What is Required in Order to File a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy?

The first thing you want to realize about a Chapter 13 bankruptcy is that unlike a Chapter 7, this is a plan for eliminating your debt based on a 3 to 5 year repayment schedule. It is usually approved and supervised by both a bankruptcy judge and a bankruptcy trustee. A Chapter 13 that is bankruptcy court-approved is a binding plan (unlike standard repayment plans that you may have made with other creditors in the past). Keep in mind that you have to accept the terms of the plan as well as the payments that are set up in the plan. Clark & Washington has years of Chapter 13 experience that will help you to develop a repayment plan which will meet with the court’s approval. However, these plans will leave you with enough money so that you can still live your life as you are climbing out of debt. If you are discussing filing a Chapter 13 with one of our attorneys, there are certain requirements that need to be met in order to file. The primary requirement is that you have to have a steady income which the court will assign to fund your repayment plan. Income sources that are deemed as acceptable are:

• Alimony or child support
• Earnings from a steady job
• Family or friend support
• Pension or retirement plan payments
• Self-employment earnings
• Social Security payments
• Workers’ Compensation payments

You will also be required to have sufficient disposable income left over each month in order to fund your Chapter 13 repayment schedule. After you have sat down with one of the Clark & Washington attorneys, you may be pleasantly surprised as to the amount of disposable income that you have. Once this is established, your attorney will work with you in order to set up your budget along with a proposed repayment schedule. Additionally, and this may sound obvious and silly, in order to qualify for a Chapter 13 repayment plan, you must be alive. In other words, the corporations and/or estates of the deceased don’t qualify. If you have previously filed a Chapter 7 or 13, you need to make your attorney aware of this, as there are certain additional requirements that affect your case. Despite that, you can see that the requirements for filing a Chapter 13 repayment plan are relatively reasonable in nature. For more information about a Chapter 13 filing, please feel free to contact our firm for help or to answer your questions.