Dismissal of Bankruptcy Case

This is Roger Ghai of the law offices of Roger Ghai and I’ve been practicing bankruptcy law for approximately 30 years.
Sometimes I receive questions from people about whether they can file the bankruptcy case and then dismiss it later on and that’s a very difficult and a thorny issue from a legal perspective. Because let’s say for example, that you file a chapter seven bankruptcy case and then you decide later on that you really don’t want to pursue it or you filed a chapter 13 bankruptcy case, and you decide that you don’t really want to pursue it, the general rule is, is that if you file a chapter seven bankruptcy case, that you don’t have an absolute right to just voluntarily go into court and tell the judge that you don’t want to pursue it anymore. You have to file a special motion in court and then the judge has to make a determination as to whether you can actually dismiss your bankruptcy case.
So bankruptcy is not a matter that you should take on lightly. Also there was one strategy years ago, but it’s no longer effective, of people filing a chapter seven bankruptcy case and then later deciding they didn’t want to file and dismissing the case and then converting it to, converting the chapter seven to a chapter 13 case, and then voluntarily dismissing that case. That option is no longer available. So you can’t do that either.
So if you file a chapter seven bankruptcy case, you should really have and proceed with the full intention of following through with the case, or just making the choice not to file.
Now with regard to a chapter 13 bankruptcy case, if you file a chapter 13 bankruptcy case and decide later on that you really don’t want to pursue it, then yes, you have a right to voluntarily dismiss that case.
If you have questions about whether you should file a bankruptcy case or you’re in a bankruptcy case right now and have questions about whether you should dismiss or can legally dismiss it, please feel free to call me at (770) 792-1000.