Hi, I’m Roger Ghai, and I was going to discuss today with you whether you should delay or wait to file your bankruptcy case. There are advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages, of course, if you file a bankruptcy case, when the creditor reports it to the credit bureau the balance is going to show ero. It’s going to be showing as being included in the bankruptcy. Of course, a disadvantage might be that the bankruptcy filing itself shows on your credit report for a total of 10 years.
The advantage of filing a bankruptcy believe it or not, is stress reduction. In other words, once you file that case, the creditors cannot call you threaten you see you garnish your harass you. Although it is a little stressful to be in that situation as far as filing bankruptcy, and going through that process, that stress is a lot shorter of a time period versus trying to pay your creditors over the course of several years listening to the threatening calls, the harassing calls, receiving the threatening letters.
An advantage of filing from bankruptcy now is that really sets you up for the future. If you eliminate your debt now, you can begin planning for college, or you can go ahead and start planning financially for your retirement. Another consideration if you’re thinking about filing bankruptcy, is that you if you have a life change such as getting married, or in fact, if you go ahead and you get a job that’s paying a lot more money, you may not qualify for chapter seven.
If you wait too long, you maybe just making too much money to file for chapter seven and any extra income that you’re getting, either from your because you got married, or because you’ve gotten a raise at your job is just going to be used to pay past that to your own creditors. Sometimes the question that I get is, “Whether I should file bankruptcy first, or whether I should file my divorce first?”
It depends on your particular circumstances. A lot of times, filing the bankruptcy first can actually simplify matters because if you have a lot of unsecured debt that you’re both jointly liable on that’s wiped out in the bankruptcy. Then, you don’t have to fight with your spouse in the divorce as to who pays what. Sometimes, it’s just not possible to file a joint bankruptcy before you file for divorce.
In fact, your household income that is your combined income with your income and your spouse’s income simply put maybe just too high to qualify for chapter seven. Therefore, a lot of times it may be better to just file for divorce first, and then so long as your income meets the chapter seven requirements. Then, you can file for chapter seven bankruptcy and discharge your debts. A final note to those of you filing for divorce first and then bankruptcy later.
Usually, folks can go ahead and qualify for filing for chapter seven after divorce. Sometimes, it’s not always possible because your income might be too much. Even if the income is too much your bankruptcy payment in the chapter 13 case is going to be a lot cheaper than if you filed the bankruptcy case when you are married. Please call me at 770-792-1000
Bankruptcy FAQ:
Frequently Asked Questions: Table of Contents Who is permitted to file and maintain a chapter 7 case? Who should not file a Chapter 7 case? Is there anything that a person must do
The injunction is formally issued pursuant to 11 U.S.C. 362(a), commonly referred to as the Automatic Stay provision of the bankruptcy code, and it prohibits creditors from making further attempts to
In a recent case, In re Beck Mrs. Beck filed for bankruptcy protection but her husband did not. Together they owned a property which was valued at about $530,000.00. The property had actually been in
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