Even major shipping companies, the seventh largest in the world, declare bankruptcy. Hanjin Shipping of South Korea declared bankruptcy in late August which threw the shipping world into a hectic frenzy. According to Forbes, bankruptcy is the most important aspect of capitalism. Handling success is easy while managing failure is complicated. Capitalism requires a method to manage failure to ensure that it does not become bogged down.
Unfortunately for Hanjin, it declared bankruptcy following a few years of depressed shipping prices. It was eventually left with a huge bill for a variety of port fees and expenses it was unable to finance. The resulting credit freeze forced it to seek bankruptcy protection.
For the past few weeks dozens of its ships with $15 billion worth of merchandise have been trapped off the coast of several ports, unable to dock. The reason they were trapped is because several Hanjin ships were seized in Greece to pay creditors. To prevent further seizure, the ships were all kept in the water. But earlier this week, a U.S. bankruptcy judge extended protection to Hanjin ships throughout the U.S.
As you can see, bankruptcy is critical to prevent repossession for big corporations and individuals. Repossession and seizure of assets is a traumatic experience for anyone. Bankruptcy is a dramatic but critical tool to protect your assets and income. A bankruptcy lawyer can help you file to ensure that your bankruptcy proceedings go through smoothly. You don’t want to risk your assets because you forgot a document or signature. The moment a bankruptcy proceeding is tossed from court, your assets could be subject to seizure.
Source: Forbes, “As Hanjin Shipping Shows The Most Important Part Of Capitalism Is Bankruptcy,” Tim Worstall, September 11, 2016
