The North Carolina Bankruptcy Information Blog

Part of understanding bankruptcy is knowing who the professionals are that you will meet and deal with along the way. From your attorney to even your creditors, it helps provide a solid foundation of comfort to actually understand the role of those who are playing a role in your financial future.

One of those individuals is the case Trustee, the most prominent member of the bankruptcy process. And, the involvement you have with the case trustee depends on which chapter of bankruptcy you are filing.

As you may know, the 2 main “chapters” are 7 and 13. Well over 95% of all bankruptcy cases filed are filed under Chapter 7 or Chapter 13.…

In a recent post, we talked a little about the “Meeting of Creditors.” That got us to thinking, are there other terms and steps along the way that we could help you better understand if you are still considering filing bankruptcy? And, does the blog mention or gloss over some terms that leave you with questions? So, we decided to put together a brief glossary of bankruptcy terms and jargon that might help get a better idea of how this whole thing works.

• Automatic stay: A court action that holds your creditors at bay upon filing bankruptcy.
• Collateral:An asset that backs up a specific debt.For example, in the most fundamental sense, your house backs up a mortgage loan.

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If you’re heavily in debt and behind on your payments, you know full well what your creditors want: they want you to pay up – and now. They don’t care where or how you get the money; they just want you to pay. And they’ll do everything they can to get it. A popular tactic is to make it sound like you have no choice but to pay up or suffer irretrievable disaster. They threaten that they’ll sue you, take your property, garnish your wages, or forever destroy your credit rating. However, you have the power of federal bankruptcy law on your side.…

Wondering about the basics of Chapter 7 bankruptcy? Here they are, in a nutshell:

Chapter 7 bankruptcy (sometimes referred to as “liquidation bankruptcy)” is designed to allow you to wipe out all or most of your unsecured debts. These are things like credit card debt and medical bills, which are not secured by some sort of collateral. Getting rid of these debts is the biggest benefit of filing bankruptcy. Imagine how much money you’d have in your pocket if you weren’t throwing it away on monthly credit card payments?

Many people are under the impression that they must give up their property when they file for Chapter 7.…