Athens Georgia Bankruptcy Lawyers

What the Automatic Stay May Stop – Oconee County GA bankruptcy law firm

Athens-Clarke County Georgia bankruptcy lawyer

Utility cutoff. If you have defaulted on a utility bill and the company is threatening to discontinue your water, electric, gas, or telephone service, the automatic stay will stay the disconnection for at least 20 days. Even though the amount of a utility bill itself seldom justifies a bankruptcy filing, preventing electrical service cutoff in winter can be one reason.

Foreclosure. If are facing foreclosure, the automatic stay temporarily stalls the proceedings, but the lender will often be able to go on with the foreclosure in the near future. If you are facing foreclosure, Chapter 13 bankruptcy is usually a better remedy than Chapter 7 bankruptcy, if you want to keep your house.

Multiple wage garnishments. Filing for bankruptcy stops garnishments dead in their tracks. Not only will you take home a full salary, you also may be able to wipe out the debt in bankruptcy. Even though no more than 25% of your wages can be taken to satisfy court decrees, many people file for bankruptcy when more than one wage garnishment is threatened.

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Athens Georgia bankruptcy lawyer | Bankruptcy attorneys in Athens GA and Athens-Clarke County – Filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

Downfalls of the Automatic Stay – Athens Georgia bankruptcy lawyer

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Loans from a pension – Despite the automatic stay, money may be withheld from your income to repay a loan from certain kinds of pensions like many job-related pensions and IRAs.
Multiple filings – If you had a bankruptcy case pending during the previous year, then the stay will automatically stop after 30 days unless you, the trustee, the U.S. Trustee, or a creditor requests for the stay to continue and demonstrates that the present proceeding was filed in good faith. If a creditor had a motion to lift the stay pending during the previous proceeding, the court will presume that you acted in bad faith, and you will have to overcome this presumption to enjoy the protection of the stay in your current proceeding.

Usually, a creditor can get around the automatic stay by petitioning the bankruptcy court to remove the stay, if it is not serving its intended objective. For instance, if you file for bankruptcy the day before your house is to be auctioned in foreclosure. You have no equity in the house, you cannot pay your mortgage arrears, and you have no way of retaining the house. The foreclosing lender can ask for permission to proceed with the foreclosure and that permission is likely to be given.
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Athens Georgia bankruptcy lawyer | Bankruptcy attorneys in Athens GA and Athens-Clarke County – Filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

Disposable income explained Oconee County GA bankruptcy lawyer
Best bankruptcy lawyer Athens Georgia

You are not eligible to file for Chapter 7 if you cannot satisfy some new requirements imposed by the 2005 revisions to the bankruptcy law. According to the changed rules, you cannot file for Chapter 7 if both of the following are true:
Your current monthly income over the last six months to your filing date is more than the median income for a home of your size in Georgia.

Your disposable income, after subtracting certain expenses and monthly payments for debts you would have to repay in Chapter 13, exceeds certain limits fixed by statute. The calculations are commonly called as the “means test”. When you have the ability to repay a certain amount of your debt in a Chapter 13 repayment plan, you flunk the test and are ineligible for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

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Athens Georgia bankruptcy lawyer | Bankruptcy attorneys in Athens GA and Athens-Clarke County – Filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

When Chapter 13 is the best choice rather than Chapter 7 – Oconee County GA bankruptcy attorneys
Athens GA bankruptcy law firm

You should not file for Chapter 7 when you are behind on your mortgage or car loan, and want to regularize the missed payments over time and reinstate the original agreement. You cannot do this in Chapter 7 bankruptcy. You can make up missed payments only in Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

Chapter 13 is a wiser choice if you have a tax debt, student loan, or other debt that are not discharged in Chapter 7. You can include these debts in your Chapter 13 plan and pay them off over time.

You should consider Chapter 13 when there is a real intent to repay your debts, nonetheless you need the protection of the bankruptcy court to enable you to do so. This can be the case if creditors are behind you, or if you simply need the formal structure and deadlines the Chapter 13 process provides in order to follow through on your sincere intentions.

When you have nonexempt property that you want to keep, Chapter 13 filing is the one for you. When you file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you get to retain only exempt property – property that is safe from creditors under state or federal law. You must give your nonexempt property to the bankruptcy trustee, who can sell it and distribute the proceeds amongst your creditors.

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Athens Georgia bankruptcy lawyer | Bankruptcy attorneys in Athens GA and Athens-Clarke County – Filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

Athens Georgia bankruptcy lawyers explains the idea of Disposable Income
Athens Georgia bankruptcy attorney

If your present monthly earning is less than the median income for a household of your size in for Georgia, you qualify. You are through. You do not need to complete the rest of the means test. You are eligible to file for Chapter 7.

For those whose household income is more than the state median, the means test computations get much more complex. You must determine if you have sufficient income left over after paying your permitted monthly expenses, to repay at least a portion of your unsecured debts such as credit card bills. When your disposable income adds up to more than a certain amount, you fail the means test and do not qualify for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

Median income levels vary by state and household size, and each county and metropolitan region has different permitted amounts for categories of expenses: basic necessities, housing, and transportation.

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Athens Georgia bankruptcy lawyer | Bankruptcy attorneys in Athens GA and Athens-Clarke County – Filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

Wage garnishment and bankruptcy proceedings – Athens-Clarke County GA bankruptcy lawyer

Athens bankruptcy attorneys

Whether a creditor can or cannot garnish your wages is determined by the laws in your state. Each state has enacted laws determining which property is safe from creditors and which property can be taken by creditors. Some states do not allow any wage garnishment at all, however even such states that do regulate how much can be garnished from a persons wages so as to allow that person to have something remaining to get by on, even though most people have a hard time living on what is left over after their wages are garnished. There is also federal legislation governing wage garnishments.

