Filing for Chapter 7 When Married but Living Separately

Macon Georgia Bankruptcy Lawyer | Bankruptcy Attorney Macon GA

Chapter 7 bankruptcy can be filed by individuals, corporations, partnerships as well as businesses of any type. Normally, there are no debts requirements or limits that are imposed that allow chapter 7 bankruptcy filing. Of course the means test is a must and so is the credit counseling.

Chapter 7 provides individuals with a much needed fresh financial start with a court supervised discharge of their existing debts. Chapter 7 bankruptcy is easy to file for but let us consider a situation wherein debtor is married but living separately from his spouse.

The first and foremost consideration here is to decide whether chapter 7 bankruptcy would be filed jointly or separately and if only one of them is doing the filing. If bankruptcy is filed jointly, debts of both spouses would be resolved. Joint filing of a chapter 7 bankruptcy requires that individual as well as married debts are enlisted and submitted in court along with bankruptcy petition. In cases where filing is done separately, list of assets and debts acquired during marriage has to be provided but during course of bankruptcy, only portion of marriage debt incurred by filing spouse would be considered for discharge.

A bankruptcy petition has to be filed in the bankruptcy court in the area of residence of debtor spouse. Along with bankruptcy petition a number of documents have to be filed. These include, schedule of assets and liabilities, statement of financial affairs, current income and expenditures, unexpired leases and executor contracts, credit counseling certificate, plan suggested for debt repayment, payment details from employer, monthly income, income from other sources, tuition accounts with interest shown etc.

Bankruptcy filing fee of $245 along with $39 administrative fee and $15 trustee surcharge has to be paid while filing bankruptcy petition. If debtor is planning to file a joint petition this fee amount can be divided among the spouses. Single filing would require that debtor come up with the money or else pay it in installments if allowed by the court.

Debtor should have clear proof as to assets that were purchased during marriage and debts incurred within the marriage. If filing for bankruptcy singly, only debtor’s debts would be discharged.

Assigned case trustee would oversee the formalities of dissolution of assets and discharge of debts of debtor. Debtor has to provide his full support and cooperation to trustee for successful completion of bankruptcy.

Creditors meetings would have to be attended by debtor and spouse in joint filings or else presence of debtor is enough. Debtor can answer all questions pertaining to debt and bankruptcy in creditor’s meeting. His bankruptcy attorney can assist him in this. In cases where spouse is not willing to opt for a joint bankruptcy filing, going ahead alone with legal assistance is not a bad choice and should be tried out.

Contact an experienced Macon GA bankruptcy attorney if you need debt relief assistance or want to file bankruptcy.