As you probably know, your eligibility for bankruptcy protection is determined in part by your household income.  The Bankruptcy Code requires us to calculate your median income by looking at gross income earned by you, your spouse and any other working member of your household during the 6 months prec

Written by Craig D.

A recent Wall Street Journal article titled, “Personal Bankruptcy Filings Rising Fast” from Tuesday, January 5, 2010 discusses the state of bankruptcy filings in the United States. The article indicates the number of Americans filing for personal bankruptcy rose by nearly one-third in 2009. The reason for the increase in bankruptcy filings is related to foreclosures and job losses. The Wall Street Journal reports that personal bankruptcy filings hit 1.41 million in 2009 which is up 32% from 2008. This number is the highest level of consumer bankruptcy filings since 2005.

Carrie Teegardin of the Atlanta Journal published a story yesterday about the rising rate of personal bankruptcy cases in Georgia for 2009.  Click here for the story.  It certainly is not a surprise that the numbers are rising, given the significant drop-off after the 2005 amendments and the general state of the economy.  According to the statistics, Georgia is third in the nation in bankruptcies per household, with one case filed for every  50 households.  Only Nevada (one per 35 households) and Tennes

Short Answer: There’s still some hope, but hold on tight.

Congress thinks that people who are above-average earners are abusing the bankruptcy system when they file chapter 7. Congress wanted above-average earners to file cases under chapter 13 and devote 5 years of their disposable income to paying some of all of their debts.

Written by Craig D.

Written by Craig D.

Oddly enough, "current monthly income" is neither "current" nor "monthly". What we do is take the average of your gross income from all sources - another point of controversy - for the last six months.

Courts have divided on whether a new means test form is due upon conversion from Chapter 13 to Chapter 7. Most recently, Massachusetts bankruptcy Judge Rosenthal held that a new form is not due upon conversion. See In re Guarin, 2009 WL 4500476 (Bkrtcy.D.Mass. 2009). In this, he split with colleugaes in [...]