Robert Collazo: How Do I Know If I Qualify For Chapter 7?

On the off chance that you are trying to get rid of your debt, you may not realize where to turn. The first thing you should do is call a Chapter 7 Lawyer who can give you a free consultation.

If you have taken a stab at all that you can consider to recover financially monetarily, yet nothing has worked. Have you considered the kinds of insolvencies that may enable you to escape obligation and in a good place again? Your loan bosses are calling each day, and you abhor checking the letter drop because of a paranoid fear of accepting notification of an obligation gathering claim. Have you considered the sorts of liquidations that may stop loan boss provocation and delinquent payment accumulations? You have heard that bankruptcy may help, yet you don’t know of the sorts of bankruptcy accessible for you. Do you fit the bill to record Chapter 7? Would it be a good idea for you to document Chapter 13? What sorts of insolvencies would you be able to record? The different kinds of liquidations accessible to people depend on the capabilities for every chapter of bankruptcy. The Bankruptcy Code presents the capabilities for every chapter of bankruptcy. People may record under the accompanying kinds of insolvencies:

Chapter 7 — Liquidation Bankruptcy¹
Chapter 13 — Repayment Plan²
Chapter 11 — Large Reorganization
Chapter 12 — Family Farmers
Chapter 15 — Used In Foreign Cases

1-2 The two most basic kinds of bankruptcy for people in Utah are Chapter 7 and Chapter 13.

One of the kinds of liquidations that you should seriously
think about documenting is a Chapter 13 case. A Chapter 13 case is a reimbursement
plan. You should pay in any event a part of the sum you owe to unbound loan
bosses to a Chapter 13 trustee. These sorts of liquidations can enable an
account holder to keep their home and vehicle in the event that they are behind
on the credit installments. Be that as it may, these sorts of insolvencies are
considerably more hard to document contrasted with different kinds of
liquidations. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy case is a liquidation bankruptcy case. A
Chapter 7 trustee is named by the court to regulate the case. On the off chance
that the bankruptcy trustee recognizes resources that have non-absolved value,
these benefits might be sold by the Chapter 7 trustee to pay debts without
collateral. Most Chapter 7 cases are no-benefit cases. In a Chapter 7 no-advantage
case, the account holder keeps all his or her property. These sorts of
insolvencies are considerably more typical than Chapter 7 cases that are viewed
as resource cases. Hence, most indebted individuals document Chapter 7 and
don’t lose any property, however they dispose of thousands of dollars in
uncollateralized debts.

On the off chance that you are attempting to reimburse your
obligations, a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case can give you opportunity from those
obligations. Seeking financial protection help enables you to dispose of the
obligations you can’t pay so you can modify your accounts. You keep your
property with the goal that you can push ahead realizing you have what you have
to accommodate yourself and your family. A Chapter 7 case stops bank badgering
and obligation accumulation. It doesn’t make a difference why you need
bankruptcy help. The bankruptcy court does not condemn indebted individuals
when they document any of the sorts of liquidations accessible under the law.
Some normal reasons individuals seek financial protection help incorporate
joblessness, separate, diminished pay, business disappointment, doctor’s visit
expenses, unplanned damage, and loss of a relative. You have a similar
appropriate to declare financial insolvency help as some other individual. On
the off chance that you have been experiencing pressure related medical issues,
declaring financial insolvency alleviation can diminish the pressure. It is
anything but difficult to check whether you qualify. Chapter 7 bankruptcy gives
careful alleviation from obligation by clearing out most uncollateralized debt
and enabling the account holder to have a new beginning. To keep customers from
mishandling the framework, be that as it may, Congress has given qualification
prerequisites to documenting a Chapter 7 case. Here are the primary necessities
to meet all requirements for Chapter 7 bankruptcy help. On the off chance that
you documented a Chapter 7 request and got a release previously, you should
hold up eight years from the recording date of the past bankruptcy before
documenting another.

On the off chance that you documented a past Chapter 7 case
yet did not finish the case and did not get a release, you may record another
Chapter 7 whenever, gave the court in the past case did not banish you from
recording again and you generally meets all requirements for Chapter 7. In the
event that you recently documented and got a release in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy
case, you should hold up six years from the date that Chapter 13 was recorded
before petitioning for Chapter 7. In the event that you didn’t finish or get a
release in the past Chapter 13 case, you can document a Chapter 7 case whenever
accepting you generally qualified for Chapter 7.

Before you document for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you should
finish a prebankruptcy credit advising course led by an affirmed organization.
You should finish this course inside a half year before the date you seek
financial protection. When the directing is finished, you will get an
endorsement that you should document with the court.

