Filing bankruptcy in KY for Chapter 7 or 13 will be less expensive, quicker, and trouble, if you spend a little time learning federal bankruptcy exemptions and how to easily and quickly file bankruptcy in Kentucky, When you learn how to file effectively filing goes smoothly, and your credit recovers faster. Some of our clients have gotten 720 credit scores within a year after filing their bankruptcy.
You will discharge more debt and keep more property after filing bankruptcy if it is done right. You might even be able to modify your mortgage to a lower percentage or modify your auto loan. Some second mortgages or home improvement loans might be treated the same as unsecured loans and be repaid little or nothing during the filing. Remember, you don’t accomplish this by using an attorney or paralegal who is still learning how to prepare petitions. Both you and your attorney must be very much aware of the bankruptcy exemptions and rules. Kentucky uses the federal exemptions but states like Indiana use their own state exemptions.
How to Easily File a Kentucky Bankruptcy in Eight Hours
Suppose you file your bankruptcy in Kentucky without understanding the bankruptcy process and bankruptcy law. In that case, it often becomes a costly error that can cause you to lose property or benefit your creditors. It is rare that people who file their own bankruptcy save money unless they have no income and no property and nothing to lose.
Filing can be quick and easy if you follow directions. If you need to file bankruptcy, it takes about 2 hours to do each section of what is required to file your bankruptcy. Before filing, you should know what the bankruptcy exemptions are:
- You have to gather certain required documents for any Chapter 7 or 13 bankruptcy. Bankruptcy court and trustees require these documents – 2 hours or less.
- Every attorney has an intake to fill out. You can fill out our online intake 24 hours a day from work or home – normally in 2 hours or less to primarily list your debts and assets.
- Every Chapter 7 or 13 debtor must take a counseling class and obtain the certificate, you cannot file the case without getting the certificate before you file; this takes 2 hours or less.
- Whether you have an experienced attorney or a paralegal prepare the petition, it should take 2 hours to complete, or else the preparer is fully asking the questions which need to be asked.
Keeping on Track
You can easily and quickly file for bankruptcy in Kentucky with those four simple steps. But if you learn the exemptions for your state (Kentucky) you can make certain you don’t lose property. You are allowed to keep a minor amount of property to start life over. In 2022 there is a $4,000 car exemption, $27,900 home exemption, 10,775 Furniture, and household goods exemption and $27,900 exemption for proceeds from a personal injury claim. And there are many other exemptions which allow you to keep property. We keep you on track by sending out emails every few weeks or calling. The court will also send you reminders to take the second class and notices of your hearing.
We remind you of the tasks we need to do together to complete Chapter 7 or 13. First, I will explain the bankruptcy code to you in an initial interview while asking about your goals. Then we often have a second meeting and prepare the petition. I only file 12-20 cases per month so I can spend time with you. The four prepetition steps all take about 2-hours per step to complete.
Explaining Kentucky bankruptcy laws to you is something some offices fail to do. However, we never hand you over to a paralegal or secretary when preparing the petition with you because we know we have to work together before your bankruptcy court hearing.
Reviewing the Necessary Documents
The bankruptcy judge and the trustee believe most of what people say in their testimonies. However, they still verify your income, expenses, property, and debts before giving you the discharge. It isn’t enough for you to claim you only make $4,000 per month after filing. They want to see your pay stubs and taxes to verify your average income and expenses. The documents required by them must be organized, scanned in as a pdf document, and then sent to them.
Here is our Bankruptcy checklist of these required documents. We cannot file any bankruptcy without these documents in our hands. You must know that the failure to produce the documents to judges in Kentucky and the trustee within a few days after filing the bankruptcy can cause the bankruptcy petition to be dismissed.
A Credit Counseling Class Before Filing
Since 2005, every debtor has been required to take a counseling class before the case is filed. A second debtor education class is required after filing to get a discharge. For Chapter 13, you may not need the discharge if you only filed to catch the mortgage. These are three places we suggest you go to get these classes.
-
- bkcert.com –My favorite because they send the certificate to us immediately on request. They also speak English and offer counseling by phone and online completion.
-
- Cost: approximately $40
- Phone: 866-859-7323
- startfreshtoday.com/Lit – Our second choice for both classes closes at about 9 pm. Open Mon-Sat. They offer phone and online counseling.
