Should You File for Bankruptcy a Second Time?

Life is not a Monopoly game, and filing for bankruptcy does not mean that you are out forever.  Instead, after the bankruptcy court discharges your eligible debts, or perhaps even before, you start looking forward to rebuilding your credit.  Only a cynical person or the serial entrepreneur villain of an anti-capitalist webcomic would walk out of bankruptcy court and declare his intention to immediately start racking up debts again.  Most people file for bankruptcy with the intention of staying out of debt, but staying out of debt is no simple task.  What do you do if you discharge your debts in bankruptcy court, but by the time the bankruptcy filing is far enough in the past that it is no longer visible on your credit report, you have a whole new batch of debts that you cannot pay?  You have the right to file for bankruptcy again, but to ensure that the bankruptcy court does not summarily dismiss your case, you must ensure that a long enough time has passed since your most recent bankruptcy filing.  If you are considering filing for bankruptcy again even though you filed a few years ago, contact a Philadelphia debt relief lawyer.

If You Discharge Your Debts in Bankruptcy Court, There Is No Guarantee That New Debts Will Not Spring Up in Their Place

Most kinds of legal actions have a statute of limitations, which is a legal deadline for initiating the action in court.  If the statute of limitations has expired, you do not have a chance of winning, because the court will dismiss the case on formal grounds.  Personal injury lawsuits have a statute of limitations dating from the time of the accident, and debt collection lawsuits have a statute of limitations that starts counting from the time the borrower most recently made a payment or communicated with the creditor about the debt.  Even the state must abide by a statute of limitations for filing criminal charges, although it only applies to certain crimes.  In other words, it can be too late to go to court, but it cannot be too soon.

Bankruptcy cases have the opposite.  It can be too soon to file for bankruptcy, but it cannot be too late.  For example, you cannot file for chapter 7 bankruptcy again unless at least eight years have gone by since your last filing.  For chapter 13 cases, you must wait two years or complete your chapter 13 debt repayment plan, whichever happens first, in order to become eligible to file again.  If you find yourself needing to file for bankruptcy again, find out from your bankruptcy lawyer what you can do differently the second time so that you can get more lasting debt relief than you got the first time.

Contact CONSUMERLAWPA.com About Debt Relief

A Philadelphia consumer law attorney can help you prepare to file for bankruptcy a second time, or even a third time.  Contact CONSUMERLAWPA.com to set up a free, confidential consultation.

Source:

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