Dealing with debts you can’t consistently pay off each month can be one of the most stressful situations for individuals and households to face. Whether you’ve accrued debt from your mortgage, car loan, and credit cards, or had unexpected medical expenses, job losses, and other circumstances, those financial obligations can seriously compromise your quality of life. There are ways to deal with debts outside of routine repayment, including debt relief programs, consolidation, and other types of settlement. These options might be workable for very few people in certain situations. More often than not, however, they are very risky, slow, costly, and ineffective and will only postpone an eventual bankruptcy filing. In fact, filing for individual consumer bankruptcy may be the most direct and reliable and permanent way to resolve debts through a government-sanctioned process. Additionally, if you are facing creditors who are threatening actions like foreclosing on your home or wage garnishment, filing for bankruptcy can quickly put a halt to those dangers. Behm Law Group, Ltd. can help you determine if filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Mankato, MN and the local region is the right choice for your financial circumstances. Our attorneys will support and guide you every step of the way to find permanent debt relief through the filing of a bankruptcy case.
Chapter 7 Bankrupcty
If you are behind on debt payments, utility bills, and even medical expenses, creditors can garnish your wages by filing a lawsuit and getting a money judgment in court. Some creditors, like those to whom you owe student loans, taxes, or child support, can even garnish wages and levy on your bank accounts without court action. Generally, there are limits to how much creditors can garnish. State law regulates garnishment activities for judgment creditors, student loan collectors, tax authorities, and child support collectors.
Chapter 7 Bankruptcy helps with Debts
Through Chapter 7 bankruptcy, debts like credit card bills, medical debts, mortgages, car loans, personal loans and many other debts can all be permanently discharged. Filing for bankruptcy will also give you the benefit of the automatic stay. The automatic stay injunctive mandates of 11 U.S.C. §362 prevent your creditors from engaging in collection activities while your bankruptcy case is being processed. This means that you won’t have to continue making debt payments, that the foreclosure proceedings on your house will be stopped, and any wage garnishment activities will cease.
A general exception to the automatic stay is child support collection activity. If your child support creditors are garnishing your wages, they will generally be allowed to continue even after your bankruptcy case is filed when the automatic stay is in effect. Secured creditors – creditors who have debts that are secured by some of your property (mortgage lenders, vehicle lenders, etc.) — can request the lifting of the automatic stay if they believe that the property securing their debts will either greatly depreciate in value or be severely damaged during the bankruptcy process. However, the court will only grant the request after conducting a formal hearing and only if a creditor can show “good cause”.
Summary
Filing for bankruptcy is the quickest and most effective way to stop wage garnishments and other creditor actions, but it might not be the right choice for everyone. To learn more about Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Mankato, MN and whether your overall financial condition will benefit from the process, contact Behm Law Group, Ltd. today at (507) 387-7200 or stephen@mankatobankruptcy.com.
