Help...moving soon, where do I file?

[johncock]

Lived in Ohio for 10 plus years. A job moved me to Colorado. We have been here 1 year. I have since lost the job, and remain unemployed. The house is about to go into forclosure, among several other finiancial issues. We are moving back to Ohio this month. We are unsure of where we can, or should file. In addition, I will likely receive a job offer this week, which will re-locate me to Georgia at the end of June.
I'm very confused. And worried!

[justbroke]

Well your first hurdle is the "residency" requirement. You must be a resident of the State in which you file, for at least 90 days.

The other hurdle is on which State exemptions would you be able to use for your Bankruptcy. You are more than likely going to be using the Ohio Exemptions (or the Federal), because you haven't been anywhere for 2 years yet. (It's a slightly complex formula, but you haven't been more than 2 years since living in Ohio (for 10 years), so it will probably be Ohio or Federal.)

[StartingOver08]

Take a look at this link for the residency requirement, (listed under the header 'Exemptions'): http://www.standardlegal.com/law-lib...w-Changes.html

In short, the requirement is to reside in a state for 730 days (2 yrs), but if you have been in multiple states during that 2 yrs period, then the governing exemption law will be the state where you were located for the 180 days immediately before the 730 day time period. This is supposed to keep people from moving from state to state to get better exemptions. The link explains it a little better. Here is another article that explains it too: http://bankruptcy-law.freeadvice.com...exemptions.htm

Just to complicate things a little further, you can file after you have been in a location for 91 days, but the exemptions you use are the state's exemptions as above. Unless the state where you are located allows federal exemptions. Check the various states exemptions here: www.legalconsumer.com It will let you know if the federal exemption is available.

So far it looks like you would use the Ohio exemptions.