Requirements and Benefits of Oklahoma Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
Good afternoon, everybody. Edward Kelly here, your bankruptcy attorney, returning with our ongoing series, Three Minutes to Financial Freedom.
I’ve been asked to make another basic video overview of Oklahoma Chapter 7 bankruptcy. So what is it? How does it work? Well, you’ve got to meet the income guidelines, so that goes by your family size, household size. Household to one, you can make up to about $45,000 to $50,000. If you’re under that or at that, you can do a Chapter 7 liquidation. If you’re over that, then you need expenses to pull you down, or you have to look at other types of relief, like Chapter 13.
Second thing, you need to have debt that can be discharged. Otherwise, there’s not much point in doing a 7. And that’s going to include most debts that you think of, typically, medical bills, credit cards, signature loans, anything unsecured with no collateral on it. What you can’t do are student loans, child support, court fines, and taxes less than three years since filing. Beyond that, you can discharge those, which a lot of people don’t know.
So, qualify via income, have debt that you can get rid of, and the third thing is you want to look at your assets. So, your home is protected. We’ve got a great homestead exemption in Oklahoma. Your vehicle is protected per person in a married couple up to $7,500 per vehicle in equity.
So, you know, you could have a $30,000 car, but if you owe $23,000, you’re still fine, because your equity is only $7,000 under the $7,500. Or if you own it outright, if it’s under $7,500, no problem. All your household goods, all your normal stuff, you get to keep that. What you want to watch out for is property somewhere else that you don’t live in, expensive works of art, expensive jewelry, and guns.
In some cases, there are exemptions for these as well, but these are what you want to watch out for. Motorcycles, RVs, trailers, stocks, bonds, and savings accounts aren’t IRAs, because IRAs and 401ks are protected. You’re good on those. Anyway, you’re going to want to look at your assets.
So basically, if you qualify as far as your income if you’ve got enough debt that it’s worth getting rid of it, and if you don’t have assets that you’re going to lose that you want to keep, then you absolutely want to do this Chapter 7. Also, you can only do it once every eight years.
The whole process takes 90 days. As your bankruptcy attorney, if you hire me, I’m going to do all the work for you. We file it. 90 days later, you’re going to get a discharge. There’s a little telephone hearing because of COVID. Nothing’s in person. Take you five minutes to an hour. The actual time for the hearing is about five minutes, but if you’re late on the list, you might have to wait a while to get in and out. And then you’re done.
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We talked in another video about reaffirming your vehicle if you want to do that. That’s easy. No problem. So if you qualify and if this equation works for you, no need to wait. Let’s file it.
As always, you can reach me at oklahomacitybankruptcyattorney.pro or call me at (405) 563-7888.