Can this be right? Saw a lawyer today....

[ajm]

He took one look at our income which is $75K and said we wouldn't qualify for Chapter 7 and we'd have to do Chapter 13. Never asked about expenses or anything.

Does that sound right? The max you can earn in our area to file chap 7 without the means test is $54K. So we have to take the means test.

He said he was going to have to do all these calculations to figure out what our payment would be for Chapter 13 without ever even contemplating Chap 7.

We have no assets, no retirement, and $55K debt. We live in Texas if that matters.

[wonkettegirl]

No, it doesn't sound right. Find a lawyer who will go through the means test with you; you never know - you just may qualify for a 7. The gross income question is just the FIRST question, not the last one!

And yeah, he'll have to do the calculations regardless of what kind of bankruptcy you're in - 7 or 13. So why he'd refuse to even run the numbers to see how close you are to a 7 is beyond me!

[trying_to_fix]

Your lawyer needs to do a means test with you. I earn over six figures and still qualified for a Chapter 7. It just depends on your expenses.

[HHM]

The attorney may just be trying to give you a realistic expectation. The bottom line is, for the most part, if you are over the median, you will end up in a 13.

The only expenses that can change that are secured debt (i.e your mortgages), or business expenses. OR, if your debt is primarily business debt, you can file a 7 if you are over the median.

[Bell30656]

Download Best Case bankruptcy software's free trial and run your own means test. Give yourself a better idea. It is free and pretty easy to use.

[justbroke]

Download Best Case bankruptcy software's free trial and run your own means test. Give yourself a better idea. It is free and pretty easy to use.

Better yet, just do the on-line means test. Best Case is complex and you can easily mess up and not understand what it's asking you.

(http://www.legalconsumer.com/means-test-calculator/)

As HHM wrote, the lawyer is just being up front. More than likely, the lawyer uses BestCase and when the paralegal enters the information, it may show that you qualify.

However, the smell test is that no, you don't qualify with primary consumer debts and being above median. Unless you have an incredibly large family (dependents) or some serious necessities...

[ThreadsSnapping]

We were about $20K over the median and did a chapter 7 with no problems. There are just 2 of us and we didn't have any abnormally high expenses except for auto expenses(about $100 over) and food(about $50 over). We had rent, utilities, food, clothing and other household neccesities, 2 car payments and a student loan.

It can be done, just need to find the right lawyer. Try running the means test yourself to see where you are. Someone posted the link above.

TS

[Help!]

Yes, it sounds right to me. As backward as this sounds, you're not in enough debt for a Ch. 7. The means test relies on a calculation of net income divided by your overall debt and being only $55K in debt makes that percentage much higher than the threshold for presumed abuse. To give you some perspective, our overall debt was 4x our annual gross income. Your overall debt is less than your annual income. Unless you have dependents to support, extremely high medical expenses, dependent care costs or other allowed expenses that would eat up your income, I don't see how a Ch. 7 would be possible.