Cara O'Neill is a bankruptcy and litigation attorney in Northern California and a legal editor and author with Nolo. She also teaches criminal law and legal ethics courses as an adjunct professor.Cara has authored and co-authored several Nolo books, including How to File for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, The New Bankruptcy, Everybody's Guide to Small Claims (national version), Everybody's Guide to Small Claims in California, Solve Your Money Troubles, and Credit Repair.,She has been asked to provide legal analysis by publications such as USA Today, CNBC, U.S.News & World Report, Nerd Wallet, and Yahoo Finance She has also authored numerous online articles in bankruptcy, debt collection, small claims, and litigation.Before joining Nolo, she litigated criminal and civil cases for close to twenty years, served as an administrative law judge mediating disputes between auto manufacturers and dealerships, and started teaching as an adjunct professor in 2004. She received her law degree from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law in 1994, and graduated a member of the Order of the Barristers--an honor society recognizing excellence in courtroom advocacy.