filing chapter 13

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The new bankruptcy law has provisions that make it harder for the people in debt to file bankruptcy.

In addition to the new credit counseling requirement for all filers and the means test for chapter 7, there are other changes in the bankruptcy laws.

You are required to do credit counseling within six months of filing your bankruptcy petition.

There are new residency requirements. Under the old bankruptcy law, the amount of equity in your house protected from creditors was set by the state where you filed. Under the new bankruptcy law, if you live in a state for less than two years and it has a better exemption than where you lived previously, you can't use the more favorable exemption. If you bought your house less than 40 months (that's three and a quarter years) before filing bankruptcy, or violated securities laws, or have been found guilty of certain criminal conduct, you can only exempt up to $125,000 regardless of a state's exemption.

If any of the requirements of the new law confuse you and you decide you need a bankruptcy lawyer, it's going to cost you more. It will be more difficult to find a lawyer willing to handle your bankruptcy because of the liability and the time and effort it takes to verify all your information.

If you do find a lawyer willing to file, it will cost you a lot more.

It is clear from the changes mentioned here that it's going to be more difficult and costlier to file bankruptcy no matter what chapter you use to file. There may eventually be some modifications in the law if it becomes evident it is causing more problems than it solves.

If you are allowed to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy, there are changes in how your personal property is valued. Under the old law, you could value your personal property at basically 'garage sale' prices. Since you have to come up with a retail price and your lawyer has to certify it's correct, you just about have to have an appraiser to the valuation. A car is easier because you can just look up the blue book price. Otherwise you must use the exemptions of the state where you used to live. That reason behind that was to force people who could repay all or part of their debts to do so instead of using bankruptcy chapter 7 which wiped away most debts.

Chapter 13 bankruptcy required that you devote all your disposable income to repaying debts. Under the old rules, you subtracted your actual expenses from your monthly income to arrive at your disposable income. Then, instead of subtracting your actual expenses, you use allowed expense amounts set by the IRS. The amount of 'disposable income' left may be more than what you have to spare every month. That means more chapter 13 bankruptcy plans will fail.

There are a lot of changes to the bankruptcy laws. Even if the lawyer will not take you on as a client to file bankruptcy, they may be willing to give you legal advice.



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