Welcome to Bankruptcy Guide
About Personal Bankruptcy Article
. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for further reading, click here.
Looking at the Forms Bankruptcy Can Take
from:There are many types or forms bankruptcy can take. The US bankruptcy laws are designed to help individuals, businesses and even municipalities that are having severe debt problems that appear to be unsolvable within the current income or revenue levels. There are many reasons why this happens, but the reasons seem unimportant when buried under a mountain of debt. As many people discover when bills become backlogged, debt collection practices are harsh. The phone rings off the hook with collectors, and the late notices and penalty charges only seem to make the situation worse by the day. When you owe back taxes, the IRS is relentless when it comes to collecting the money.
The forms of bankruptcy are defined as chapters. The chapters were written to provide a specific form for filing when you are an individual, farmer, business, or municipality. Most people are aware of the availability of bankruptcy laws applicable to people and businesses, but even counties and cities can find themselves unable to pay their debt. Right now there is a current case in Alabama in which a county cannot pay its sewer bonds and is considering filing bankruptcy.
The first form bankruptcy takes for individuals is chapter 7. A chapter 7 is a liquidation bankruptcy in which your non-exempted assets are used to pay off as much debt as possible and the remaining balances are eliminated. A chapter 13 is called an individual debt adjustment form. In this case, an individual agrees to a court defined debt repayment plan.
Another form bankruptcy can take is chapter 11 which is a business reorganization plan. Under this chapter, the business asks for the debt to be adjusted in a way that makes it workable. The business can also ask for a total reorganization which is often what you read about large corporations doing in order to stay in business. Farm businesses, on the other hand, will file a chapter 12 when needing debt relief.
The other types of bankruptcies are chapter 9 for municipalities and chapter 15 for ancillary cases or cases which don't fit the other defined chapters. There are even bankruptcy laws that address service people who are unable to pay their debts because they are overseas serving their country.
It is easy to see how complex the bankruptcy codes really is and it is a work in progress too. Every day new court cases refine the code based on actual experiences. A good bankruptcy attorney will always stay current on the laws so that you are able to get the best advice possible. The goal is to help you or your business start over again financially, but in a way that is the best fit for your situation.
About Personal Bankruptcy Specific links
About Personal Bankruptcy News
Bankruptcy in Connecticut Increases By 24%
During the first half of 2010, bankruptcy filings for individuals in Connecticut jumped by 24 percent compared to a year ago. In fact, personal bankruptcies accounted for 89 percent of all bankruptcies tracked by the Warren Group, a real estate data firm in Boston, from January to June.
Read more...Latvia's Personal Bankruptcy Law Won't Impact Nordic Lenders, Nordea Says
A Latvian personal bankruptcy law passed by parliament yesterday wont hurt Nordic lenders because provisions set aside for bad loans will cover the impact of the bill, according to Nordea Bank AB.
Read more...Contractor: Trustee should oversee bankruptcy of Colorado Crossing partnership
An independent trustee should be appointed to oversee the bankruptcy of the partnership thats building the Colorado Crossing mixed-use project because of alleged dishonesty, mismanagement, conflicts of interest and unrealistic financial...
Read more...GOP congressional candidate filed for bankruptcy
A congressional candidate who has made controlling federal spending a top issue in his campaign filed for bankruptcy 16 years ago and erased more than $12,000 in personal debt, according to federal co
Read more...Over 9,000 M'sians bankrupt
PETALING JAYA - OVER 9,000 Malaysians have been declared bankrupt in the first six months of the year, accumulating bad debts up to RM12.4 billion (S$5.3 billion). Insolvency Department director-general Datuk Abdul Karim Abdul Jalil said the 'new bankrupts' included individuals who defaulted on credit card payments or vehicle, housing, personal and business loans. The debts incurred by 9,129 ...
Read more...