An individual same-sex married person who files bankruptcy faces a choice whether to include spousal income for purposes of determining how much unsecured creditors could receive from the bankruptcy case. This choice is not available to the heterosexual married debtor due to an intended consequence of Congressional legislation that requires the heterosexual married debtor include [...]
Means Testing
If you are an “above-median income” debtor, you may wonder if you can still file Chapter 7. The answer to this question is “yes,” but your case will be more complicated. Although the phrase “means test” suggests a single calculation, in fact, means testing involves several calculations – it would be more accurate to describe [...]
If you’re filing for bankruptcy, do you still have to pay back creditors? Depending on how your local court looks at it, that old car may save you $200 a month. When you file for bankruptcy, you’ve got to pay unsecured creditors an amount equal to the projected disposable income available to you during a [...]
Yesterday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North and South Carolina) affirmed the bankruptcy court’s decision to dismiss the debtors’ Chapter 7 case based on the totality of the circumstances under 11 U.S.C. § 707(b). The court noted that the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act [...]
A federal appeals court has added its voice to the growing number of cases which hold that a debtor who converts a chapter 13 case to chapter 7 is still subject to section 707(b)’s income eligibilty standards for filing chapter 7. Left unanswered, however, is the question of what time period must used for the means test’s [...]
The shocking realization is that your spouse might have to contribute to your Means Test – required payments even if you file alone. You aren’t happy about this at all. ”But they’re my debts. Why should my husband or wife have to contribute?” Because that’s the law. Your income includes all regular contributions to the [...]
