- Chapter 7: This process is for individuals or businesses of any size. It works to liquidate non-exempt assets in exchange for the discharge of debts. With most individual cases, the exemptions provided by the bankruptcy code protect one’s property from liquidation and all one loses are one’s debts.
- Chapter 13: This bankruptcy is primarily for individuals, but sole proprietorship businesses can file by combining personal and business debts into one case. This process works to reorganize debts into a manageable repayment plan lasting three to five years that is tailored to one’s monthly income and reasonable and necessary monthly living expenses.
- Chapter 12: This works like Chapter 13, but it is exclusively designed for family farmers and fishers who derive 50% of their yearly income from their farming/fishing operations.
- Chapter 11: This is another reorganization bankruptcy, but it’s typically available to very large businesses that aren’t sole proprietorships or partnerships and to individuals who have a lot of property and have more than $419,275 of unsecured debts and more than $1,257,850 of secured debts. Chapter 11 typically costs more, takes longer, and involves more debts than the other reorganization bankruptcies.
- Chapter 9: This bankruptcy process is for cities, towns, and other municipalities. The process protects the filing municipality from its creditors while a debt reorganization plan is drafted.
- Chapter 15: This chapter applies to bankruptcies that cause cross-border insolvencies and is used when a filer has debts in the United States and in another country.


