By Kitty J. Lin, Attorney at Law
In a bad economy, it is not surprising to see an increase in bankruptcy filings. However, once your debts are discharged in your bankruptcy petition, the law limits your ability to file another bankruptcy petition for a certain number of years. This law was made to prevent bankruptcy fraud and abuse. If anyone could discharge debt at any time banks would not want to lend money and would have severed consequences for economy, students and almost everyone. How would anyone ever buy a home or start a business? The Bankruptcy Code provides rules for when another bankruptcy can filed and under what chapter of the Bankruptcy Code.
Chapter 7 to Chapter 7
If you have previously filed a Chapter 7 or 11 bankruptcy petition and received a discharge, under §727(8) of the Bankruptcy Code, you cannot receive another discharge in another Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition until at least 8 years after the date you filed your first Chapter 7 petition.
Chapter 7 to Chapter 13
If you have previously filed a Chapter 7, 11, or 12, §1328(f)(1) indicates that you will need to wait at least 4 years from the date to file a Chapter 13 petition.
Chapter 13 to Chapter 7
Under §727(9), you cannot receive a Chapter 7 discharge if you have previously filed a Chapter 12 or 13 petition within 6 years before the date of filing the Chapter 7 petition. However, the exception to this rule is that you can receive a discharge in the Chapter 7 petition if your previous Chapter 13 petition paid at least 100% of the allowed unsecured claims or 70% of the allowed unsecured claims and the plan was proposed by the debtor in good faith and was the debtor’s best efforts.
Chapter 13 to Chapter 13
§1328(f)(2) provides that if you received a discharge in a previous Chapter 13 petition, you cannot receive a discharge in another Chapter 13 petition filed in the 2 year period preceding the date of the discharge order in the previous Chapter 13 petition.
Thus, in summary, if you want to file a Chapter 7 petition, and you wish to file another Chapter 7 petition, you have to wait 8 years from the date you filed the first Chapter 7 petition before you will be eligible for a discharge. If you want to file a Chapter 7 petition and you have previously filed a Chapter 13 petition, you have to wait for 6 years. If you had previously filed a Chapter 7 petition and you wish to file a Chapter 13 petition, you have to wait for 4 years. Finally, if you filed a previous Chapter 13 petition, you cannot file another Chapter 13 petition in the 2 year period prior to the discharge order of the previous Chapter 13 petition.
Now that you know how long you have to wait before you can file another bankruptcy petition, what happens if you cannot wait for the required 8,6,4, or 2 years? Can you still file for bankruptcy? The answer to this question is “Yes.” However, the catch is that although you can file for bankruptcy, you do not receive a discharge. This means that you will still be obligated to pay for the debts after your bankruptcy case is completed. Many people may ask, if I don’t receive a discharge of all my debt, why should I file for bankruptcy? There are a lot of reasons why people may file for bankruptcy protection: to stop a foreclosure sale on their home, to create a payment plan to pay off their non-dischargeable tax debt, to stop a levy of their bank accounts and many others reasons.
Whatever your reasons may be, you may wish to seek the services of a bankruptcy lawyer or an bankruptcy lawyertoday. You can contact us today at 877-9NEW-LIFE or 877-963-9543 to schedule a FREE consultation with an experienced attorney today. You may also go online to www.WestCoastBK.com for more information.