Saturday, June 2, 2012

When Can Someone File Bankruptcy Again?

       A common question we receive is: "I filed bankruptcy [x] years ago, does that affect me?"   Section 727 of the Bankruptcy Code lists the amount of time that a person must wait if he has received a bankruptcy discharge.  The following are the amounts of years that must be between the filing dates of the bankruptcy cases and their respective Chapters:

                                     Between Chapter 7 and Chapter 7:   8 Years
                                     Between Chapter 7 and Chapter 13:  4 Years
                                     Between Chapter 13 and Chapter 7:  6 Years
                                     Between Chapter 13 and Chapter 13: 2 Years

       The six year requirement between a Chapter 13 and a Chapter 7 has two exceptions: (1) the debtor paid all "allowed unsecured" claims in the earlier case in full, or (2) the debtor made payments under the plan in the earlier case totaling at least 70 percent of the allowed unsecured claims and the debtor's plan was proposed in good faith and the payments represented the debtor's best effort.