Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

The Means Test is a pre-requesite to filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy which is based on your household income. For some, this is a relatively simple test to pass. For others, it can get very complex.

The Means Test is also used in Chapter 13 bankruptcy as a factor in determining your plan payment amount.

If you have already been sued, your creditors might have already attached judgments against your property. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy can remove those liens from your property and discharge the debt.

Once you’ve retained our office, we can stop the creditor harassment even before your case is filed. Once your case is pending or after discharge, creditors can face severe penalties for instituting any type of collection activity, including phone calls, past due notices, filing lawsuits, bank account levies, and wage garnishments.

Contrary to what many people believe, it is actually possible to discharge many tax debts. The general rule is that if a tax debt was due more than 3 years ago, then it might be possible to discharge that debt. However, other factors can complicate this and potentially require strategically approaching your case in order to maximizing your discharge.

Chapter 7, also sometimes referred to as “liquidation bankruptcy”, can come with a risk that some of your property could be taken by the trustee and used to pay off a portion of your debts. By maximizing exemptions, pre-bankruptcy planning, and an expertly drafted petition, this risk can be greatly reduced.

Bankruptcy often involves family law issues including divorce, divorce debts, child or spousal support, and California community property law. These issues require a wealth of knowledge of how bankruptcy and family law overlap.

In a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you have the option keep or surrender a vehicle. For a financed vehicle, your options are reaffirmation, ride-through, surrender, or redemption. For a vehicle that is leased, you can assume or reject the lease.

While it is true that most student loans are non-dischargeable, some can actually be discharged. There are two situations where this is possible: 1) when repaying the loan would cause an “undue hardship”, or 2) if the student loan does not qualify as a non-dischargeable student loan. Regardless of whether your loans are dischargeable, our attorneys can assist you with understanding what your student loan options are.

Either a Chapter 7 or 13 bankruptcy will stop a foreclosure once the case is filed which imposes a stay against your creditors. In a Chapter 7, this might only be temporary, but it can allow you some breathing room to allow you to pursue your options. In a Chapter 13, you can catch up on your mortgage through monthly payments over a period of up to 5 years.

An adversary proceeding is a separate lawsuit filed in conjunction with a bankruptcy case. There are many types of adversary proceedings that can be filed by creditors, the trustee, the US Trustee, or the debtor.

The most common type of adversary proceeding is one for a determination of non-dischargeability of a debt. There only limited grounds upon which a debt can be non-discharged, the most common are fraud, marital/divorce/support debts, and willful 

If the trustee wants to have property forcibly turned over to them, they might be required to file an action asking the court to issue such an order.

Unlike an action regarding dischargeability where a creditor is seeking to have a single debt excepted from discharge, an objection to discharge could result in your entire discharge being denied or revoked.

A fraudulent transfer is where property is transferred prior to a bankruptcy being filed in a manner suggesting that it may have been done to keep property out of the hands of creditors or the bankruptcy trustee. The look-back period is either 2 or 4 years, depending on the circumstances of the transfer and your financial situation at the time of the transfer.

A preferential transfer or payment is where a creditor is paid prior to a bankruptcy case being filed. Depending on the amount and nature of the debt, the trustee may be able to recover that payment or property from the creditor.

Appeals are when a party seeks to have a higher court make a determination of whether the bankruptcy judge’s decision in a case was proper. These cases can make their way up to the district court, bankruptcy appellate panel, circuit court, or United States Supreme Court.