Short answer: the two bankruptcy website pages clients search for most and find least are the medical debt page and the keep-my-car page. Medical bills are one of the leading routes into consumer bankruptcy in the United States, and for a large share of filers — anyone who drives to work — the practical question “can I keep my car” matters more than the house question every competitor has written about. Both pages speak to a person most bankruptcy copy ignores: an ordinary household that was fine until one bad month. This guide sets out how to write them.
Part of our bankruptcy lawyer website design service. Start with the core guide to bankruptcy website copy if you have not read it.
Most filers are not reckless. They are one bad month past the edge, and the site should read that way.
The person most bankruptcy copy is not written for
Filing volumes in most of the country are driven less by spectacular debt than by ordinary households that ran out of margin. A hospital stay with a large deductible. A job loss in a town with one big employer. A car that failed the week the overtime stopped. The debt is often modest by the standards of the credit-card narratives on most bankruptcy sites; it is the absence of any cushion that makes it unpayable.
That visitor reads “we fight creditors” and “wipe out your debt” and does not recognise themselves. They are not in a fight. They had a bad year. Copy that opens by acknowledging that — plainly, without pity — is the copy they keep reading.
The medical debt page
A person drowning in hospital billing is a different reader from a person drowning in cards, and almost nobody writes for them. The medical debt page should do four things.
- Name the situation. An illness or an accident, insurance that did not cover what they thought it covered, bills from providers they did not choose, and collections that started before the treatment was over. The reader should see their own year in the first paragraph.
- Explain, in general terms, how medical debt is treated. It is generally unsecured debt, which is usually good news the reader does not know. The firm writes the specifics; the page can say that the answer is often better than the reader fears.
- Address the guilt. Medical debtors often feel they owe the hospital in a moral sense that credit-card debtors do not. A sentence acknowledging that filing does not mean refusing to pay for care they received, and that the system produced the bill, does more than any credential.
- Cover the timing question. People with ongoing treatment worry about filing while bills are still arriving. The page should say that this is a common situation the firm handles, without stating how it is handled.
Uninsured and underinsured populations vary enormously by state, and in states with large ones this page can be the highest-traffic page on the site. Everywhere, it is under-written.
The keep-my-car page
Outside a handful of transit cities, getting to work means driving. For that reader, losing the vehicle means losing the job, which means the car question is not a line item under exemptions — it is the decision. It is searched constantly, in plain words (“will I lose my car if I file”), and almost nobody has written a proper page about it.
The page should separate the situations the reader may be in, because the answer is different for each and the reader does not know which one they are in:
| Situation | What the reader is really asking | What the page should do |
|---|---|---|
| Car owned outright | Is it worth too much to keep? | Explain that the answer turns on its value against the vehicle exemption, which the firm states and dates |
| Car on finance, payments current | Can I keep paying and keep the car? | Explain in general terms that keeping a financed car through a filing is a common outcome with its own mechanics |
| Car on finance, payments behind | Will they repossess it before I can file? | The urgent case; explain the general position and offer same-day contact plainly |
| Car already repossessed | Can I get it back? | Say honestly that this is time-sensitive and the answer depends on facts and timing |
Each row is a heading on the page. The firm writes the substance under each and dates it. The value the site adds is the structure: the reader arrives not knowing there are four situations, and leaves knowing which one they are in and that there is a page for it.
The job-loss page, briefly
The third route into bankruptcy for this household is a job loss, and it produces one specific, searchable worry that deserves a paragraph on the site: will my employer, or my next employer, find out? Answer it honestly in general terms — what is public record, what typically appears on a background check, and what the firm can say about it in a consultation. Most sites avoid this because the answer is not entirely comfortable. Answering it is exactly why the reader will trust you.
How these pages link
The medical debt page links to the cost page, because a reader with no cushion needs to see the payment-plan answer immediately. The car page links to the what-you-keep page and to the Chapter 13 page, because keeping a financed car is one of the reasons people file 13. Both link to the when-not-to-file page, because some readers in these situations are better served by negotiation than by filing, and a firm that says so is the one they call.
Medical debt and the car: frequently asked questions
Why write a separate medical debt page?
Because the reader is different. Someone drowning in hospital bills feels a different kind of guilt, has different timing questions and often has an ongoing condition. Copy written for credit-card debt does not reach them, and almost no firm writes for them.
Is the car really more important than the house?
For a large share of filers, yes. Losing the vehicle usually means losing the job. The car question is searched constantly and answered almost nowhere as a page of its own.
What should the car page actually say?
It should separate the four situations — owned outright, financed and current, financed and behind, already repossessed — and explain the general position for each, with the firm writing the specifics and dating the page.
Should the site address whether an employer finds out?
Yes, honestly. It is the unspoken question for anyone who is working or job-hunting, most sites avoid it, and answering it is what earns the reader’s trust.
What tone works for this reader?
Calm, factual and without pity. Acknowledge that the situation was one bad month, not recklessness, and write to a competent adult. Avoid crisis imagery and debt-relief advertising language entirely.
The short version
If you take one thing from this guide, take this: write the page about keeping your car. For anyone who drives to work, losing the vehicle means losing the job, which makes it the question that matters most for a large share of filers — and essentially nobody has answered it properly.
Legal Web Agency is a marketing agency, not a law firm, and nothing here is legal advice. Nothing here states vehicle or other exemption figures, how medical debt or vehicle finance is treated in any chapter, repossession or background-check rules, or federal debt relief requirements. Confirm current requirements with your state bar and your ethics counsel.
Related reading in this series: bankruptcy website copy for shame and cost anxiety, the what-you-keep page, splitting the site by chapter, and the state-by-state guide to attorney advertising rules.
