No! If you are meeting with an asset protection attorney, and he is advising you to transfer various assets and properties into an llc, or into some kind of trust, then you’re probably not a good candidate for bankruptcy anyways. You need a different kind of lawyer for a different kind of case. In bankruptcy, I can protect various assets under state exemptions that exempt (protect) your belongings. For instance, under Utah law, we can protect $3,000 of the equity in your car from creditors, 100% of your food storage, and $45,100 of your home’s equity under the Utah Homestead Exemption. But, a ..read more

No. Canada is not governed by the U.S. Constitution. (They’re actually a separate country). A U.S. bankruptcy affects U.S. debts. That being said, there are a few needlessly academic explanations that I need to give. The U.S. Bankruptcy Code is limited to states/territories/provinces/(maybe tribal reservations) who are part of the United States of America. For example: if you file bankruptcy in Utah, it will discharge your payday loan you took out in Florida last year. However, you can now take out online payday loans in Canada which are then deposited directly into your bank account. You can ..read more

You lose it, unless you spend it first. If you look below, there is a fairly comprehensive list showing how you can spend those refund monies. (No, you can’t save it. No, it’s not protected government aid money to you. You must dispose of it before filing bankruptcy!!!). Each year, I update this post. Last year, we had pandemic tax refund monies that changed the calculation. This is not the case in 2023. Here is last year’s post: What happens to my 2021 tax refund if I file bankruptcy in 2022? Some states will give you an exemption to protect your tax refund monies. Utah is not one of them ..read more

No. Bankruptcy discharges your financial obligations to creditors for debts such as medical bills and credit cards. It does not negatively impact your ability to receive government assistance or public assistance. WIC (for those of you who don’t know), stands for “Women, Infants, and Children” and is The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides Federal grants to States for supplemental foods, health care referrals, and nutrition education for low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and non-breastfeeding postpartum women, and to infants and children u ..read more

Hopefully, it won’t affect your spouse at all. Your bankruptcy case is filed under your name and your social security number and only affects your credit. However, there are a lot of caveats to this. That’s why you really, really need to talk to an attorney and disclose everything before you decide whether or not to file. Income — Even though you’re the only one filing bankruptcy, we still need to look at household income. Your spouse’s income may push you over the brink of a simple chapter 7 case into a more complicated chapter 13. And yes, you will have to provide at least a couple of your ..read more

AFTER!!! I have a current client who is getting ready to file. He has 2 financed vehicles: a 20 year old BMW and an 8 year old Toyota Tacoma. One of them is a lemon and has required transmission repair 3 times in the past year. The lemon is currently taking up one of his 2 assigned spots at his apartment, and he wants it gone now. However, we won’t be filing bankruptcy for another week or so. What surprised me about the scenario is that his Toyota is the lemon. Who would’ve thought that the boring, dependable Toyota truck would be the problem here? That BMW probably looks fantastic, but when ..read more

It depends. You can either: pay the filing fee and file a motion to vacate the dismissal, or file a new case and pay the full filing fee up front. So when I file a case, I can file an Application to Pay Filing Fees in Installments with the bankruptcy court.  This allows you to pay the $338 (for a Chapter 7) or the $313 (for a Chapter 13) with the court over two or three installments AFTER file the bankruptcy case. The biggest problem occurs when you forget to make one of the payments.  When you miss a payment, the case is automatically dismissed, and this administrative dismissal ..read more

Pretty darn fast. Honestly, I can prepare and file an emergency case the same day you call. But, and this is a big BUT, there are some things you need to do first. A full bankruptcy petition is a huge legal document. It is usually 65-85 pages long, not counting the copies of 6 months of your paystubs and your last 2 years of tax returns. Thankfully, you don’t have to file a full petition to stop a garnishment. You can file a skeleton, or skeletal petition, which is literally a bare-bones petition. What a skeletal petition needs: your name/social/address your online bk class certificate (this ..read more

Oh yes he is! And even worse, the bankruptcy trustee can take any money you have in hand or on deposit on the day we file. On the day we file bankruptcy, you don’t want to have much in the way of liquid assets (like cash or money on deposit on a bank account). In theory, the trustee can take the money you had on the day you filed and use it to pay creditors. This means Venmo as well! For instance, let’s say you file a chapter 7 bankruptcy today and have $1,500 in your bank account on the date of filing. Tomorrow, you spend that $1,500 on your monthly rent. One month later, when you meet with ..read more

Short answer: you can generally keep the car or home, so long as you keep paying on the loan Long answer: It’s complicated. When you file bankruptcy, it generally discharges, or wipes out, almost all of your debt. However, you can pick and choose which secured debts you’d like to keep. For example, if you want to keep your home mortgage or your car loan, you check a box that says, “reaffirm.” This lets the bank know that you want to sign an agreement AFTER filing the bankruptcy, where you promise to keep making the same payments, balance, schedule, etc. I’ve written a few blog topics on reaff ..read more