I Can Tell You if You Qualify for a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
Transcript:
Hi I'm Matt McArthur, bankruptcy attorney at Clear Counsel Law Group. Today I want to discuss whether or not a person can qualify for chapter seven bankruptcy.
There's a couple different requirements that we need to make sure that we are satisfying before we indeed say that you are eligible for a chapter seven discharge.
Do You Qualify: You May Need to Wait if You Filed Before
The first is if you've ever filed bankruptcy before, you do have to wait between filing a chapter seven bankruptcy.
If the bankruptcy was successfully discharged, you have to wait eight years between filing a new chapter seven case. In other words, if you've filed before chapter seven it was successful, wiped out the debt, you need to look back and see if within the last eight years your first case was filed.
The other more common issue that we run into is whether or not an individual qualifies for chapter seven bankruptcy based upon income requirements.
Do You Qualify: The Chapter 7 Means Test
In order to determine whether or not somebody files for chapter seven bankruptcy based upon income, we have to do something called the chapter seven means test. This determines whether or not you have the means on paper to payback your creditors.
There's different factors that go into determine whether or not an individual satisfies the chapter seven means test. It's primarily based upon an individual's income. We look at how much income a person has made during the last six months.
We also take a look at what their household size is and what their income is in comparison to the median household income in the state of Nevada for their household size.
An individual filing by themselves is going to have a low median income typically than an individual with four people in their household.
You can have, you can earn more money in a household of four than you can in a household of one and still be able to qualify for chapter seven bankruptcy.
This can be an extremely complicated analysis and in order to determine whether or not you qualify for sure based upon income limits, we need to do an income analysis.
We need to look at your last six months of pay stubs and we can give you a clear answer of whether or not you're going to qualify for chapter seven bankruptcy.
Please come in. Visit with me.
Our consultations are free here at Clear Counsel Law Group for bankruptcy.
I'd love to meet with you and discuss whether or not you qualify for chapter seven bankruptcy.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.