We assist with Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 Bankruptcies at Hildebrand Law. 

Chapter 7 Bankruptcies are liquidation bankruptcies. They allow the Trustee to sell any non-exempt property in order to pay the creditors. In these cases, a discharge of your debts may be granted three months after filing for bankruptcy.  There is no required payment plan to the trustee and discharge is easier to obtain.

Contrary to what many people believe, most of the time, you can keep your residential property and your vehicles. To keep your home, the equity must less than the exemption amount. In order to keep these secured properties, you will need to enter into an agreement with the creditor in which you agree to continue making the payments and the creditor agrees to allow you to keep the secured property. This is called a reaffirmation agreement. 

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Chapter 13 Bankruptcies are "wage earner's" bankruptcies. The advantages of filing a Chapter 13 bankruptcy is that is allows you to keep your home if it is in foreclosure or you have too much equity in it to file a Chapter 7. It works as a debt consolidation program. You will be required to make a monthly payment to the Chapter 13 Trustee who will then make the payments to your creditors. If you are behind on your mortgage payments, you can spread the past due amounts over the life of the plan rather than having to pay the full amount immediately.

The disadvantage is that the debtor must commit to a payment plan for three to five years, and if the payments are not maintained, the case may be dismissed, allowing creditors to restart the collection process. 

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Most debts can be discharged in a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. However, certain debts are generally not dischargeable such as child support or alimony, student loans, tax debts, and other  government debts.  

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