William Michael Bryk

William Bryk is an attorney-at-law in private practice in Antrim, New Hampshire. He retired from the City of New York after over 26 years’ service, concluding his career at the Department of Correction as an Agency Attorney III assigned to the Trials and Litigation Division from March 2002 to April 2010. He prosecuted disciplinary proceedings against uniformed and civilian employees, which included drafting pleadings, conducting pre-trial conferences and pre-trial motion practice, and settling or trying cases before administrative law judges at the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH), the municipal administrative law tribunal. He also briefed and argued over thirty appeals from OATH decisions to the New York City Civil Service Commission. Mr. Bryk previously worked in the offices of several New York City officials, including the Comptroller, the Manhattan Borough President, the President of the Council, and City Council Member Walter L. McCaffrey. He had also worked for the Board of Education and the Human Resources Administration-Department of Social Services and served as a law assistant in the Civil Court, an administrative law judge with the Department of Finance, and a per diem hearing officer with the Housing Authority. He has practiced law both as a solo practitioner and in association with the firms of Bondy & Schloss and Levy, Boonshoft & Spinelli, where he argued before New York state and federal courts. He continues to serve by judicial appointment as a guardian and as a court examiner of guardians’ annual accounts. He received his baccalaureate in economics from Manhattan College in 1977 and law degree from Fordham University in 1989. He was admitted to the New York bar in 1990 and to the New Hampshire bar in 2017. He has also been a literary journalist for over two decades. He was recently appointed a Justice of the Peace for the State of New Hampshire.

Fordham University School of Law

J.D. (1989) | Law

1985 - 1989

Manhattan College

B.S. (1977) | Economics

1973 - 1977

Editor-in-chief, Manhattan College Quadrangle, 1976; President of the Student Body, 1976.

Activities: Student government; student journalism

New Hampshire Bar Association  # 268939

Member

2017 - Current

Activities: Since my admission to the NH bar in June 2017, I have frequently attending continuing legal education courses.

State Bar of New York  # 2337921

Member

1990 - Current

New Hampshire

Since 2017

New York

Since 1990

1st Circuit

Since 2004

U.S. District Court, District of New Hampshire

Since 2017

U.S. Supreme Court

Since 1993

• Free Consultation
• Rates, Retainers and Additional Information
  In consumer bankruptcy cases, I accept a flat fee of $1000, from which I pay the court and other fees.

Q. I received a copy of a request for execution (NHSuperiorcourt)for $93,000 from a credit card co. What happens next?

March 24, 2023

A: I assume that you owe the money. Consider your assets, i.e., what you own, such as a house and any other real property, automobiles, stocks and bonds, and any other debts you may have - other credit card debt, personal loans, mortgages, and income tax arrears immediately come to mind. Also consider whether other creditors are moving against you in court. Your current income from any source and whether you're married will be important. If you own a house, determine its current appraised value and the balance owed on the mortgage. Zillow is a useful source of current market value. The same would be true of an automobile and a car loan. There, you may calculate the car's value. Once you've assembled your financial information, Then, take a deep breath, contact the New Hampshire Bar Association, and ask them for a referral to a lawyer who specializes in bankriptcy law. Once they've given you names and contact information, ask for a face-to-face interview. You need to form an opinion about the lawyer by seeing him or her face-to-face. Remember that choosing whether to file for bankruptcy will be among the most important decisions of your life. Good luck. ... Read More

Q. I have a judgment, possibly a lien on my home from a credit card company. If I decide to file bankruptcy,what happens?

March 23, 2023

A: First, check with the Register of Deeds in your county to see whether a lien has been filed against your home. A great deal turns on whether you have a mortgage, as the mortgagee has a lien superior to anything the credit card company may have. If so, check the balance due on the mortgage against the appraised value of your house. New Hampshire has a homestead exemption of $120,000 for a person filing singly and $240,000 for a couple filing jointly.

As I have no solid facts to go on, I can only pose a hypothesis. If your house is valued at $300,000 and your mortgage is $200,000, your equity in the house - the difference between the appraised value and the mortgage - is $100,000. That is less than $120,000 and hence your house cannot be seized by the credit card company. If you file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy (a simple or liquidation bankruptcy), assuming this hypothesis, you will not lose your house. Please remember that even if you don't lose your house, the fact that you filed a bankruptcy petition will remain in your credit history for seven years. ... Read More

Q. How do I file for a Motion for a Relief from Stay in NH? Tenant filed for Chapter 7 before signing his lease.

March 18, 2019

A: First, are you sure he filed for bankruptcy BEFORE signing the lease? If so, the lease is a post-petition event and, unless the law has changed that much in 30 years, I don't believe you need to file a lift-stay motion to evict him. Second, let's play it safe. Assuming you are in NH, a lift-stay motion ought to be filed at the Bankruptcy Court in Concord. The Court has many motion forms online. I recommend retaining counsel just to be on the safe side because you want the non-paying tenant out of your house.

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