Do you Qualify for Chapter 7, or Qualify for Chapter 13?
What Qualifies You for a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy? and Who Would Be Ineligible?
MEANS TEST:
We Are the Preeminent Means Testing Law Firm ... what does that matter?
The means test is the linchpin to any successful bankruptcy, it makes all the difference.
There are different qualifiers for someone to be eligible to file for a Chapter 7. Congress created called the Means Test, which is a complicated income test. There are different levels of income, and depending on whether you have a household of one, two, three, four, or five, and the levels of income would initially determine whether you file a Chapter 7 or 13 bankruptcy.
The theory is that someone who made a significant income for their household size should be required to do a Chapter 13 and pay back some of their debt. The figures are adjusted regionally, so the amounts vary in different parts of the United States, which makes sense because it would be more expensive to live on the coasts than it would be in the Midwest.
Automatic Qualifiers: You might automatically qualify for chapter 7 because you are under the means. Other individuals are beyond the automatic qualifier but it does not necessarily mean they could not file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Non-Automatic Qualifiers: So if you are over on the means test it means that rather than doing a two-page means test, we prepare a 10-page means test. In this test, we enter all of your income and expenses, and the bottom line of the test determines whether you will be able to file for a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy.
Chapter 13 Means Testing: Assume we cannot work with your numbers to get you into a 7 and a 13 is the only option. It's not the end of the world and means-testing becomes very important.
- It determines if you will have to pay any money back to unsecured creditors.
- It determines what percentage if any, you have to pay back to unsecured creditors.
- If you do have to pay money back to unsecured creditors what percentage
WE ARE EXCEPTIONAL IN WORKING WITH THE MEANS TEST TO YOUR BEST ADVANTAGE
- Through the years we have taken over many bankruptcies that were restarted by other lawyers. In over 95% of them. We found gross errors in the means test that was costing the former attorney's client. Lots of money. Our clients are very happy to have the Means Test done correctly and to save a lot of money. Some individuals were in chapter 13 and had the attorney done the paperwork right that would have been in Chapter 7. We converted those individuals to a Chapter 7 and they were well pleased with Adams Law Group.
Assuming your income qualifies you to file a Chapter 7 - That is only step one in the 7 analysis.
- Step Two is to investigate if the Bankruptcy Trustee would sell any of your assets due to excess equity if you filed a Chapter 7..
- If this is the case then we prepare a chapter 13 for you where none of your assets are at risk.
Carefully analyzing your assets for their equity value is absolutely essential whether you are a Chapter 7 or a chapter 13 bankruptcy. If there is too much equity, beyond the exemptions we inform you that it is your best option to file chapter 13 bankruptcy regardless of what the means test stated because this prevents the loss of assets.
Are you considering filing for bankruptcy? The experienced team at Adams Law Group in St. Peters can help. Contact us today to get started.
Preeminent Means Testing law firm