Bankruptcy in Illinois...don't know if 7 or 13 would be best?

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Q. I am a homeowner and would like to keep my home. Would a 7 or 13 be best?

A. It depends on your equity in the home, the exemptions in your state and whether or not you are behind in your payments for secured property (car, boat, home), that you want to keep. Talk to a bankruptcy attorney in your local area. Most offer a free initial consultation. And then, after your free consultation, and before you hand over your checkbook to a lawyer, go to www.nolo.com and get their 7 or 13 Bankruptcy book to see if you can do it yourself (Chapter 7 ain't that hard if it's a straightforward case). Forms are available in Adobe Acrobat form: Bankruptcy Made E-Z www.e-zlegal.com (but don't buy it there... search the web for cheaper). Yes, that makes perfect sense. Risk your home and everything else you own on your ability to perform a bankruptcy yourself to save a few hundred dollars, when you're not even positive which bankruptcy chapter to file. Most attorneys that file bankruptcy won't represent themselves, if they are not in the Bankruptcy field. Does this tell you something? While it may appear simple on the surface, bankruptcy is in reality based on a hodgepodge of laws (Some Federal and some State), many of which cannot be found under the bankruptcy code. For example, do you live in a community property state? If you do, the answer as to whether or not you need to file jointly or not can be quite different than if you live in a state that is not a community property state. At my Meeting of the Creditors, my interview lasted 2 minutes, with the toughest question being, "When will your employer pay you your back pay?". I watched, however as more than a half dozen people that before me were grilled by a second questioner, with questions like, "Why did you stop paying your mortgage, when you stopped paying the rest of your bills, and what did you do with the money that you have budgeted for your housing?" My Federal Income Tax (long form) consisted of 5 pages plus W-2s. My Chapter 7 Bankruptcy filing was in the neighborhood of 50 pages. My bankruptcy ran less than $1300 and I had close to $90,000 of debt discharged, My wife's disability hearing cost more than twice that amount, and after attorney fees, she netted less than $9000 before taxes, yet I consider both attorneys' fees a bargain. Before doing it yourself, consider what is at stake.

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