Along with medical bills and excessive credit card debt, one of the leading causes of bankruptcy filings is divorce. If a family is barely getting by when it is intact, adding a divorce or separation is sure to cause a worse financial hardship, which might only be able to be remedied through a bankruptcy [...]

If you are in the Western District of Missouri, Kansas City Division, there are 10 Chapter 7 Trustees. You can never choose the trustee for your case, they are assigned by the Court at the time of filing. So far we have introduced you to Mr. David C. Stover, Ms. Krigel. [...]

Most bankruptcies start with the filing of a voluntary petition. That starts the automatic stay, stops creditor harassment and commences the case. Either concurrently or shortly thereafter the rest of the required documents must be filed. They consist of schedules of assets and debts, a statement of financial affairs and several other [...]

The U.S. Trustee has suspended auditing debtors filing bankruptcy for now. Congress did not fund the audits in the 2008 appropriation. Alternate funding is being sought and audits will resume when funding is found, the Executive Office of the U.S. Trustee reports.
Debtor advocates testified before Congress October 2, 2007, that the audits have [...]

I recently visited a bankruptcy law blog which was supposedly written by an attorney offering advice on debts in bankruptcy. Why do I say, “supposedly?”. The writer discussed the importance of knowing what kind of debt you might have: secured vs. unsecured.
That was a good point, but then, the writer [...]

I make about $46,000 a year in gross annual income and I believe I qualify for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, but what happens if I have $80,000 in credit card debt? Is that just erased under Chapter 7, assuming I qualify for Chapter 7? Does the bank try to get back some of that debt if [...]

Lawsuits filed against a person intending to file bankruptcy can pose a special problem when the bankruptcy case cannot yet be filed due to timing considerations. For most persons, this is not an issue; when they start getting sued they simply file their bankruptcy case and that is normally the end of the problem. [...]

How do I figure out if the trustee has received my payment? You can go to 13 Data Center and log in to view your case. You will be able to see what payments have been received by the trustee. You can also look at the claims that have been filed in [...]

In most bankruptcy cases, your home mortgage is not affected, and if you want to keep your home, you have to continue the payments. However, there is an important exception to this rule which applies in chapter 13 cases.
If your home is worth less than what you owe on your mortgages, to the point [...]

In Part One and Part Two, we looked at the importance of budgeting in Chapter 13s, and the use of historical data to project future expenses. But what if your historical expenses don’t really help you project future expenses?
Every once in a while, I meet someone who has been through such extreme financial hardship that [...]