With the establishment of the Bankruptcy Abuse and Consumer
Protection Act of 2005 (“BAPCA”), bankruptcy account holders are
presently required to pass a “signifies test” so as to meet all
requirements for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Peruse on to become familiar with
whether you fit the bill to petition for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. So as to finish
the methods test, you should have next to zero discretionary cashflow. To
decide if you fit the bill for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the methods test looks at
your normal month to month salary for the half year time frame going before
your bankruptcy against the middle pay of a comparative family unit in your
state. On the off chance that your pay is beneath the middle, you consequently
qualify. While the middle pay figures change from state to express (my very own
area in Utah , right now has a middle salary limit of $41,065 for a
family unit of one). As a rule, individuals who are having money related
challenges are making almost no salary so the methods test does not represent
an issue. Be that as it may, what occurs if your pay is over your state’s
middle? Numerous indebted individuals feel that such a situation speaks to the
endgame for them, that it is extremely unlikely they can record a Chapter 7
bankruptcy with their pay being so high. This isn’t really valid. On the off
chance that your salary is above middle, you should finish the whole methods
test structure as opposed to qualifying basically dependent on your pay. The
methods test is basically an adjusting stage where your costs are weighed
against your pay. In any case, remember that you can just utilize your genuine
costs for specific things. For some costs, the methods test just enables you to
deduct the national or neighborhood standard living recompense.

On the off chance that deducting every single suitable cost
from your pay results in practically zero extra cash, you can petition for
Chapter 7 bankruptcy. On the off chance that your costs are not exactly your
net gain, you likely can’t record a Chapter 7 (the “assumption of
maltreatment” emerges).

While this may appear to be basic enough to decide, endure
as a top priority that the “esteem” of a given cost relies upon
various confused recipes. Therefore, it is critical to talk with an
accomplished bankruptcy lawyer before going in any direction. The Chapter 7
Means Test decides whether your normal month to month pay is above or beneath
the middle salary for a group of your size in Utah.

At the point when Congress changed the bankruptcy laws in
2005, salary prerequisites were added to counteract bankruptcy misuse. You can
document under Chapter 7, yet on the off chance that your pay surpasses a
specific sum in Utah, you are not qualified for a bankruptcy release. You ought
not just consider in case you’re qualified for recording in Utah yet
additionally whether you ought to in any case. Numerous law offices and
different organizations started utilizing a Chapter 7 Means Test number
cruncher to play out a fast investigation of an individual’s salary. In the
event that the individual breezes through the test, the person can document a
Chapter 7. You can likewise utilize the graph beneath to check whether you
breeze through the methods test for Utah. Utah Median Income Standards for
Means Test for Cases Filed On or After May 1, 2019:

1 family unit member $5,211.25 (monthly amount) $62,535.00
(annually amount)
2 family unit member $5,689.08
$68,269.00
3 family unit member $6,548.42 $78,581.00
4 family unit member $7,402.92 $88,835.00
5 family unit member $8,152.92 $97,835.00
6 family unit member $8,902.92 $106,835.00
7 family unit member $9,652.92 $115,835.00
8 family unit member $10,402.92 $124,835.00
9 family unit member $11,152.92 $133,835.00
10 family unit member $11,902.92 $142,835.00

A bankruptcy release is the objective of documenting a
bankruptcy case. Your release is the thing that takes out your legitimate
commitment to reimburse the obligation. A lender can’t gather any obligation
that is released in your bankruptcy case. Hence, it is significant that you
utilize a Chapter 7 Means Test number cruncher that gives the right figures.
You need to record a Chapter 7 if conceivable in light of the fact that you can
be sans obligation inside four to a half year subsequent to documenting. The
procedure starts with a Chapter 7 Means Test number cruncher that helps people
in Utah.

The Bankruptcy Court gives the structures to the Means Test on its site. Notwithstanding the structures, the court gives guidelines on the best way to finish the structures. Despite the fact that you can utilize a Chapter 7 Means Test mini-computer, you should finish the Means Test that the court utilizes for Chapter 7 cases. Notwithstanding finishing the structure, you should likewise submit duplicates of your compensation advices for a half year. Pay advices are your compensation stubs or duplicates of other proof of your pay. The compensation advices must demonstrate your gross pay, all findings, and net gain for each payroll interval. The compensation advices are found the middle value of more than a half year to land at your normal month to month salary.

Numerous people finish the Means Test on the main area. In the event that you have to finish the second area, you need data about your month to month costs. You need to be cautious when finishing your month to month costs. You can just utilize the costs permitted by law. Moreover, a few costs are constrained. You can get to a rundown of the costs and current cutoff points on the site for the United States Trustee. The cutoff pay for documenting Chapter 7 is the middle sum a family your size makes in your state. This number will change every once in a while, yet as of September 2017, Utah’s middle pay for a solitary individual was $56,638. For a two-man family, it was $62,903, and for a group of three it went up to $71,047.

In the event that the sum you acquired in the course of recent months is unreasonably high for you to be qualified for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Utah, don’t stress – you can in any case document Chapter 13. (Sometimes, you may in any case be qualified for Chapter 7, however that should be surveyed with your attorney on a case-by-case premise.) Honestly, Chapter 13 can be a considerably more attractive choice at any rate, and regardless of whether you do fit the bill for Chapter 7 you may go this course. This is on the grounds that you hazard losing pivotal resources, for example, your home and vehicle with a Chapter 7, yet with a Chapter 13 you get the opportunity to keep basically all that you as of now have with no danger of seizure. Because of the 2005 bankruptcy law changes, the obligation you really need to pay is only a small amount of the sum you right now owe. This means, through the union program set forth by Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you will pay less both on a month to month premise and over the long haul. What’s more, recollect, regardless of the regularly scheduled installment you set up, it is continually going to be not exactly having your wages garnished.