Chapter 13 is a great tool for stopping foreclosures, repossessions, garnishments and best of all…..those pesky creditor phone calls. Many people like to refer to Chapter 13 as the “catch your breath provision” of the bankruptcy code. In contrast to Chapter 13, Chapter 7 helps people wipe out all of their debt and get a new fresh start.
This is the worst economy our nation has experienced since the 1930′s. Many people are suffering through no fault of their own. For some, it is a recent loss of job. For others, it’s medical, divorce, death of a family member, or some other event that came from nowhere. When I was sixteen, my father passed away. It took six months before the life insurance policy paid. For my mother and me, this was a long six months. I can still remember that day I came home from school and discovered that our electricity had been turned off. I empathize with people who are going through tough times. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. It is not your fault.
I hope you will explore my website and please feel free to email me or call me at 888-832-8249 with any questions you may have. If you fill out your name and email address in the box on the right side of this page, I will email you information on how the bankruptcy process works and some pitfalls to avoid. If you would like to save some time on your case preparation, you can print and fill out the questionnaire before you come in. If you click on the link below, it will open a PDF version of the questionnaire. Otherwise, we will fill all of the paperwork for you.
Call my office today at 888-832-8249 for your free consultation. I would like to sit down with you and review your entire economic situation to see if we can come up with a plan that works for you.
Sincerely,
Jeff Kelly
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Other Posts:
1. What is Chapter 13?
2. What is Chapter 7?
3. How much does it cost to file?
4. Stop Garnishment
5. Stop Foreclosure
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cartersville ga bankruptcy attorney,
dallas ga bankruptcy attorney,
dalton ga bankruptcy attorney,
rome ga bankruptcy attorney
In Schwab v. Reilly, the Supreme Court has ruled that bankruptcy debtors are protected only up the value they claim exempt in their bankruptcy petitions. A divided Supreme Court ruled that bankruptcy debtors do not exempt the full amount of an asset by claiming an exemption equal to the full scheduled value of the asset. If it later turns out that the asset is worth more the amount scheduled in the bankruptcy petition, the trustee may assert the estate’s interest in the excess value even though the trustee did not object to the debtor’s claimed exemption in the full scheduled amount of the asset.
What this Supreme Court decision means for Georgia Bankruptcy Debtors is that debtors must be extremely careful when listing a value of an asset. For example, lets say a person in Rome, GA wishes to file Chapter 7 and thinks their house is worth $100,000.00. They owe only 95,000.00. Thus, they have $5,0000.00 worth of equity in the house. Let’s say this Rome person files Chapter 7 claiming only a $5,000.00 exemption. The Chapter 7 trustee believes that the house is worth $110,000.00. To the horror of the Rome debtor, the Trustee finds a buyer willing to pay this price. In this scenario, the debtor will receive a check for $5,000.00 and the rest of the proceeds get used to pay their creditors.
In Schwab v. Reilly, the issue was valuation of catering equipment. In this case, the debtor made a low estimate $10,718.00 for the value of the catering equipment and exempted all of the value. The Chapter 7 trustee never filed any objections to the debtor’s valuation of the catering equipment. Later on in the case, an appraisal revealed that the equipment was worth $7,000.00 more than what the debtor had listed in the bankruptcy petition. At that point, the Chapter 7 trustee asked the Bankruptcy Court for permission to auction the equipment so that $7,000.00 difference could be used to pay creditors. The debtor objected to sale on the basis that Rule 4003(b) requires a Chapter 7 Trustee to object to a debtor’s claimed exemptions within 30 days after the creditor’s meeting. The Supreme Court ruled that the Chapter 7 had no duty to object because the exemption amounts were not in excess of the Bankruptcy Code limitations.
The lesson of this case is that any person who is considering filing bankruptcy in Georgia should understand is that you won’t get to keep an asset just because you make a low valuation of it. If it turns out to be worth more than what you say in your bankruptcy petition, the Chapter 7 trustee may sell it.
Other Posts:
1. What is Chapter 13?
2. What is Chapter 7?
3. How much does it cost to file?
Tagged as:
Bankruptcy,
chapter 7,
Georgia,
rome ga bankruptcy attorney