For fifteen yearsI represented the peoplewho decide what you lose.

Now I represent you.

Fifteen years · the other side

Counsel to Chapter 7, 11 and 12 Trustees, and to State Receivers in Idaho and Washington.

James Macdonald spent fifteen years as a named partner at the firm that made North Idaho a bankruptcy town — on the trustee's side of the table. He practices in Sandpoint, alone, on the other one.

Call James

The question nobody asks out loud

The line you are afraid of is the one drawn through your own house. It falls further out than you think.

Bankruptcy · Chapter 7 · Chapter 13

“Can I keep
my house?”

It is the first thing people ask, and most of them wait weeks before they will say it to anyone. So here is the answer before you call.

“Generally, you can keep all the things that are essential to living.”

James Macdonald

01Your homeSecured property is reaffirmed, not surrendered
02Your vehicleSame — you keep paying, you keep driving
03Household goodsProtected in the ordinary case
04The tools you work withThe things that earn the money back

And one thing you must not do, which I will tell you before you have paid me a dollar: do not move, transfer, or hide anything. Absolutely not. It is the single fastest way to turn a fresh start into a seizure.

Who is on your side of the line

James S. Macdonald Jr., attorney, Sandpoint, Idaho — James S. Macdonald Jr.
Sandpoint, Idaho

Third generation. His grandfather practiced corporate law in Dallas. His father taught Idaho's lawyers for thirty‑five years.

The man across the table used to sit on the other side of it.

In a bankruptcy, the trustee is the person whose job is to find what can be sold and sell it. For fifteen years, James Macdonald was the lawyer those trustees called. He represented Chapter 7, 11 and 12 Trustees across multiple districts, and State Receivers in both Idaho and Washington, as a named partner at Elsaesser, Jarzabek, Anderson, Elliott & Macdonald.

That is an unusual thing to have on your side. He knows which questions get asked, which documents get pulled, and what a trustee is actually looking for — because for fifteen years, he was the one looking.

He practices in Sandpoint now. Alone, on Lake Street, in the Old Power House Building. He answers his own telephone.

Since 2005Licensed in Idaho; admitted in all Idaho State and Federal Courts.
Fifteen yearsNamed partner, Elsaesser, Jarzabek, Anderson, Elliott & Macdonald, Chtd.
2005 · 2006Contributor, Norton Bankruptcy Advisor — Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Review.
Idaho Supreme CourtHas argued many cases before it.
EducationNorthern Arizona University; University of Idaho College of Law.

Door one

I'm drowning in debt.

Then make an appointment. Not a form, not a chat window — an hour with the attorney who will actually handle it.

Call 208·263·6546

Door two

I have a problem with my land.

An easement you didn't know about. A fence in the wrong place. A neighbour who has crossed the same two‑track for forty years and believes it is his.

Where the line falls

Real estate · boundaries · mediation

Bonner County has grown by roughly a third since 2010, and the county's births do not account for any of it. Everyone here is arriving.

Easements · Boundary lines · Transactions

You will be neighbours for thirty years.

Almost every boundary fight in North Idaho begins the same way: two decent people, one old deed, and a line that was never really surveyed. Then somebody builds a fence, and within a month it isn't about the fence.

I litigate these. I have argued them. But I also mediate them — because a judgment that costs you forty thousand dollars and the person who plows your road in February is not a victory, and I will tell you that in the first meeting.

Easements. Boundary line disputes. Access roads. Drafting the transaction properly, once, so that the next owner never has this conversation.

Bonner County, Idaho — forested parcels above Lake Pend Oreille — Bonner County above Lake Pend Oreille — where most of these lines were drawn on paper long before anyone walked them.

Before the first meeting

Bring these and we can talk about your actual situation instead of about paperwork.

What to bring.

Nobody should walk into a bankruptcy consultation and be told they brought the wrong papers. This is the list. It is the whole list.

Government-issued photo identification
Your Social Security card
A recent credit report
Two years of tax returns
Six months of pay stubs
Three months of bank statements

Gathering it takes most people one to two weeks. The petition itself takes days.

On the record

Verifiable, and worth verifying. Ask about any of it.

Not adjectives.

Counsel to Chapter 7, 11 & 12 TrusteesAcross multiple districts — the appointed officers who administer and liquidate bankruptcy estates.
Counsel to State Receivers, Idaho & WashingtonCourt-appointed receiverships in two states.
Named partner, fifteen yearsElsaesser, Jarzabek, Anderson, Elliott & Macdonald, Chtd. — the firm that built North Idaho's insolvency bar.
Norton Bankruptcy Advisor, 2005 & 2006Contributor, Ninth Circuit Bankruptcy Review.
Third-generation attorneyHis father taught at the University of Idaho College of Law for thirty-five years. James took his degree there.

Sandpoint, Idaho

The firm that carried his name for fifteen years no longer keeps an office in this town. He does.

Lake Street.
Second floor.

The Old Power House Building 120 East Lake Street, Suite 209 Sandpoint, Idaho 83864

208 · 263 · 6546 james@macdonaldlawoffices.com