When people are pushed, their emotions take over and they often do rash things. Being hopelessly behind in debts such as a mortgage often triggers this response, especially if threatened with court actions or foreclosures. Here are four actions that some people often take when threatened with bankruptcy – and they generally lead to more [...]
Not being able to pay bills is one thing, but filing for bankruptcy is another. Many people find it difficult to file for bankruptcy, even though they are up to their eye-balls in debt. Some debtors hide from creditors, some even reaching a point where they are too afraid to open a door or answer [...]
It comes as a rude shock to some when a bankruptcy petition goes sour and they are faced with the very real likelihood of spending time in prison. Bankruptcy is a legal process that is designed to protect both debtors and creditors. The important words there are ‘legal process’ and ‘protection’. Bankruptcy is a legal [...]
An adversary procedure is a law suit that is taken out against parts of a bankruptcy petition. While it is a lawsuit, it is heard in the bankruptcy court as part of the bankruptcy process. The most common adversary procedures are those taken out by creditors who feel their debts shouldn’t be included for discharge, [...]
If you are working but struggling to maintain your debts, then a Chapter 13 petition for bankruptcy offers a complex but neat solution to your debt problems. It takes on some of the concepts of debt consolidation, the major difference being you won’t normally be repaying the total outstanding debts. Under a Chapter 13 petition, [...]
There are many people who are in financial difficulty who are in a position to choose between a Chapter 7 and a Chapter 13. The Chapter 7 bankruptcy is also referred to as a liquidation bankruptcy because you are required to liquidate a range of assets to help pay your debts. The Chapter 13 is [...]
Sometimes it’s easy to forget what a bankruptcy petition is and what the bankruptcy process is. To a casual observer, the whole process may seem like an administrative matter. An individual files for bankruptcy and courthouse officials process the paperwork until all the bankruptcy provisions have been completed. Bankruptcy is not an administrative process – [...]
A lot of people worry about their social security benefits so they are reluctant to undertake actions such as filing for bankruptcy. If you compare what happens with social security benefits before, during, and after bankruptcy, your fears should be allayed. To begin with, your social security benefits are better protected during bankruptcy than they [...]
If you seek debt relief through a Chapter 13 petition, then you will be required to enter into a debt repayment plan. This repayment plan is designed to pay off as much of your debt as possible over a three- to five-year period. Where a Chapter 7 petition seizes assets and sells them, the Chapter [...]
Bankruptcy is a serious process that generally involves creditors losing large sums of money. The Bankruptcy Act was created in such a way that both consumers and creditors receive as much protection as possible – for the debtor that means having their debts discharged with the least pain possible while for creditors this means receiving [...]
Have you been on the wrong end of a bankruptcy petition? No doubt you have lost money, especially when some bankruptcy discharges pay out as little as five or ten cents in the dollar owed. What some creditors don’t always realize is that bankruptcy courts often make second or even third payments, some of which [...]
In most cases, debtors petition the court as a means of obtaining relief from burdening debts. In rare cases, creditors can force an individual into bankruptcy. This will most often occur when the debtor has been operating a small business as an unincorporated sole trader. Involuntary bankruptcy can also occur to corporate entities, when creditors [...]
Under a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition, a debtor’s assets are seized and sold to help pay off some of the debts. Some assets are exempt. For example, tools of the trade required to earn a living. Assets that are exempt generally have an exemption value – for example, a vehicle to the value of $2600. So [...]
There are several stages involved in any bankruptcy petition. The first stage involves the debtor collecting all the information required and filling out all the forms. The second stage is the actual filing where all the documents are lodged at a local courthouse. The third stage is the the one that interests us in today’s [...]
Some people describe a 341 meeting with a trustee as grilling similar in style to that of a cross examination by an aggressive attorney, or an aggressive police interview, and even an examination by the IRS. It needn’t be. Not every cross examination, police interview, or IRS examination need be harsh. What all four do [...]
It is possible to change the Chapter under which you filed your bankruptcy petition, however, unless there are exceptional circumstances, this can only be done once. If you do need to change Chapters, all you need to do is make a request in writing to the court – and that request need only be one [...]
In general terms, a Trustee is someone who is appointed to manage affairs. For example, in a deceased estate a trustee is one or more people nominated to manage the estate and distribute its contents as per the instructions of the deceased person (left in a will). In Bankruptcy, the Trustee is someone, often a [...]
Fortunately, we don’t live in a static world so things often change, and sometimes they are for the better. A person can lose their job and find themselves in a position where their debt obligations can no longer be met so they file for bankruptcy. Just because a person files for bankruptcy doesn’t mean they [...]
Most people go through the process of filing for bankruptcy because they reach a point where they cannot cope with the mountain of debt before them. The problem is often caused by unemployment of either one or both breadwinners in a family and the prospects of future employment in the short term are remote. For [...]
There is more to applying for Bankruptcy than just filling in the forms. Individuals must undertake credit counseling from an approved credit counseling agency during the 180 day period prior to filing their petition. The counseling may be in either a group or individual setting and if a debt management plan is developed it must [...]