The best way to avoid the majority of wage garnishments except those concerning student loans and child support is to file bankruptcy. Filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy will immediately stay a wage garnishment in progress and cancel out any remaining wage garnishments, provided that the court allows that debt to be discharged.
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Athens Georgia bankruptcy lawyer | Bankruptcy attorneys in Athens GA and Athens-Clarke County – Filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

Athens Georgia bankruptcy attorneys gives an overview on Wage garnishment
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It is not a nice thing to be called in by your employer to be told your paycheck is being garnished. You should do all you can not to let things reach this stage, however at times they do and you need to know what steps to take. This kind of thing does not happen in a day, the collection company should demonstrate to the judge that they took the correct steps in trying to collect from you first.

This is usually a last step for them, but they will do it. When you file bankruptcy there is something called an “automatic stay” that prevents the collectors from proceeding with any action against you. At this point you are under the courts protection and if they proceed with their pursuit they are breaking the law.

In some cases, the borrower has actually sued the collector and won damages against the collection agency. Besides, there is a likelihood you may get some of the garnished income back that was taken from your paycheck.
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Athens Georgia bankruptcy lawyer | Bankruptcy attorneys in Athens GA and Athens-Clarke County – Filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

Athens Georgia bankruptcy attorneys gives an overview on Wage garnishment
Chapter 11 lawyer Athens

It is not a nice thing to be called in by your employer to be told your paycheck is being garnished. You should do all you can not to let things reach this stage, however at times they do and you need to know what steps to take. This kind of thing does not happen in a day, the collection company should demonstrate to the judge that they took the correct steps in trying to collect from you first.

This is usually a last step for them, but they will do it. When you file bankruptcy there is something called an “automatic stay” that prevents the collectors from proceeding with any action against you. At this point you are under the courts protection and if they proceed with their pursuit they are breaking the law.

In some cases, the borrower has actually sued the collector and won damages against the collection agency. Besides, there is a likelihood you may get some of the garnished income back that was taken from your paycheck.
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Athens Georgia bankruptcy lawyer | Bankruptcy attorneys in Athens GA and Athens-Clarke County – Filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Overview

Athens GA Bankruptcy Lawyer

Chapter 11 is the most complex and lengthy of all bankruptcy chapters. Even though Chapter 11 Bankruptcies constitute less than 5 percent of all bankruptcies filed, it is estimated that as much as 90 percent of all time spent by the Bankruptcy Court involves Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. Certain Chapter 11 cases include relief from stay motions, matters of the use or sale of property which also include the use of cash collateral, assumption or rejection of executory contracts, and the obtaining of credit by the bankruptcy estate. These issues must be dealt with independently, however the resolution of each individual issue often involves one or more evidentiary hearings. Also one or more of these issues may affect the outcome of the others. The resolution of one or more of these critical issues can be essential in deciding if the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding will be given an opportunity for a potentially successful outcome or be a conversion to Chapter 7 liquidation. Most often a resolution to any or all of the above bankruptcy issues may be needed at the starting of a Chapter 11 filing.

As in Chapter 13, the goal of Chapter 11 is for a debtor to successfully reorganize its finances so that it can repay its debt, retain assets, and usually remain in business. Also like Chapter 13, this is accomplished by the debtor proposing a plan of reorganization and obtaining its confirmation. Unlike Chapter 13 Bankruptcy confirmation the Chapter 11 plan confirmation process is complex and very lengthy in comparison. At least two court hearings are necessary to get a Chapter 11 confirmation. An important difference is that creditors in a Chapter 11 have the opportunity to accept or reject the plan by election. It usually needs at least four to six months to get confirmation of a typical Chapter 11 plan. Just like a confirmed Chapter 13, a confirmed Chapter 11 plan is nothing more than a Court or judicially approved repayment agreement.
Since a Chapter 11 Bankruptcy can often times remain pending for an indefinite period of time prior to a confirmation of a plan and as the debtor acts as its own trustee, numerous rules governing the continued operation have been set up to monitor the debtor’s compliance with the Bankruptcy Code and Rules.
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Athens Georgia bankruptcy lawyer | Bankruptcy attorneys in Athens GA and Athens-Clarke County – Filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

Chapter 7 exemptions – Explained in detail

Athens bankruptcy lawyer

Chapter 7 bankruptcy is a process in which an individual petitions the court to discharge all of their debts. The debtor can have secured debt as well as unsecured debt and how each of these is handled can vary from case-to-case. A debtor seeking protection under chapter 7 of the US Bankruptcy Code may have to surrender a part of their personal property in order to satisfy some of the debts owed to the creditors.

Georgia law exempts real or personal property, including co-op, used as a residence, up to $10,000 (up to $20,000 if married whether the spouse is filing or not is exempt under Georgia law

However the bankruptcy court can refuse to discharge the debts. The general grounds for denying a discharge to an individual debtor include:
1. Debtors failure to keep or produce adequate books or financial records;
2. Failure of the debtor to explain satisfactorily any loss of assets;
3. The debtor is guilty of a bankruptcy crime such as perjury;
4. Failure of the debtor to obey a lawful order of the bankruptcy court; or
5. Fraudulent transfer, concealment or destruction by debtor of property that would have become property of the estate.

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Athens Georgia bankruptcy lawyer | Bankruptcy attorneys in Athens GA and Athens-Clarke County – Filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and Chapter 13 Bankruptcy