{"id":28,"date":"2015-08-26T00:00:33","date_gmt":"2015-08-26T00:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kcwlawoffices.com.php7-34.lan3-1.websitetestlink.com\/blog\/?p=28"},"modified":"2017-09-11T05:17:35","modified_gmt":"2017-09-11T05:17:35","slug":"proving-you-cant-pay-what-forms-are-filed-in-a-bankruptcy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kcwlawoffices.com\/blog\/proving-you-cant-pay-what-forms-are-filed-in-a-bankruptcy\/","title":{"rendered":"Proving You Can\u2019t Pay: What Forms Are Filed In A Bankruptcy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"gdlr-blog-content\">\n<p>Most people understand the basic concepts of bankruptcy. They know that papers are filed with the Greenville County Bankruptcy Court and then they don\u2019t owe their debt anymore. I wish filing a bankruptcy were that easy. I always give a brief description of the bankruptcy process to my clients during the initial consultation. Bankruptcy is a form driven process and these forms are used to show the Court and the creditors that a debtor (a person filing bankruptcy is known as a debtor) can\u2019t pay.<\/p>\n<p>A bankruptcy case is started by filing several documents: Voluntary Petition, Schedules A-J, Statements of Financial Affairs, and Means Test. There are several other forms that need to be filed, but these forms are the most important. Let\u2019s explore these documents individually below.<\/p>\n<p><strong>VOLUNTARY PETITION<\/strong><br \/>\nThe voluntary petition is the first form filed. This form tells the Court the debtor\u2019s identifying information, such as name and address. It also indicates the chapter of bankruptcy (7 or 13), and whether South Carolina or another state is the proper place to file the bankruptcy case. Importantly, this document states that the debtor understands the concept of a bankruptcy and wishes to file the case. There is also a signature page at the end of the Voluntary Petition where the debtor attests that everything on the Voluntary Petition is true and correct to the best of their knowledge.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SCHEDULES A-J<\/strong><br \/>\nSchedules A-J (or simply the \u201cschedules\u201d) are the documents that show the Court the debtor\u2019s current financial situation. Each individual schedule represents a different part of the debtor\u2019s finances. See the table below for a brief explanation of each schedule\u2019s purpose and type of information listed.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Schedule A \u2013 Real Property<\/strong> example: houses, grave plots<\/li>\n<li><strong>Schedule B \u2013 Personal Property<\/strong> example: vehicles, furniture, bank accounts<\/li>\n<li><strong>Schedule C \u2013 Exemptions<\/strong> example: property debtor will keep (usually 100%)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Schedule D \u2013 Secured Creditors<\/strong> example: home loans, car loans<\/li>\n<li><strong>Schedule E \u2013 Priority Unsecured Creditors<\/strong> example: income tax debts, child support<\/li>\n<li><strong>Schedule F \u2013 Unsecured Creditors<\/strong> example: credit card bills, medical bills<\/li>\n<li><strong>Schedule G \u2013 Executory Contracts\/ Leases<\/strong> example: real estate leases, equipment leases<\/li>\n<li><strong>Schedule H \u2013 Co-Debtors<\/strong> example: co-signors<\/li>\n<li><strong>Schedule I \u2013 Income<\/strong> example: income from employment, social security<\/li>\n<li><strong>Schedule J \u2013 Expenses<\/strong> example: utilities, rent, mortgage<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL AFFAIRS<\/strong><br \/>\nIn contrast to the schedules, the statement of financial affairs (or \u201cSOFA\u201d) details the debtor\u2019s recent financial history. The SOFA lists a variety of information, such as the debtor\u2019s sources of income for the past 3 years, transfers of property in the past 2 years, large payments to creditors, and lawsuits in which the debtor is a party. The SOFA lists much more information, but I\u2019ll save that for another day. The statement of financial affairs also shows the Court whether fraudulent transfers or preferences exist. A fraudulent transfer is when a debtor tries to get rid of property so that it isn\u2019t taken from them in a bankruptcy and a preference is when a debtor chooses to pay certain creditors over others prior to bankruptcy. Both fraudulent transfers and preferences can be undone to benefit the creditors of a bankruptcy case.<\/p>\n<p><strong>MEANS TEST<\/strong><br \/>\nThe last important form that is filed is called the means test. The means test looks into a debtor\u2019s income and expenses to determine if there is any disposable monthly income. This form has a different purpose depending on the chapter of bankruptcy case filed. See my blog on the differences between the chapters for an explanation of the differences between chapter 7 and chapter 13 bankruptcies. If the debtor filed a chapter 7, the form will prove that the debtor does not have any income left over to repay their creditors. If the debtor files a chapter 13, then the form shows how much excess income the debtor has to use to repay their creditors.<\/p>\n<p><strong>CONCLUSION<\/strong><br \/>\nBankruptcy is a complicated area of the law. Whereas I have provided a brief explanation of the above documents to give debtor\u2019s a better idea of the bankruptcy process, this is by no means a complete list. Although the forms seem simple, there are many intricacies involved in filling out the forms correctly. It is best to let an experienced bankruptcy professional handle the matter. If you are in the Greenville and Simpsonville area and are contemplating bankruptcy but are not sure if it\u2019s right for you please give me a call at 864-399-7888 to set up a free consultation at our Simpsonville Office.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most people understand the basic concepts of bankruptcy. They know that papers are filed with the Greenville County Bankruptcy Court and then they don\u2019t owe their debt anymore. I wish filing a bankruptcy were that easy. I always give a brief description of the bankruptcy process to my clients during the initial consultation. Bankruptcy is &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.kcwlawoffices.com\/blog\/proving-you-cant-pay-what-forms-are-filed-in-a-bankruptcy\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Proving You Can\u2019t Pay: What Forms Are Filed In A Bankruptcy&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[17,18,19,20,21],"class_list":["post-28","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-debt-issues","tag-bankruptcy","tag-bankruptcy-law","tag-chapter-13","tag-chapter-7","tag-personal-bankruptcy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcwlawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcwlawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcwlawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcwlawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcwlawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcwlawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcwlawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28\/revisions\/30"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcwlawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcwlawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcwlawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcwlawoffices.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}