Davis, CA Bankruptcy Law Firms & Lawyers

CA has decent exemptions and there are rules that prevent so-called exemption shopping. An attorney can quickly pinpoint exemptions applicable to your circumstances.

Income you get from a corporation can be subject to a wage deduction, whether you own the corporation or not. Your interest in the corporation is also an asset that can be seized.

Your occupation has nothing to do with whether or not you can file for bankruptcy. School District which are governmental agencies cannot discriminate against anyone that files for bankruptcy. The amount of your salary might disqualify you from being able to file a Chapter 7 case and require that you file under Chapter 13. It will depend on whether your income is above or below the median income for your area depending on the number dependents you have. Depending on how many dependents you have and where you live you might or might not be able to file under Chapter 7. You might need to do what is called the "means test" in form B22A to determine your eligibility for Chapter 7. That requires consideration of your gross income, payroll deductions, secured debt such as mortgage and car payments, contributions to retirement plans, charitable contributions, etc. It gets a little complex if you need to do the means test so definitely should have an attorney represent you. You should have an attorney under in all cases but even more important if you are an above median income earner. Your student loans are almost never dischargeable if you have any of those. You have to be pretty much permanently unable to earn a basic living wage. Chapter 7 does not affect secured debt such as the mortgage on the condo. You will be able to keep the condo so long as you pay the mortgage on it and if you don't it is the mortgage company who will take it away through foreclosure sooner or later. Bankruptcy will not affect your interest in the condo nor your friend's interest. Your friend's credit rating will not be affected by your bankruptcy. The only thing is that you should be prepared to send the payments for the mortgage by mail once you file since banks typically cancel automatic withdrawals for mortgage payments because they believe that automatic withdrawals violate the automatic stay imposed by the Bankruptcy Court when you file for bankruptcy. That's not a big problem. You just mail in your payments as usual. Usually they will send you a letter telling you where to send the payments and giving you the opportunity to sign up again for automatic withdrawals from a bank account.