Wait Times Between Bankruptcy Filings

Filing for bankruptcy feels like a reset, like accessing a bonus life in a video game, but how many bonus lives do you get?  Seeing your debts disappear is exhilarating, or at least it brings you a feeling of relief, but then life goes on.  Eventually, the record of the bankruptcy case even disappears from your credit report.  Meanwhile, the debts start piling up again, and you start wishing you had more bonus lives that you could use to escape from these new debts.  The good news is that there is, in theory, no limit to the number of times that you can successfully file for bankruptcy protection.  If your bankruptcy filings are to bring you any debt relief, though, you must follow the rules set out in the federal Bankruptcy Code, or else you are just wasting your time and money and making your debt problems worse.  Some of these rules have to do with waiting a certain amount of time before filing your bankruptcy if you have previously discharged debts in bankruptcy court.  For help preparing to file for bankruptcy for the second time, contact a Jupiter chapter 7 bankruptcy lawyer.

Did You Hear About the Florida Man Who Filed His Tenth Bankruptcy Case When He Was 90 Years Old?

If you stay in Florida long enough, you will find out that Florida Man never learns his lesson.  All over the world, young men take risks with gleeful foolhardiness, but in Florida, they keep doing it until their youth is long gone, and they are sitting at the counter at Denny’s on a weekday morning, eating their discounted senior breakfasts as they trade stories and egg each other on.  Someone probably has a story about a guy who started racking up debts as soon as he was old enough to work, so he filed for bankruptcy at age 18.  Once those debts were gone, he started right back up spending beyond his means, so he filed again at age 26.  With every divorce and every business venture gone bad came another bankruptcy filing, so he filed for bankruptcy every eight years until, at age 90, he submitted his tenth bankruptcy filing.  This is probably just a tall tale, but it is legally possible.

You Don’t Always Have to Wait Eight Years Before Filing For Bankruptcy Again

The wait times between bankruptcy filings vary according to which type of bankruptcy case you are filing.  If your previous bankruptcy case was chapter 7, you must wait eight years before another chapter 7 filing, but you only have to wait four years to file under chapter 13.  If your previous case was chapter 13 bankruptcy, you can file another chapter 13 case in two years, but you must wait six years to file for chapter 7.  The court may accept your chapter 7 case sooner than that if you have paid off your chapter 13 repayment plan in full.

Work With a Debt Lawyer About Repeat Bankruptcy Filings

A South Florida debt lawyer can help you if you have filed for bankruptcy before and are ready to do it again.  Contact Nowack & Olson, PLLC in Jupiter, Florida to discuss your case.

Source:

findlaw.com/bankruptcy/after-bankruptcy/how-often-can-you-file-for-bankruptcy-.html