Attorney Veronica Brinson filed for bankruptcy Thursday, putting off a Friday hearing on a judge's contempt charge against her.
Brinson spent several days in the Bibb County jail last month for failing to comply with judges' orders in a seven-year-old case.Then the judge, Gil McBride, ordered her released.
Friday's hearing was scheduled to decide whether McBride would lift the order of incarceration against her.
But Brinson filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy in Macon's federal bankruptcy court.
As a result, McBride put Friday's hearing on hold, said Sam Alderman, the Macon lawyer handling the civil case that led to the contempt order.
McBride will eventually decide whether the order of incarceration -- aimed at getting Brinson to produce financial documents and answer questions under oath -- will remain in place.
In her bankruptcy filing, Brinson listed both her assets and her liabilities at between $100,000 and $500,000.
She lists her creditors as Wells Fargo Home Mortgage; Brookefield Subdivision; her homeowners association; the Bibb County tax commissioner; Coliseum Hospital; Boxer Properties, a Texas company; and Andrew Foster, another Macon lawyer who is Alderman's client.
According to Alderman, the contempt case all started in 2011 when Brinson sued Foster, for harassment.
A judged ruled against Brinson, called her complaint "frivolous" and ordered her to pay $9,500 in attorney fees.
Brinson appealed that order to the Georgia Court of Appeals and then the Georgia Supreme Court, losing both times.
In 2015, Alderman asked a judge to order Brinson to provide documents about her finances, to determine whether she was able to pay.
Last month, McBride ordered Brinson into jail if she didn't comply with past orders.
"We're talking 31 months now," Alderman said in June. "She's had 31 months to come up with that information."
The Foster case isn't the first time Brinson's been in legal trouble.
In 2014, a Bibb County judge found her guilty of contempt of court. Judge Howard Simms removed her as defense attorney for murder suspect Frank Reeves, stating that she had not represented Reeves effectively and had missed filing deadlines. Brinson continued to file motions and other documents in the case after being removed, Simms said.
\In 2015, Bibb County's Board of Health ordered ruled that three dogs owned by Brinson were dangerous after they killed a smaller dog and injured two people. Brinson appealed the ruling, and the board ruled against her after a long hearing.
And last year, Brinson took her fight with her neighborhood association to the state appeals court. In her blog, Brinson wrote that the Brookefield Homeowner's Association Board sued her because she failed to pay her $436 assessment. A judge order her to pay more than $18,000, Brinson wrote.
According to state bar records, Brinson is a Mercer Law School graduate who's been practicing law since 2000.