Marcus Peterson asked:




There are certain rules that must be followed when you file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Bankruptcy law is a set of federal laws and statutes governed by Title 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.
The debtor has the exclusive responsibility for filing a plan. Although most plans are filed at the time of the petition, the debtor has up to 15 days from the filing of the petition to file the plan, unless the court allows otherwise.The plan specifies what each creditor will be paid and under what terms. Chapter 13 creditors do not vote on the plan. A creditor should object to confirmation if the plan does not properly treat its claim. Sections 1322 and 1325 set mandatory and permissive requirements of a Chapter 13 plan and its confirmation, respectively.

The three mandatory requirements are that the plan shall provide for the submission of all or such portion of future earnings or other future income to the trustee as is necessary to fund the plan; the plan shall provide for the full payment, on a deferred basis of priority claims unless the holder of the claim agrees to different treatment and the plan may not be longer than three years unless the court approves a longer payment period, not to exceed five years. The debtor may deal with a secured claim outside the plan. A plan should not be confirmed, unless the priority claims are provided for in full, and the IRS should object to a plan that does not provide for full payment of priority taxes. In the event that the IRS does not object and a plan is confirmed without properly providing for priority taxes, the IRS can move to have the plan dismissed or modified.

http://chapter13bankruptcynow35.blogspot.com/2009/04/using-chapter-thirteen-bankruptcy-to.html

Jon Arnold asked:




Bankruptcy is seen differently by different people, especially depending on their situation. Some may see it as a quick fix to a long building problem while others may not see it as an option at all due to the costs of the attorney. Everyone should understand exactly what bankruptcy is, and if it is a good idea for them in their situation.

In reality, bankruptcy should only be seen as a very last resort, and sometimes it’s hard to tell if you’ve really hit rock bottom financially. Take, for instance, someone that has $100,000 in debt that they cannot hope to pay off any time soon. However, once they bring their case to court to file for bankruptcy, the fact that they own a second home comes to light. They really didn’t consider it because it’s an older home that’s not in great shape that they are letting relatives live in for free. Suddenly their asset to debt ratio looks completely different than what they had assumed, and the bankruptcy is either declined or pushed through on terms that are not at all good for the one claiming.
This is but one example of the many situations where a qualified attorney would’ve actually saved you quite a bit of money simply by looking at things from an angle that you had not considered because you do not deal with bankruptcies all day every day. There are also many situations where, no matter how hard he looked, the layman could not possibly see coming because they arise due to laws and regulations that most simply do not know, nor have the training to understand them even if they were able to look them up. Bankruptcy law was complicated to begin with, but with the legislation passed within recent years, there are now multiple levels of confusing changes that must be navigated. You probably do not stand where you think you do when it comes to your financial situation as seen by the law.

Another issue people face is the type of bankruptcy they plan to file: Chapter 7 or Chapter 13. Put simply, in a Chapter 7, you discharge everything because you do not have the means to pay any or all of it within a certain time frame, and in a Chapter 13, only some of the debt may be discharged, if any, and what is left is generally reduced to an amount that the person filing is able to pay. And even at that, there are certain types of debt that cannot be eliminated through any type of bankruptcy, so if your debt is comprised in large part by these types of debt, a filing is not going to help you at all.

You can file whichever you like, but it is not the one filing who decides which type of bankruptcy is passed. The court determines how much the filer is able to repay, and whether the case constitutes as a Chapter 7 or Chapter 13, regardless of which is initially filed. A qualified bankruptcy attorney knows how to present the case in a light that is much more likely to get the type of bankruptcy passed that you need.

http://www.zimbio.com/chapter13bankruptcynow35/articles/3/Chapter+Thirteen+Bankrupcy+Rules