Chapter 13 bankruptcy · Des Plaines
Keep your house. Keep your car. One payment you can afford.
Chapter 13 is the get-control bankruptcy. You keep what you own, the court stops every creditor, and you pay what your budget allows over three to five years. What is left at the end is discharged.
Filed to stop a foreclosure? Call today, not tomorrow.
Think of Chapter 13 as
Who gets what, when, over how long.
Three questions. The plan answers all three, and I write it.
Why Chapter 13
Four reasons people choose the plan over Chapter 7
Any one of them is enough.
You are behind on the house or the car
Chapter 7 cannot catch up missed payments. Chapter 13 spreads them over the plan and the foreclosure or repossession stops.
Your income is too high for Chapter 7
Over the Illinois median and failing the means test? Chapter 13 is still open, and the plan is sized to what you can pay.
You own something Chapter 7 would take
Equity above the Illinois exemptions, a paid-off second car, a rental property. In Chapter 13 you keep it and pay its value over time instead.
You filed Chapter 7 within the last eight years
A second Chapter 7 discharge has to wait eight years. Chapter 13 has a shorter wait and still stops the creditors today.
How the plan works
Who gets what, when, over how long
You make one payment a month to the Chapter 13 trustee. The trustee pays your creditors in the order the law sets. Not every creditor is treated the same, and that is the point.
#who
Secured creditors first
The mortgage and the car loan. Missed payments are caught up through the plan. Keep the property, keep paying it.
#who
Priority debts in full
Recent income taxes and any child support arrears. Paid through the plan, interest-free on most taxes.
#what
Credit cards and medical bills get what is left
Often a small share, sometimes nothing. Whatever is unpaid when the plan ends is discharged.
#how long
36 months if you are under the median income, 60 if you are over
Three years or five. A plan can end early if every creditor entitled to full payment has been paid.
Filing to discharge
A Chapter 13 case, start to finish
We file. Everything stops that day.
Foreclosure, repossession, garnishment, the calls. The automatic stay applies the moment the case is filed.
The first plan payment, within 30 days
You start paying the trustee before the plan is even approved. Payroll deduction is available and most of my clients use it.
The trustee meeting and the confirmation hearing
Ten minutes of questions with the trustee, then I appear before the judge to get the plan confirmed. You do not need to be there for the hearing.
Three to five years of payments
Life happens. Plans get modified when income changes. I am your attorney for the whole term, not just the filing.
The discharge, and the case closes
After the last payment and a final certification, the court eliminates whatever was not paid. The Chapter 13 discharge covers more kinds of debt than Chapter 7 does.
Do you qualify?
Three requirements for Chapter 13
Regular income
A paycheck, self-employment, a pension, Social Security, a working spouse. Enough to fund a plan after real living expenses.
Debt under the limits
Federal law caps how much secured and unsecured debt a Chapter 13 filer can have. Almost every consumer and most small business owners are well under them.
A plan filed in good faith
Your creditors have to get at least what they would have gotten in Chapter 7, and the plan has to be one you can actually keep. I write it that way.
Not sure it is Chapter 13?
Most credit card cases are Chapter 7. Check that door too.
Chapter 7 — the fresh start
No repayment plan. Debts eliminated in about four months, for people whose income fits the means test.
See if you qualify →
The income limits
The Illinois median income by household size. Under it, Chapter 7 is open and the Chapter 13 plan is three years, not five.
Check the numbers →
Questions I hear a lot
Straight answers about Chapter 13
It comes from your budget, not from what you owe. We list your real income and real expenses, and what is left over is the payment. For many families it is less than what they were paying the credit cards.
Usually not. The mortgage arrears, the car and any recent taxes get paid in full. Credit cards and medical bills often get pennies on the dollar, and whatever is left is discharged when the plan ends.
Plans can be changed. Payments can be lowered, paused or in some cases the plan can be converted to Chapter 7. Call me the week it happens, not three months later.
Yes, if the case is filed before the sale. The automatic stay stops the sale and the plan catches up the missed payments over time. The earlier you call, the more room we have.
Behind on the house? The plan works only if it is filed in time.
One call. I tell you the same day whether Chapter 13 fits.