By Steve Chambers. In Bankruptcy Information , Bankruptcy Questions. Chapter 13 , Chapter 7 , filing bankruptcy in Utah , filing bankruptcy jointly , filing bankruptcy separately , Joint Bankruptcy. Leave a Comment. About Steve. I have been a lawyer in Utah since I love helping people work through difficult times in their lives and successfully negotiate the legal system. Phone: Recent Posts.
April 14, How Much Does Bankruptcy Cost? Bankruptcy is a legal proceeding in which an individual who cannot pay his or her bills can get a fresh financial start. The right to file for bankruptcy is provided by federal law, and all bankruptcy cases are handled in federal court. The federal judiciary proves public access to federal appellate, district and bankruptcy court documents through Public Access to Court Electronic Records PACER , an electronic public access service. Bankruptcy cannot, however, cure every financial problem.
Nor is it the right step for every individual. In bankruptcy, it is usually not possible to:. You cannot receive a discharge in a Chapter 7 case if you received a discharge under a Chapter 7 case filed in the last eight years or a Chapter 13 filed in the last six years. You cannot receive a discharge in a Chapter 13 case if you received a discharge under a Chapter 7 case filed in the last four years or a Chapter 13 filed in the last two years.
Most people filing bankruptcy will want to file under either chapter 7 or chapter Either type of case may be filed individually or by a married couple filing jointly. In a bankruptcy case under chapter 7, you file a petition asking the court to discharge your debts. But property which is not exempt is sold, with the money distributed to creditors. If you want to keep property like a home or a car and are behind on the payments on a mortgage or car loan, a chapter 7 case probably will not be the right choice for you.
That is because chapter 7 bankruptcy does not eliminate the right of mortgage holders or car loan creditors to take your property to cover your debt. The most important thing about a chapter 13 case is that it will allow you to keep valuable property—especially your home and car—which might otherwise be lost, if you can make the payments which the bankruptcy law requires to be made to your creditors.
In most cases, these payments will be at least as much as your regular monthly payments on your mortgage or car loan, with some extra payment to get caught up on the amount you have fallen behind. You should consider filing a chapter 13 plan if you:. You will need to have enough income in chapter 13 to pay for your necessities and to keep up with the required payments as they come due.
The court may allow you to pay this filing fee in installments if you cannot pay all at once. Utah exemptions provides list of the exemptions available for Utah. In determining whether property is exempt, you must keep a few things in mind. The value of property is not the amount you paid for it, but what it is worth now. Especially for furniture and cars, this may be a lot less than what you paid or what it would cost to buy a replacement.
You also only need to look at your actual equity in any property. This means that you count your exemptions against the full value minus any money that you owe on mortgages or liens.
While your exemptions allow you to keep property even in a chapter 7 case, your exemptions do not make any difference to the right of a mortgage holder or car loan creditor to take the property to cover the debt if you are behind on payments.
In a chapter 13 case, you can keep all of your property if your plan meets the requirements of the bankruptcy law. You are most likely to face this problem when you have joint debts with a bankruptcy filing spouse and your spouse does not pay a joint debt on time. For example, Chapter 13 allows a bankruptcy debtor to restructure payment obligations, which may include reducing the monthly installment, or extending the term of the loan.
As a non-filing spouse you will likely be in violation of the contractual terms of your loan, which will appear as a late payment on your credit report. The bankruptcy law does allow a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 debtor to declare a set amount of cash as exempt sheltered property. You can claim as your sole property a percentage of the joint bank account but you will need to show what percentage arises from your contribution 1. This can result in tricky accounting problems, especially if there are other bank accounts or if one spouse took responsibility for making specific household payments.
Often it is wise to try to separate your finances from those of your bankruptcy filing spouse but you have to be careful here too as property transfers shortly before bankruptcy can be challenged. Talk to a lawyer before making any transfers and talk to the lawyer early.
Your bankruptcy filing spouse will need access to your employment information including your salary. The bankruptcy law assumes that a married couple shares some or all responsibility for household expenses.
This presumption can be rebutted but you will need documentation.
0コメント