Bankruptcy Lawyer’s Office In Aurora, Illinois On How Often One Can ...

The general answer is you can file for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy once every eight years.  To be eligible for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy discharge you must not have filed a prior Chapter 7 bankruptcy or received a discharge rather, in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case within eight years.  As far as Chapter 13 you a Chapter 13 at any time that you’re not barred from doing so.  You can only receive a Chapter 13 discharge once every four years. 

However, you can always file a Chapter 13, payback creditors less than what is owed in full, and simply not receive a discharge.  There are other complicated situations where you start out as a Chapter 13, and then you convert your Chapter 13 case to one under Chapter 7.  You can only convert to Chapter 7, once again, if you have not received a Chapter 7 discharge within eight years.   

However, there is another tricky element here, the Chapter 13 case filing dictates whether or not you can exceed the eight year period.  So in many cases we actually have to dismiss the Chapter 13 and then re-file a Chapter 7 to make a person eligible for the Chapter 7 discharge. 

When determining whether or not you are eligible to file a bankruptcy and received a discharge, your attorney can look on something called Pacer; P-A-C-E-R, which will indicate what prior cases you have filed, when they were filed, if there are any tolling periods if you’re currently in a Chapter 13, and whether or not your case can be converted to one of Chapter 7.