Georgia Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Lawyers

One of the primary questions that our clients ask us is what assets are protected in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Georgia. There’s a term called exempt property. It’s a term that attorneys use that most people would never use in their ordinary language. Exempt assets are basically assets that the state of Georgia has determined that, no matter what happens, you can protect these assets from your creditors.

Georgia has established a particular bankruptcy statute that lines out those assets. For instance, you can protect from $1,500 of equity in your house. You can protect up to $5,000 of equity in an automobile, $2,000 equity if you cash your regular life insurance policy, $1,200 in tools of the trade, $1,200 in other assets that you might have. There’s a smattering of other type of protections.

One of the big protections is retirement plans. You can always protect unlimited amounts of monies in retirement plans that are tax-exempt, for instance, 401(k), your employee provided retirement plan. IRAs and other types of retirement plans are always fully protected. If you have any questions concerning what assets are protected and what assets are not protected, you can give our office a call. We can send you a complete itemization sheet exactly from the Georgia code.

As with all legal proceedings, one of the questions we hear often is, how much does it cost? A Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Georgia typically costs $1,500 plus the filing fee of $335. Sometimes the cost may be higher depending on the complexity of the case or sometimes it could be lower depending if it’s a very straightforward and simple case. If you have any questions concerning how much it costs to file a bankruptcy, please call our office. We’ll be more than happy to walk you through that.

One of the questions that a lot of clients ask us is how long a Chapter 7 bankruptcy will last in Georgia. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy is a relatively quick bankruptcy. Once you come in, put in your paperwork, and then file, you have a meeting of creditors within 30 days after the file. If everything goes like it is planned, there are no objections, and you do not have any dischargeability issues, which 99% of the clients, of course, would not have, you can be out of bankruptcy within three to four months. If you have any questions concerning that, just give us a call.

One of the initial questions that we always receive regarding bankruptcy is how to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Georgia. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy is similar to a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. They’re basically the forms that your attorney would have. You can come into the office and bring in all your information concerning debts, assets, wages, bank statements, income taxes. You sit down with an attorney, and you work through that, and put those into a schedule.

Those schedules are then filed with the bankruptcy court. Once those schedules are accepted by the bankruptcy court, then you have a meeting of creditors held within 30 days after the filing. After that, you will receive your discharge within three to four months afterwards. If you have any questions on how to file a bankruptcy, just give our office a call. We will be happy to help you.

One of the questions that we are constantly asked is, how do you choose the right attorney? I would suggest that you research and check on the credentials of the attorney. You want to make sure in Georgia that, if you’re choosing an attorney to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, that attorney has experience in Chapter 7 bankruptcies, Chapter 13 bankruptcies, and what we call consumer bankruptcies. You want to make sure that they know all the ins and out, that they know the trustee, that they know the judges, that they know the rules so that you’re not caught unprepared. If you have any questions, please give our office a call. We will gladly provide you whatever information you need concerning the filing of a Chapter 7.

One of the questions that we always want to know is how a bankruptcy in Georgia is going to help our clients. In a Chapter 7 situation, a Chapter 7 liquidates or eliminates all unsecured debt such as credit cards, such as personal bills, such as medical bills, delinquent rent, things like that. Now, if you’re going to keep your car, or keep your house, or keep your apartment, of course, you have to keep the current payments made. It doesn’t discharge any debts that are current after the filing of a bankruptcy.

Say, for instance, you were in an automobile wreck and you have a lot of medical bills. Those medical bills are now in collection. A Chapter 7 would discharge those medical bills many times. If you have any questions, please give our office a call. We’d be more than happy to help you.

We often get asked who is eligible or not eligible to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Georgia. With the change in the law in 2005, eligibility for Chapter 7 bankruptcies shifted somewhat. You can not file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Georgia now, for example, if you filed a Chapter 7 within eight years.

If you file a Chapter 13, you can’t file a Chapter 7 for six years after the filing of the Chapter 13 bankruptcy. If you filed a Chapter 7 bankruptcy or file any sort of bankruptcy and there was what they call a motion of the estate file, which is a proceeding to ask the court to – for the creditor to have possession of collateral. If you dismiss your bankruptcy, then you cannot file for another 180 days. Those are the two big issues regarding eligibility for filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

One other issue that you have to always be concerned with is what they call the means test. Georgia, as well as every other state, have certain criteria which allow people and size of families in set income limits and who cannot file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. If you’re single, the limit is set at one figure. If you’re a family of five, then your figure is at a different number. You have to run through a computerized program on means testing to determine whether or not you are eligible for filing the Chapter 7.

It’s not very complicated, but it is an absolute requirement for the filing of Chapter 7. If you have any questions, you can always contact our office. Our office can provide that information to you.

One of the questions our clients typically ask us is what happens after you file a Chapter 7 in Georgia. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy is a fairly quick procedure. Once you file, you have a meeting of creditors within 30 days after the filing. Then assuming nothing goes wrong in your case, such as dischargeability issues, or unlisted assets or creditors, you should receive a discharge within three to four months after you file for bankruptcy. If you have any questions, please give our office a call.

Many times, people ask us what type of debts would not be dischargeable in Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Georgia. Most debts are dischargeable. Debts that have liens against your car or your house, while perhaps dischargeable, continue to exist; in other words, if you don’t make the payments, they can reprocess your car or take your house.

Other debts, for the most part, are dischargeable; things like income taxes that are due within two to three years of the filing of the bankruptcy, of course, would not be dischargeable. Student loans are not dischargeable; alimony and child support are not dischargeable. A big one which we hardly ever see is if you were – you injured someone in drunk driving. Of course, that debt may not be dischargeable.

Or if you incur debts through fraud such as you mislead a creditor, you wrote down that you had a piece of collateral, but you did not have a piece of collateral when you borrowed the monies. Those kinds of things are not dischargeable. Fraud, drunk driving, child support, alimony, student loans, and any type of taxes that were incurred within two to three years of the filing of bankruptcy are typically not dischargeable. If you have any questions, please give us a call.