Chapter Seven, also known as “liquidation” or “straight bankruptcy,” is what many individuals understand as a personal bankruptcy. Chapter Seven or any other type of personal bankruptcy will stop a lawsuit right away and stop creditors from placing a lien on your house or garnishing your hard-earned salary. Both federal and state laws provide exemptions for property or home that you’re permitted to declare as exempt and keep when you file a Chapter 7 individual bankruptcy. For married people declaring bankruptcy , based upon your circumstances it may be more beneficial for you to file a joint Chapter 7 case together with your spouse, or it might be more beneficial to file separately with out your husband or wife.
Usually, not including cases which are terminated or converted, personal debtors get a discharge in more than 99 percent of chapter seven cases. In case your earnings are at or higher the state’s average income level, there are more tests which are utilized to ascertain if you be eligible for a Chapter Seven. Financial obligations from healthcare bills and charge cards are generally regarded as unsecured and therefore are typical factors for a person to file for for Chapter Seven. When you are continuously approaching in need of achieving your monthly bills, it might be time for you to think about talking to a Boston Massachusetts Chapter Seven lawyer about declaring Chapter Seven personal bankruptcy . Student education loans (government and personal), income taxes, penalties, supporting your children, home loans, automobile financing aren’t able to be discharged by filing Chapter Seven personal bankruptcy.
Under the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA), in order to be qualified to file for personal bankruptcy within Chapter Seven, you have to meet the requirements of the means test. Essentially, this requires you to be earning below your states median income for a family of your size. Examples of unsecured debts are credit card debts, hospital bills, payday loans, study loans etc. Usually, it is the norm to file for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy after exhausting all other repayment options other than bankruptcy. Basically, if your annual income is below the threshold according to the size of your family, then you qualify to file for bankruptcy under Chapter 7. A “fresh start planning session” with attorney Hargrove, bankruptcy attorney , will give you the answers to the questions you have about bankruptcy, chapter 7 or Chapter 13. Many types of unsecured debt are legally discharged by the bankruptcy proceeding, but there are various types of debt that are not discharged in a Chapter 7.
There has been much doom and gloom written about the bankruptcy means test under the new laws and how much more difficult it’s going to be to file Chapter 7.
When you come in for an initial bankruptcy consultation we will determine whether you qualify to have all your debts discharged through bankruptcy under Chapter 7. In most cases, unless a complaint has been filed objecting to the discharge or the debtor has filed a written waiver, the discharge will be granted to a chapter 7 debtor relatively early in the case, that is, 60 to 90 days after the date first set for the meeting of creditors. The bankruptcy law now requires that you attend a credit counseling session prior to filing and a second, budget counseling session, prior to receiving a Chapter 7 discharge. If the debtor’s “current monthly income” (1) is more than the state median, the Bankruptcy Code requires application of a “means test” to determine whether the chapter 7 filing is presumptively abusive. The bankruptcy laws changed in 2005 and one of the main additions to the law was the inclusion of a uniform income standard to determine if someone is eligible for a chapter 7 Bankruptcy. By means of these activities the United States Trustee has attained a regulatory system that most creditor-friendly commentators and Congress have consistently embraced, i.e., a formal Chapter 7 means test. The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 clarifies this area of concern by instituting changes to the U.S. Bankruptcy Code that incorporate, among many other reforms, language establishing a bankruptcy means test for Chapter 7 cases. A typical case generally involves people who have fallen behind in their mortgage payments, delinquent with their priority taxes, or have debts that are generally non-dischargeable in a Chapter 7 (student loans, child support arrears, and others). FREE NO OBLIGATION CONSULTATION from a local Boston bankruptcy lawyer and find out what chapter 7 can do for you.