{"id":329,"date":"2011-09-05T05:17:29","date_gmt":"2011-09-05T05:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/?p=329"},"modified":"2012-09-12T06:45:08","modified_gmt":"2012-09-12T06:45:08","slug":"should-i-file-bankruptcy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/should-i-file-bankruptcy\/","title":{"rendered":"Should I File Bankruptcy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ryan C. Wood<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a common question, \u201cShould I file bankruptcy?\u201d\u00a0 Well, that depends upon many factors and only the person who is actually filing for bankruptcy protection can answer that.\u00a0 Bankruptcy is designed to provide an individual or business filing for bankruptcy relief from their creditors and discharge their eligible debts.\u00a0 After the discharge is entered by the court the individual or business can continue without the burdens of the discharged debts and lead a healthy productive life.\u00a0 Bankruptcy is designed to provide a fresh start.<\/p>\n

So how is the question whether to actually file bankruptcy answered?\u00a0 Each individual or business needs to weigh the positives and negatives of filing bankruptcy and then make the best financial decision.\u00a0 There are no easy answers when debts become so much of a burden that bankruptcy help is sought.<\/p>\n

During one of our free consultations we will discuss your income, expenses and assets to determine what is possible.\u00a0 Do you qualify to file a chapter 7 bankruptcy and receive a complete discharge of your eligible debts, or is a chapter 13 necessary to reorganize your debts.\u00a0 Not everyone will qualify to have all of their eligible unsecured debts discharged in a chapter 7 bankruptcy.\u00a0 Filing a chapter 13 case is not the end of the world though.\u00a0 Filing a chapter 13 reorganization could result in the discharge of most or all of eligible unsecured debts, depending upon the circumstances, just like in a chapter 7.\u00a0 Chapter 13 requires that the filer pay back what they can afford to pay back, usually over three to five years.\u00a0 The monthly chapter 13 plan of reorganization payment could be very little, or quite a bit depending upon your income, expenses and assets.<\/p>\n

In 2005 the Bankruptcy Code was modified to include a test to determine whether a filer has any disposable income to pay their unsecured debts with after normal living expenses.\u00a0 This is probably the largest area of confusion.\u00a0 Just because a bankruptcy filer spends $1,000 a month on food does not mean that expense will be allowed.\u00a0 If you have family of 6 or more people though, spending $1,000 a month may be very reasonable though.\u00a0 It all depends upon the circumstances.\u00a0 Or an expense for yoga lessons costing $1,000 a month.\u00a0 Is that reasonable in light of having a mountain of credit card debt?\u00a0 Yoga lessons will most likely be deemed not reasonable and need to be stopped so that the person can afford to pay something to their creditors.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is that filing bankruptcy is a personal decision that must be made by the person or business filing for bankruptcy protection.\u00a0 How a person or business fits into the bankruptcy box depends upon income, expenses and assets, and there are all different.\u00a0 That is why it is important to seek the counsel of an experienced bankruptcy attorney.<\/p>\n

For more information about filing bankruptcy, contact one of our bankruptcy lawyers<\/a> or Redwood City bankruptcy lawyer<\/a> today and schedule a free consultation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a common question, \u201cShould I file bankruptcy?\u201d Well, that depends upon many factors and only the person who is actually filing for bankruptcy protection can answer that. Bankruptcy is designed provide an individual or business filing for bankruptcy relief from their creditors and discharge their eligible debts. After the discharge is entered by the court the individual or business can continue without the burdens of the discharged debt and lead a healthy productive life. Bankruptcy is designed to provide a fresh start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[27],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":727,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329\/revisions\/727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}