-
- Cost: approximately $40
- Phone: 866-662-4932
- prebk.com – This is the least expensive place for the required post-filing counseling. This class is 2 hours long and only online.
- Cost: Approximately $18
Free Convenient Online Intake
Every Kentucky bankruptcy lawyer has an intake to complete. However, our office has a convenient online intake where you access it from your home or work computer. We have helped soldiers in Korea and Iraq file remotely using our intake and methods. Your intake is where you list your assets, debts, income, and expenses.
Your Intake Form
Doing the intake at home lets you take your time to look up information like the addresses for the debts and fill up bankruptcy forms. Moreover, you can do it at 1 am in your bathrobe because you don’t have to go to a law office to complete it. I think online completion of the intake is far better because you get to do it in the comfort of your own home, and the accuracy ends up being better than if it is done in the office.
A Kentucky bankruptcy petition consists mostly of a budget listing income, expenses, assets, and liabilities. You can sign up for our online bankruptcy intake by calling us 502-625-0905 to set it up or sending us your email address name and phone, and it should not take over 2 hours to complete. After you gather your documents and input your data into this online intake, you will be ready to come in and prepare the petition with Nick. Some people do the whole process in one trip.
Make an Appointment
Please make an appointment (with my Assistant at 502-625-0903) to come in and file. To prepare the petition we must have your income information. We must have the counseling certificate to file the petition but we don’t need the counseling certificate to prepare the petition.
Filing out the intake is easier if you get a free credit report from annualcreditreport.com.You can easily gather the information about your debts and the addresses for creditors from the credit report. Use the credit report to help fill out the bankruptcy intake form and prepare your Kentucky bankruptcy.
The addresses for the debts is important because although you can guess the amount of the debt, you have to give notice to the creditors in asset cases to discharge the debt. The credit report will have accurate addresses to help you list the addresses and remind you of debts you forgot.
How to File Bankruptcy?
Our short 80-page Bankruptcy manual takes about 3-4 hours to read. It explains the bankruptcy process. The manual explains defending foreclosures in bankruptcy court, keeping property in Kentucky, bankruptcy filing in general, how to discharge income taxes, and how to manage your student loans. Other chapters include negotiating debt and debt settlement companies. The bankruptcy will go more smoothly, and items will get done on time if you better understand the process and deal with servicers.
Servicers work for the lenders of your mortgage, auto, and student loans. They earn a percentage from collecting late fees and servicing the loan, so they have an incentive to keep payments high and keep you in default. The bank’s attorney gets paid more if he does added work. Many people make the mistake of getting their legal advice from the servicer of the loan or the bank’s attorney. You don’t want your legal advice from either of them.
Consolidate or Rehabilitate?
You may need to consolidate or rehabilitate your student loans. Most people will not be able to discharge their student loans. However every year, 500 – 1000 people qualify to discharge their student loans by getting an undue hardship discharge. Rehabilitation or consolidation of student loans into an affordable IBR cures most problems for government student loans. But for private student loans, you want to avoid paying them until the statute of limitations has run out. Often filing a 6-year chapter 13 will cause them to be charged off. But the five years they are in Chapter 13 normally does not count towards aging the statute of limitation.
We can help you with private loans that attempt to sue you. We suggest you consider studentloanify.com to get into the most affordable student loan program for government loans. Servicers will always put you into programs and processes that pay them added fees.
Stripping Judicial Liens or a Secured Mortgages
To begin, we can often strip off a judicial lien during a Kentucky bankruptcy, but there is a separate charge for the added work, and we need information from you. If you are keeping a home you may want to file a reaffirmation. With an auto loan you can file a reaffirmation or redemption and keep the car. Or surrender the auto and owe nothing after discharge. Look at our page on reaffirmations and redemptions if you don’t know the difference.
Timing the bankruptcy is essential if you’re going to discharge income tax debts. Filing Chapter 7 may delay a foreclosure for about six months. Some couples will file one in his name and then a second one in her name. It usually requires a Chapter 13 to cure a mortgage default but you can take 5 years to cure it. Planning your bankruptcy allows everything to go much more smoothly and will enable you to keep more property and discharge more debt.
⎆ Bankruptcy Educational Material
Our 60-Minute how to file for Bankruptcy audio is a dramatization of a first interview where you will hear answers to typical foreclosure and bankruptcy questions. Interestingly, it was recorded with a former president of the mortgage banker’s association pretending to be the client.
