 to potentially pay less than what’s owed on a financed car.
What bankruptcy can’t do: discharge most student loans (without a hardship showing), most recent taxes, child support, alimony, or debts from fraud.
Chapter 7 vs. Chapter 13 — which one fits your situation
The Chapter 7 vs. Chapter 13 question is the first real decision in any bankruptcy. The wrong choice can cost you the house, the car, or thousands in unnecessary payments. The right choice can wipe debt in 4 months and leave you with everything that matters.
Chapter 7 is the faster path. Most cases close in 3–4 months from filing. You give up non-exempt property in exchange for discharge of most unsecured debt. To qualify, you have to pass the Florida means test — a calculation comparing your household income to the Florida median for your family size. Most Clearwater clients who file Chapter 7 keep their car, their home, their retirement accounts, and their everyday possessions; what falls outside exemptions is rare.
Chapter 13 is the structured path. You enter a 3-to-5-year repayment plan that pays creditors a portion of what’s owed (often pennies on the dollar for unsecured debt) while you keep all your assets. Chapter 13 is the right tool if you’re behind on mortgage payments and want to keep the house, if you have a vehicle loan you want to “cram down” under the 910-day rule, or if your income is too high for Chapter 7.
Chapter 7 vs. Chapter 13 at a glance
| Chapter 7 | Chapter 13 | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Discharges most unsecured debt in a few months | Reorganizes debt into a 3–5 year repayment plan |
| Typical timeline | 3–4 months | 3–5 years |
| Income requirement | Must pass Florida means test | Must have regular income to fund plan |
| Home / car | Exempt property protected; non-exempt may be liquidated | Often used to stop foreclosure and catch up on arrears |
| Best for | Limited income, mostly unsecured debt (credit cards, medical) | Steady income, assets to protect, behind on mortgage |
Not sure which fits your situation? A Free Debt Freedom Strategy Session with our team takes about 30 minutes. We’ll walk you through the means test and your exemption math at the first consultation — no commitment, no pressure to file if bankruptcy isn’t actually your best option.
Florida exemptions — what you actually keep
People worry that filing bankruptcy means losing everything. In Florida, that’s almost never what happens. Florida’s exemption laws are some of the most protective in the country:
- Homestead — unlimited equity protection if you’ve lived in the home long enough and it sits on a qualifying lot. Most Clearwater filers keep their homes.
- Motor vehicle — $1,000 per filer (married couples can stack), plus you can use Florida’s wildcard exemption to protect more. More on keeping your car in bankruptcy.
- Wildcard exemption — up to $4,000 ($1,000 if you’re using the homestead exemption) of personal property of your choice.
- Retirement accounts — 401(k), IRA, and most pension assets are fully protected under federal ERISA + Fla. Stat. § 222.21.
- Wages already earned by the head of household — Florida law protects most earnings of head-of-household filers up to six months post-receipt.
- Tools of the trade, personal property up to $1,000, prescribed medical aids.
Most of our clients leave Chapter 7 with the same house, the same car, and a plan to rebuild credit within 12–24 months.
How we work — and why we’re not a bankruptcy mill
This is where a lot of firms cut corners. They take volume, charge low fees, and assign your case to a paralegal who you’ll never meet. The result is templated filings, missed exemptions, and surprises at the 341 meeting of creditors that should have been caught months earlier.
That’s not how we do it. At Ziegler Diamond Law:
- You meet with the actual attorney handling your case at your Free Debt Freedom Strategy Session. Not a “consultation specialist.” Not a closer. The lawyer.
- We do the means-test math, the exemption planning, and the schedule preparation in-house — not outsourced to a paralegal services company.
- We attend your 341 meeting of creditors with you in person (or virtually, depending on the trustee).
- We answer questions directly. Email a question, get a reply from your attorney within one business day.
- If we don’t think bankruptcy is your best path, we tell you. Sometimes the right answer is a debt-settlement strategy, an FDCPA harassment claim against a collector, or a credit-report dispute under the FCRA. We have those tools too — and we’d rather help you with the right one than push you into the wrong one.
That’s why we have 408+ five-star Google reviews and why most of our Clearwater clients found us through someone we’d helped before.
What happens at your Free Debt Freedom Strategy Session
It takes about 30 minutes — by phone, video, or in-person at our Clearwater office on Estancia Blvd.
What we’ll cover:
- Your actual situation — what you owe, what you own, what’s happening with collectors or lawsuits right now
- Whether bankruptcy fits, and if so which chapter
- The Florida exemptions that apply to you specifically
- What it would cost — see our Florida bankruptcy flat fees page for flat-fee and payment-plan structure
- A clear plan — including alternatives to bankruptcy where they fit better
There’s no obligation. We’re not going to high-pressure you. If you walk away and never call us again, you’ll still leave with a clearer understanding of your options than you had walking in.
Call (727) 538-4188 to schedule, or use the form at the top of this page. We typically reach back within one business hour.
Beyond bankruptcy — the other tools Florida law gives you
Some debt problems aren’t actually bankruptcy problems. Before you file anything, you should know what else is available:
- FDCPA claims (15 U.S.C. § 1692) — if a debt collector is harassing you, calling outside legal hours, lying about debt amounts, or threatening illegal action, federal law gives you the right to sue. In limited cases, we’ve recovered six-figure settlements for Florida clients in consumer-protection claims; results depend on the facts.
- FCRA claims (15 U.S.C. § 1681) — if your credit report contains inaccurate information that’s hurting your ability to get a mortgage, a car loan, or even a job, the Fair Credit Reporting Act gives you tools to force correction and recover damages.
- Debt-collection lawsuit defense — sometimes the right move isn’t to file bankruptcy, it’s to defend the underlying lawsuit. Florida statute of limitations on most consumer debt is 5 years, and many collection suits can be dismissed on procedural grounds.
- Loan modification and short sale negotiation — if foreclosure is what’s pushing you toward bankruptcy, sometimes a mortgage workout is the better answer.
We handle all of these. We’ll tell you honestly which tool fits your situation, even if it’s not the one we’d profit most from.
Located in Clearwater, serving all of Pinellas County and Tampa Bay
Our office is on Estancia Blvd in north Clearwater — convenient for clients across Pinellas County including Largo, Dunedin, Palm Harbor, Tarpon Springs, Safety Harbor, Oldsmar, Belleair, Seminole, and Pinellas Park. We also represent clients across the Tampa Bay region: Tampa, St. Petersburg, Brandon, Riverview, Plant City, and the broader Hillsborough and Pasco County areas.
Federal bankruptcy cases for residents of Pinellas County are heard in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division.
See also: Bankruptcy Lookback Period in Florida
See also: Debt Consolidation Clearwater, FL
See also: Bankruptcy Lawyer Dunedin, FL
- ✓ The Florida Bar — Mike Ziegler FBN 74864, Kaelyn Diamond FBN 125132
- ✓ Members, NACBA (National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys)
- ✓ BBB Accredited Business
- ✓ 4.9 ★ on Google (408 reviews)
See also: Clearwater Litigation Attorney
