You sit back and think to yourself, ok if I summon the courage to do this, can my Chapter 7 Bankruptcy be denied? The answer is yes, but it is very rare. The vast majority of Chapter 7 Bankruptcies go through and debtors receive a discharge- i.e. their debts get wiped out, tax free, forever! Occasionally, Chapter 7 Bankruptcy filings can go awry.

Filing Chapter 7 Bankruptcy is public information. There are numerous companies who purchase this public information to solicit you immediately after filing Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. Credit card companies are notorious for sending credit card solicitations to debtors immediately after filing. Why would they do this? Because, upon discharge, you are debt free, which means you will then have the ability to repay your debts to the new credit card. Crazy right? I know!

This is a common question we get. Do I have to disclose all my assets? Yes, when you file Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, you are required to sign the disclosures you make under penalty of perjury that all of the information contained in the disclosures are true, correct, and complete. In other words, you are required to disclose all your assets including your home and vehicles.

A Chapter 7 Bankruptcy is an asset based bankruptcy. Debtors do not make payments back to their creditors. Instead, debts get wiped out or discharged to the extent there are no non-exempt assets to liquidate and disburse to creditors. The vast majority of Chapter 7 Bankruptcies are what we call no-asset bankruptcies. That is, debtor have no non-exempt (unprotected) assets they would lose to a Chapter 7 trustee.

You don’t make payments back to your creditors in a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. This is the opposite of a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy where you make regular monthly payments back to your creditors through a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy trustee.

You don’t make payments back to your creditors in a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. This is the opposite of a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy where you make regular monthly payments back to your creditors through a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy trustee.

You have heard this before right? A Chapter 7 Bankruptcy is sometimes referred to as a “Fresh Start” bankruptcy? But what does this mean? It means this- it means that in a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, you do not make payments back to your creditors. At the end of about a 4 month process your liability on your debts is wiped out (discharged), forever, tax free! Now, that sure seems like a “Fresh Start” to me, how about you?

Not sure why, but when I think of the word “discharged” I think you have been discharged from duty in the military sense. Obviously, that is not what discharge means in the Chapter 7 Bankruptcy sense. When we say you have been “discharged” in the Chapter 7 Bankruptcy sense, we are referring to what happens with respect your personal liability on your debts. A discharge is granted under Section 727 of the Bankruptcy Code.

The language of bankruptcy attorneys can seem like Greek to the non-attorney. What does it mean for a Chapter 7 trustee to “liquidate” assets? When would the trustee do such a thing anyway? When we say, a Chapter 7 trustee will “liquidate” assets, we mean the Chapter 7 trustee will sell the assets and reduce the physical assets to money. You can’t take physical assets and distribute those assets to creditors. Instead, you sell the assets, reduce the assets to money, and disburse those proceeds to creditors pro rata and based on a set of priorities.

So you are reading up on Chapter 7 Bankruptcies and you come across the term “no-asset case” and you wonder what that means. The vast majority of Chapter 7 cases filed in the United States are what we lawyers refer to as “no-asset cases”.

This is a great question to ask. Normally, debts that are forgiven are taxable income to you. For example, if you had 100k in debt and your creditors all said- forget about it and wiped it out that is fantastic, except, you now will have to pay taxes on the 100k. Why? Anytime an entity writes off a loss on their taxes it is income to someone else. Make sense?  Now, let’s be clear, paying taxes on 100k is better than paying 100k. If your tax bill is 35k you just saved 65k.

So you decided to file bankruptcy, and get your life back. You have resolved yourself to the fact that of all the options available to you, filing for bankruptcy, getting a fresh start, makes the most sense. I am really proud of you and honor your courage and anxiety! There is a lot of fear about filing bankruptcy. You wonder what people will think of you, what will they ask you and if you have to go to court?

I am a proponent of erring on the side of filing bankruptcy. Why? Because hitting the reset button is good for you mentally and physically. Who among us wants to live with overwhelming debt that results in stress and worry that sometimes doesn’t end for years? Not me. I have high anxiety. I don’t necessarily mind problems, but I cannot have no solutions. I also don’t want solutions that delay getting relief. For, me delayed relief from a problem, is no relief.

If you live and work around Woodbury, Minnesota, and you are contemplating filing a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, there are some things you should know. Sometimes things are not how they appear at first sight. Have you ever had the experience of thinking in your mind something was going to be really scary and then you did it, and found out it wasn’t as scary as you thought. Heck- you might have even enjoyed yourself a little!?

I am starting to see a disturbing trend occur in the legal field. Some law firms seem to think they can hire non lawyers to do lawyer’s jobs. Thing is- we lawyers are licensed to give legal advice to clients, non-lawyers are not.

The idea of bankruptcy for most is a scary proposition. But once you find out how it works, it softens the blow. For me, bankruptcy is a business tool, as Trump would say, to solve a business problem. That is, bankruptcy is a tool, to solve an overwhelming debt problem. Okay, well how does it solve the overwhelming debt problem?