- Click this link for a Chapter 7 or 13 Bankruptcy timeline.
- Click through this link for a timeline for a Foreclosure.
Filing Chapter 7 for Bankruptcy
If you were lately thinking about filing for Chapter 7 but do not know what things are required and what will happen, you don’t need to worry anymore because here are some steps involved in filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
1. Hire a Good Bankruptcy Lawyer
A lawyer is recommended for bankruptcy relief as handling the procedure on your own is difficult. Bankruptcy is a highly complicated procedure. After the 2005 law changes about half of the attorneys quit filing cases. It simply became that hard. People who haven’t done this for years probably should not be relied upon.
2. Know Your Eligibility
To qualify for Chapter 7, you must have an income equal to your state’s median income as defined by bankruptcy law. People with high incomes regarding the Chapter 7 means test rules are required to file Chapter 13 bankruptcy and pay their creditors as fully as possible.
To determine whether you qualify for Chapter 7, we do not charge for preparing a mean test for you. We would need your paystubs or income for the prior 6 months. You don’t have to complete every form.
3. Filling out the Bankruptcy Schedules and Forms
It is extremely important to fill out the forms (schedules) for a bankruptcy case accurately. The forms include the information on you assets and liabilities income and expenses plus about 26 questions on how you may have transferred property and conducted business. Be sure to include all the information on your credit card debt, personal property, income, expenses, unsecured debts, and even medical bills or retirement accounts if you have them. You can do this in our online intake.
It can sometimes be tedious to file a petition with the federal court since you must fill out multiple forms. Failing to disclose any debt on the forms, may mean you will have to pay it later. Therefore, you must be very careful when preparing the schedules and forms.
4. Filing the Bankruptcy Case
After preparing the forms it is now time to submit your bankruptcy petition forms to the federal court for filing bankruptcy in Kentucky. When the attorney sends in the petition it is similar to transmitting your income taxes. It is done electronically in his office after about 2 hours of checking the details. Your case is now turned over to the court. If you have been honest and told your attorney about all of the transfers of property and information the case should go smoothly.
Your hired attorney will transmit the bankruptcy forms to court on your behalf.
5. Working with a Bankruptcy Trustee
Following filing the bankruptcy forms, the court will assign you a trustee to benefit from Kentucky bankruptcy exemptions. The Trustee is a legal professional who verifies information in the forms. The Trustee looks for a property that can be taken from you and sold. This rarely happens unless the Debtor is dishonest and fails to tell the truth to the attorney. Losing property most often happens when you transfer property to another person. Exemptions allow you to keep your property to achieve a fresh start. You can exempt someone else’s property after you sell or give it away.
The Trustee is also responsible for checking the accuracy of your petition.
6. Credit Counseling and Debtor Education
In 2005 Congress amended the bankruptcy law to require debtors to take two classes. Credit Counseling before filing and Debtor Education after the case is filed if the Debtor wants a discharge. If you want to be never again responsible for your debts you must take the Debtor Education course after you file. Both courses take slightly over 2 hours to complete. The main part is timed and you must allow the 2-hour time to run while watching videos or reading text.
Debtor education is not mandatory. But if you don’t take the Debtor education class you remain liable for the debts. I guess if all I had to do was to catch up on a mortgage and I had no other debts I may not need the discharge.
7. Join The 341 Meeting
The Trustee’s office will hold a meeting where creditors may be present. Normally only the trustee and your attorney are there. The formal meeting is called a 341 meeting, which refers to section 341 of the bankruptcy code. The purpose of the conference is to allow the trustee and creditors to ask the questions at the 341 meeting of creditors.
Most questions are simple as your name and address. But he will probably ask whether you gave away property or sold it for less than its value just prior to filing. Your trustee will ask you questions concerning the reason for your bankruptcy filing and details about your debts.
Filing for Chapter 13 Bankruptcy
You can only file one Chapter 7 bankruptcy every 8 years measured from the date of filing to the date of filing the next Chapter 7. If you have a significant amount of income leftover in your budget and you can pay a Chapter 13 you are required to repay to the best of your ability.
1. Find out if You are Eligible
If your debts exceed 1.5 million you are probably ineligible to file a Chapter 13 as of June 2022. But we expect these limits to increase. You can also only get one discharge after waiting a period of time after your prior bankruptcy. The chart is in our free manual.
