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What Is a Virtual Bankruptcy Assistant?

Drafting your Chapter 7 and 13 petitions — without adding another salary to your books.

What is a Virtual Bankruptcy Assistant (VBA)?

A Virtual Bankruptcy Assistant (VBA) — also called a Bankruptcy Petition Specialist — drafts Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy petitions for attorneys, working remotely rather than from your office. You send the client file; you get back a fully complete, accurate and detailed bankruptcy petition ready for your review and filing. Many VBAs will even do the filing prep and file for you!

The arrangement is a service, not a hire. There is no payroll to run, no withholding, no benefits, no insurance, no desk, and nobody to pay when the caseload is thin. You pay per petition, and the cost scales with the work that actually comes in.

Why Firms Hire a VBA

Every business owner reaches the same point: the work that grows the business is not the tasks of daily business. For a bankruptcy attorney, petition drafting is the clearest example — necessary, detailed, time-consuming, and not the thing clients are actually paying you for.

Hiring solves it, but brings its own overhead: recruiting, payroll and tax withholding, insurance and benefits, workspace and equipment, sick days and holidays, and a fixed cost that does not shrink when filings slow down. Engaging a VBA gets you the capacity without any of that.

No Employer Overhead

No payroll, withholding, benefits, insurance, workspace or equipment. You engage a service the way you would any other vendor.

Cost That Follows Volume

Pay per petition. A quiet month costs you nothing, and a busy one does not require hiring ahead of the work.

Uninterrupted Work

Petitions drafted away from the interruptions of a working office, by someone who does this all day, every day.

Bankruptcy law is federal law, so the forms and schedules are the same nationwide. This is what makes the work practical to do remotely — a VBA can draft for law firms in any state simply by learning a few local rules, and your or your trustee’s preferences. Your law firm is not limited to whoever is available in the local area, who may be someone you have to fully train.

What a VBA Does

Drafting is the core of it, but most VBAs take on considerably more of the file than that. Services vary — NAVBA members are independent professionals who set their own scope and rates — but this is the range you can expect to find:

Drafting Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 Petitions

The core service. Your client's information and supporting documents — paystubs, statements, valuations — entered accurately and completely into the petition, ready for your review.

Due Diligence Research

PACER searches for prior filings, property and vehicle valuations, judgment searches and general debtor searches, with the supporting documentation attached.

Electronic Filing (ECF)

Many law firms would rather not tie up on-site staff with bankruptcy case filing. A VBA can file the petition electronically on the firm's behalf.

Emergency Skeleton Petitions

Client emergencies do not keep office hours. A VBA is available evenings and weekends when a skeleton petition has to go out ahead of a foreclosure or garnishment.

341 Meeting Notices

Telling your client when and where their meeting of creditors is scheduled, and taking the edge off a step that worries most debtors.

Post-Petition Follow-Up

Chasing the items needed after filing, including the pre-discharge debtor education and personal financial management certificate.

Amendments

When the trustee hands you a list of changes at the 341 meeting, a VBA can make the amendments and file them.

Pleadings and Motions

Preparing and filing the routine pleadings and motions a bankruptcy case generates, so they are not competing for your time.

VBA or Bankruptcy Petition Preparer?

Both draft bankruptcy petitions, and in everyday conversation the terms get used interchangeably. The meaningful difference is not the drafting — it is who the drafter answers to.

Virtual Bankruptcy Assistant (VBA)

Works for a bankruptcy attorney. The firm’s client is the attorney’s client. The VBA drafts; the attorney reviews, requests changes, approves and files, and makes every legal decision in the case from start to finish.

Bankruptcy Petition Preparer (BPP)

Works directly for the debtor, who is filing pro se without counsel. 11 U.S.C. § 110 governs this arrangement: the preparer must sign what they prepare, disclose their identity and fees to the court, and may not give legal advice. Many states also cap what a non-attorney may charge for preparing legal documents.

Neither one can give legal advice

Only a licensed attorney can advise a debtor. For anyone else, doing so is the unauthorized practice of law. That rule is identical for a VBA and a petition preparer — what differs is what happens when the question gets asked, and it always gets asked.

A debtor wants to know whether to file Chapter 7 or Chapter 13, or which exemption protects their home. A VBA has an answer available: that one is for your attorney — and the client gets a real answer from the person qualified to give it. Someone preparing a petition directly for a pro se debtor has nobody to refer the question to, which is exactly where the pressure to answer anyway comes from.

The same distinction runs through the substantive work. Take the Means Test and Schedule C. Bankruptcy software will auto-select an exemption for each item of property, and it is often a reasonable one — but not always the best one available, and local rules can offer better protection than the default. A VBA can make the selection and submit it for the attorney to review and approve, which makes it the attorney’s decision. A preparer working for a pro se debtor can only use what the software picked or hand the debtor a list of exemptions to choose from.

Common Questions

What is a Virtual Bankruptcy Assistant?＋
A Virtual Bankruptcy Assistant (VBA) is a specialist who drafts Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy petitions for attorneys, working remotely rather than from the law office. The role is a highly specialized kind of virtual assistant: the firm buys a service rather than hiring staff, so there is no payroll, no benefits, no workspace and no equipment to provide. The attorney reviews, approves and files everything, and remains the professional of record.
What does a VBA actually do for a law firm?＋
Drafting Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 petitions is the core service: taking the debtor's information and supporting documents and entering them accurately and completely into the petition. Most VBAs also handle due diligence — PACER searches for prior filings, property and vehicle valuations, judgment and general debtor searches — and many will electronically file petitions (ECF), handle emergency skeleton filings outside office hours, notify clients of their 341 meeting, collect post-petition documents such as the personal financial management certificate, and prepare amendments, pleadings and motions.
Is a Virtual Bankruptcy Assistant the same as a bankruptcy petition preparer?＋

They describe closely related work, and the terms are often used interchangeably, but the working arrangement differs in who the drafter answers to. A VBA works for a bankruptcy attorney, who reviews the petition, files it, and is responsible for every legal decision in the case. A bankruptcy petition preparer in the sense of 11 U.S.C. § 110 works directly for a debtor filing pro se, with no attorney involved; Section 110 requires them to sign what they prepare and disclose their identity and fees to the court, and bars them from giving legal advice.

NAVBA only advocates working under the direction of a licensed attorney as a Virtual Bankruptcy Assistant (VBA), also commonly referred to as a bankruptcy petition specialist.

Can a VBA give legal advice?＋
No. Only a licensed attorney can give legal advice — doing so otherwise is the unauthorized practice of law. The practical advantage of the attorney-directed model is that a VBA always has somewhere to send the question. When a debtor asks which chapter to file or which exemption to claim, the VBA routes it to the attorney, who answers. Someone preparing petitions directly for a pro se debtor has no one to refer to, which is where the pressure to answer anyway comes from.
Are VBAs listed on the NAVBA site certified in bankruptcy petition drafting?＋
Some members of NAVBA have taken the Chapter 7 and/or Chapter 13 certification exams offered by 713training.com, while others have not. Whether the VBA an attorney outsources work to needs to be certified is entirely at the discretion of the attorney.

More answers on the NAVBA FAQ.

Are you an attorney?

Browse the NAVBA directory of Virtual Bankruptcy Assistants accepting work. Search by state and specialty, then contact them directly — no middleman, no staffing agency, and no fee to use the directory.

Browse the Directory

Want to Become a VBA?

No prior legal experience is required. Start with a petition drafting course, then join NAVBA for a free directory listing, the certification exam, and ongoing member support.

See Training Options