Libertyville Bankruptcy Attorney On Chapter 13 Filing

02/16/12

Chapter 13 is a great way to save a home states Libertyville bankruptcy attorney.  Chapter 13 allows you to pay back the part that you fell behind on your mortgage over the next 3 to 5 years.  You get 3 to 5 years to repay the part that you fell behind.  The only requirement is that you continue to make your regular mortgage payment going forward.  This is a great way to save a home.  In fact, if you do a Chapter 13, you still have the option to do a short sale or a traditional sale while you are in your Chapter 13.  The only difference is the proceeds from the sale would first go to the Chapter 13 payoff.  But it is better to have that ability to reorganize and save your home and have your sale options still available to you than to lose it to the creditor in a sheriff sale. 

A Chapter 13 is available for someone who has steady income.  Your Chapter 13 bankruptcy attorney would be able to advise you or give you an estimate as to what it’s going to take per month by way of a Chapter 13 trustee payment to make your case feasible.  

Once again, Chapter 13 is a complicated area of the bankruptcy law and you want to seek an attorney who is experienced in Chapter 13.  You want an attorney who is familiar with the Chapter 13 trustees in terms of what the trustees are looking for to confirm cases.  In the Northern District of Illinois, there are three Chapter 13 trustees who handle all of the Chapter 13 filings throughout the district.  Each individual Chapter 13 trustee is different.  Each Chapter 13 trustee requires different things to get a case confirmed; particularly, one trustee allows you to keep all of your federal tax refund every year while you are in the plan.  A different trustee will let you keep anything under $1200 and anything over $1200 has to go towards your Chapter 13.  The final trustee in the district wants every bit of your federal tax return to go towards your Chapter 13 plan payment.  Thus, it pays to have an attorney who is knowledgeable on the different Chapter 13 trustees who practice in your jurisdiction. 

If you hire a competent, skilled Chapter 13 trustee, you are going to have the greatest chance of success not only in getting your case filed properly and getting it confirmed properly, but keeping it alive whenever there is a Trustee’s Motion to Dismiss or a creditor’s Motion to Modify the Automatic Stay. 

For more information, contact the local attorney in your area to interview that attorney.  If you feel comfortable with that attorney and you feel that that attorney can do an adequate job of representing you and helping you, then by all means take the first step forward and higher that attorney.

 

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