Monday, April 15, 2013

Ok, But Do I Qualify?


            Lots of people have asked me some varient of this question.  What usually happens is I tell them about the advantages of Bankruptcy and they are interested but they honestly do not believe that they can file.  The good news is that if you are reading this you probably can file some form of Bankruptcy.  Below I reproduce a short section of my book that bares the same title as this posting.  



  
                                                                   





            I am tempted to simply say yes, you do.  The reason I say this is because if you are reading this book chances are you qualify.  In fact, if you can read, there is a pretty good chance you qualify.  Technically all you need to qualify is to be a permanent legal resident of the United States or a citizen of the United States.  One would guess that the courts would probably not allow a person with no creditors to file successfully for bankruptcy but I doubt many debt free people are entertaining such a thing.  So I would say yes you do qualify.

            In general a person will qualify for some form of Bankruptcy however in the case of repeat filers there may be limits on their ability to get a discharge and in the case of high income earners there may be limits on the availability of a Chapter 7.  So perhaps a better question would be do I qualify for a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy?  That question will be answered more fully in the section entitled “Types of Bankruptcy/Choosing the Right One for You.”  

            Earlier in this book, I gave a brief description of the difference between a Chapter 7 and 13 Bankruptcy.  A review of that difference leads most people to believe that a Chapter 7 is a much better deal, and frankly all things being equal it often is a much better deal.  However there are cases where a person does not qualify for a discharge in a Chapter 7, and in those cases it is often a good idea to look at a Chapter 13.  As with the underlying “do I qualify” question, this issue will be dealt with much more fully in the section on choosing the right type of Bankruptcy. 

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