Petoskey, MI Bankruptcy Law Firms & Lawyers

You should have known that you would lose your rights to the note when you filed your case. Any good attorney would advise you of this. I suggest that you have someone review the claims filed in the case and try to determine if, or when there might be sufficient funds to pay all of the filed Proofs of Claim, with interest along with the attorney's fees, accountant fees and trustee fees. It seems like filing your bankruptcy case was a very poor legal decision if you only had $10,200 of claims. I hope you didn't fight with the Trustee over signing over the Note or you helped increase the funds needed by the Trustee to pay the administration fees and expenses. Why would anyone let you file bankruptcy when you needed that money? You had everything to lose and very little to gain, unless I didn't understand the fact pattern.

If you file for a chapter 7 bankruptcy and successfully obtain a discharge, meaning that your case doesn't get dismissed or a creditor or trustee doesn't successfully object, then after obtaining the discharge, you no longer have personal liability for the debts you included on your bankruptcy petition (which, if done correctly, needs to contain all of your debts). This means that you no longer have to make payments on those debts. Certain debts, however, you may want to keep paying, and might reaffirm - these include car loans and mortgages, because if you stop paying them, then the creditor can repossess the car or foreclose on the house. You should check your local laws to see if it is a good idea to reaffirm a mortgage in your jurisdiction. If you have assets above your state's exemptions, then some of them may be liquidated to pay a portion of the debts before you get your discharge - however, anything unpaid after the liquidation is discharged. If your assets are below the exemption level, then you can get a discharge without paying anything other than the filing fee and any attorney's fees for your bankruptcy. If you file a chapter 13, you will make payments on your debts for 3 to 5 years before you obtain a discharge of any remaining balance at the end of that time. A chapter 13 is more complicated, however. In either case, you should discuss this with an attorney before proceeding. Bankruptcy can make a lot of sense for people who have too much debt that they cannot pay off, and can improve someone's credit if it is very bad before filing.

It is very hard to file a bankruptcy from outside the United States. In most jurisdictions, the statute of limitations is tolled while you are outside the united states. I think you might as well defer filing a bankruptcy until you resume residence in the US. This advice might change if your creditors tried to sue you while you live abroad.