Letter to "Ask Leon" I have acquired approx 25,000 in credit card debt. Some prior to getting married and some after. We were married 3 years ago. Can I file bankruptcy in my name only without including my husband and debts in his name? Leon Says... This is a popular question that many people ask. [...]

B) Unsecured Creditors Filing proof of claim. It is extremely important for an unsecured creditor to file a proof of claim. An unsecured creditor that neglects to file its proof of claim not only will not participate in the Chapter 13 payment process but if the debtor completes the plan and receives a discharge, the [...]

Lien protection . Secured creditors are protected by the value of their interest in the debtor’s collateral, and the plan must provide for payment of the secured portion of the creditor’s claim, plus interest on value of the secured claim during the duration of plan. Secured creditors in Chapter 13 cases are usually going to [...]

Basic discharge. When the debtor completes a Chapter 13 case, the discharge eliminates all of the remaining balances owed on all general unsecured debts without priority that were provided for in the Plan. Those unsecured debts will by then already have received payment based on what the debtor could reasonably afford, provided they are paid [...]

13 Plan-The Confirmation Process Feasability of plan . One of the key threshold issues for every debtor in proposing a Chapter 13 is to provide the court some convincing evidence or proof that the plan is “feasible” and that the plan is proposed in good faith. Feasibility and good faith are extremely important components of [...]

The Chapter 13 Plan Lets move on to the Chapter 13 Plan itself because this is really the fine work of the Chapter 13 case, its the road map that tells the court and the creditors where this case hopefully is going at least as proposed by the debtor. The bankruptcy code requires that every [...]

13 Example-Motor Vehicles Chapter 13 cram down . In the case of an automobile suppose the debtor possesses a car worth $5,000.00 but there is $10,000.00 owed against it. Lets also suppose the debtor is running two, three, four months behind on their automobile payments and the car is about to get repossessed. Again the [...]

Chapter 13 Can Cure A Default Stoping foreclosure. In the case of a real estate foreclosure, the debtor files the Chapter 13 case which imposes an immediate automatic stay and stops the foreclosure. This must be done before the foreclosure auction takes place and notice of the automatic stay needs to be given to the [...]

Why Chapter 13? Drawbacks of Chapter 7 . Chapter 7 provides a fairly wide range of debt relief for a prospective debtor but it does not do all things for all people. There are some debt problems that Chapter 7 just does not help. A Chapter 7 case will temporarily stay a foreclosure but the [...]

The Automatic Stay A big “Stop Sign” to the creditors. The automatic stay is probably the most important feature of Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, separate and apart from actually receiving a discharge of debts. The commencement of a bankruptcy case imposes an immediate automatic restraining order upon all creditors, regardless of the bankruptcy chapter that is [...]