LifeBack Law Firm, P.A.

Focus and practice areas

Consumer bankruptcy is the whole of what this firm does, and it has worked in Minnesota since 1972. The two filings it handles most are Chapter 7 and Chapter 13, and both are federal processes open to individuals, families and business owners. A firm that files only these cases, day in and day out, builds a focused, practical kind of knowledge.

The two chapters solve different problems. Chapter 7 clears qualifying unsecured debts and can close within a few months, which suits someone with limited income and few assets to protect. Chapter 13 sets up a court-approved repayment plan that runs three to five years, and it can help a person hold on to a house or a car while catching up on what they owe. Filing both lets the firm steer a client toward the one that fits their numbers.

The work reaches a little past those two consumer chapters. Wesley Scott, one of the named attorneys, also handles Chapter 11 and general debt relief. For a business owner whose situation calls for a reorganization, that widens what the firm can take on.

In my opinion the plain benefit of a single-subject firm is this: the lawyers a client sits down with spend their days inside bankruptcy law and little else, so the process holds few surprises for them.

Offices across two states

The firm names a dozen Minnesota locations. They include Maple Grove, Minneapolis, St. Paul, St. Cloud, Brainerd, Duluth, Eagan, Rochester, Edina, Mankato, St Louis Park and Brooklyn Center. Two more offices sit in North Dakota, at Bismarck and Fargo.

Maple Grove is the office listed first on the home page. The spread covers both the Twin Cities metro and greater Minnesota, so a client in Duluth, Brainerd or Mankato has a listed office well short of a drive to Minneapolis. For a state the size of Minnesota, that footprint counts for something. It also means the appointment-only setup does not lock anyone out of a nearby office.

How a client reaches the firm has loosened up too. People who would rather not travel can handle the process by phone or video. The physical offices run by appointment, so a visit is set up ahead of time, and much of a matter can move without an in-person meeting when that suits the client.

The attorneys the site names

Seven lawyers appear on the firm's People page: Wesley Scott, Amanda Rosback, Jesse Horoshak, Brenna Macpherson Evans, Col Ovik, James Jensen-Kowski and Madison D. Newberg.

What the site states about them

Wesley Scott earned his J.D. from William Mitchell College of Law in 1996 and graduated cum laude. His work centers on consumer bankruptcy, with Chapter 11 and debt relief handled alongside it. That mix gives the firm someone who can take on a business reorganization as well as a routine consumer filing.

Jesse Horoshak works from the Maple Grove office and handles Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 filings. Amanda Rosback practices at the St. Cloud office, and James Jensen-Kowski works from St. Cloud as well. Brenna Macpherson Evans, Col Ovik and Madison D. Newberg complete the group. Several of the seven are tied to a named office, so a client can put a name to a place before the first call.

How a case begins

The starting point at the firm is a consultation about options. Jesse Horoshak's profile describes exactly that: he meets clients to weigh their choices under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code before anything gets filed. A first conversation of that sort is usually where the Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 question gets answered. It also sets expectations early, so a client knows which path they are on before paperwork starts.

Because the firm runs that process by phone and video as well as in person, a client can get through the early steps without a trip to an office. For someone weighing bankruptcy while holding down a full work schedule, that flexibility can be the thing that gets a first appointment onto the calendar.

Support around a filing

Bankruptcy does not end the day a case closes, and the firm accounts for that with a 90-day post-bankruptcy program. It covers the stretch right after a discharge, the months when someone is rebuilding credit and steadying cash flow, which is often when people feel most on their own.

The firm also publishes student loan forgiveness information, a subject that trips up plenty of filers because those balances follow their own rules. Read together, the post-filing program and the loan material point to a firm that treats a discharge as one step in the longer job of getting a client's finances back in order.

A long run in one field

Fifty-plus years on one kind of case is the plainest fact the firm's own pages state. As a reviewer, I read the 1972 start date as its clearest marker: the firm has stayed with bankruptcy work across more than five decades. Continuity of that length says something about staying power in a single field.

The consumer bankruptcy focus the firm started with in 1972 is the same one it lists today. It files Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 cases for clients across Minnesota and North Dakota, from its Maple Grove base and the offices around it.