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Filing a bankruptcy case gets immediate protection for you, for your paycheck, for your home, and for all your possessions. This “automatic stay” provides this kind of protection for you and your property the moment either a Chapter 7 “straight bankruptcy” case or a Chapter 13 “adjustment of debts” case is filed.

My law firm represents landlords in unlawful detainers.  An “unlawful detainer” is the legal name for the law suit in which a landlord sues to evict a tenant who isn’t paying rent or is otherwise in breach of the lease.  Normally, they are fairly routine.

What makes it illegal for your creditor to pursue a discharged debt? What penalties may get awarded to you if a creditor breaks the law?

Here are 3 common scenarios. When is Chapter 7 “straight bankruptcy” enough, and when do you need Chapter 13 “adjustment of debts”?

If you owe a debt on a vehicle, Chapter 7 gives you a narrow choice: keep it and pay on the contract, or surrender it and owe nothing.

How does a Chapter 13 “adjustment of debts” protect what you may otherwise lose in a Chapter 7 “straight bankruptcy”?

Can you really keep everything you own if you file bankruptcy? The Answer: Usually Yes.

The Constitution empowered Congress to “pass uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies,” which then took more than 100 years to do so.

Something like seventy percent of the people in the United States die without a will.  It’s call “intestacy”, and if you want your family to waste a whole lot of money and time after you die, that’s the estate plan for you.

Debtors’ prisons? There’s that and a lot more to the very colorful history of bankruptcy law.