You can own a business and file a Chapter 13 bankruptcy but a business like a partnership or corporation can not file. Only humans can file a Chapter 13. According to the bankruptcy laws in Kentucky, businesses can only file a Chapter 7 or 11. To file any bankruptcy you must have filed your income taxes for the prior years and provide them to the trustee.
2. Filing the Forms
Chapter 13 is similar to Chapter 7 in that you must fill out the schedules (forms) accurately. Essentially every bankruptcy petition is the income expenses assets and liabilities which are the balance sheet and cash flow statements prepared in accounting.
3. The Chapter 13 Meeting of Creditors and Confirmation
The trustee will hold a 341 meeting of creditors in Chapter 13 very similar to the 341 meeting in Chapter 7. In the Western District of Kentucky, the confirmation of the plan will occur on the same date as the 341 meeting. In the Eastern District of Kentucky and Southern Indiana, the confirmation moves much more slowly and will happen months and sometimes over a year after the 341 meeting.
Getting a Discharge
If you are awarded a discharge by Kentucky bankruptcy laws after filing a bankruptcy petition, congratulations on reaching your goals. When you receive a discharge, you are not responsible for paying your creditors’ debts. As a result, you will no longer have to worry about receiving a phone call or knock at the door from a creditor demanding payment because, once the discharge has been granted, creditors cannot ask for money from you.
It depends on you and the type of bankruptcy you have filed, and how long it will take to obtain a discharge after the bankruptcy filing. A discharge may be denied if the debtor has not submitted complete papers or has not attended the credit counseling courses.
After attending the 341 meetings, you can expect a discharge within two months if you have filed for Chapter 7. It may take long before the discharge is approved when a creditor files against it. Chapter 13 may take years to be approved for a discharge.
Hire a Trusted Bankruptcy Attorney!
Bookmark our Bankruptcy website and use it for frequent reference. You will need this information later, and we often do updates. Furthermore, this information is educational, not legal advice. If you have specific Chapter 7 or 13 bankruptcy questions, contact Nick for professional advice.
Since 1988, Nick has accepted and worked with bankruptcy, debt defense, and foreclosure cases as a legal professional. So if you are looking for a bankruptcy lawyer in Kentucky, call today for more details on how to easily and quickly file your bankruptcy in Kentucky.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a homestead exemption for filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy in KY?
A Kentucky homestead exemption for filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy in ky is meant to preserve the value of the home where you reside, according to Kentucky bankruptcy laws. You must give your personal property under unknown exempt assets to your bankruptcy trustee in chapter 7 bankruptcy. After the sale of all your property, the trustee will pay creditors.
What are the steps for filing bankruptcy in KY?
The steps to file bankruptcy in KY using these steps:
- Hire a bankruptcy lawyer
- Ask whether you qualify for bankruptcy or not
- Add your information to bankruptcy forms
- File the bankruptcy against a law firm (like Weltman’s)
- Get a trustee
- Take credit counseling course
- File for Chapter 13 or 7.
How much are the court cost and filing fees for bankruptcy in the state of KY?
The court cost and filing fee for bankruptcy in the state of KY are almost 306$ for Chapter 7 and 281$ for Chapter 13. The important thing to remember is that these prices may change over time.
What is the law in KY about an insurance agent filing bankruptcy?
The law in KY about an insurance agent filing bankruptcy says, if an insurance agent files bankruptcy in KY, it will have no effect on the policy owner, and it will continue. The insurance company would continue to pay for all insurance claims.
What are income restrictions on filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy in KY?
The income restrictions on filing chapter 7 bankruptcy in KY include passing a mean test before filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. If you have a high income, you will not be able to pass the test. Therefore, you will have to consider Chapter 13 if your income does not meet the Chapter 7 criteria.
Resources for Bankruptcy
Louisville, Kentucky Bankruptcy Forms
File Bankruptcy Online in Louisville, Kentucky
Credit Counseling to Meet Bankruptcy Requirements
Filing Late Bankruptcy Debtor Education and Credit Counseling
Filing Chapter 7 & Chapter 13 Bankruptcy
If you are thinking of filing a bankruptcy petition, don’t delay because timing is crucial. I am here to help you. So, contact my office to start the conversation—Nick C. Thompson, Bankruptcy Lawyer: 502-625-0905.
