Start Chapter 7 ... some questions

[bornfree2]

I wonder if you should delay filing BK. We live in weird times right now where you are immune from eviction for payment and can choose to stop paying your landlord, mortgage lender, and student loan servicer with very little adverse effect. It's better to wait until your life gets better with stable housing and sufficient income to live on without credit. Then you discharge all of the back rent and everything else. You can only file once every eight years. California is well known for thriving as a professional tenant and learning how to string out an eviction for many months even when non-payment evictions restart and you'd still have the BK in your back pocket to string it out even longer to build your savings up to the wildcard. If you had a job right now, you could save up for the huge deposits you will need to find a new place. So finding a job ASAP in anything is key. Bankruptcy won't solve the underlying issue which is no income.

I'm from California and I got sued left and right by everyone. So with regards to the lawsuit. It costs court fees to file an answer but I believe there is an indigent program to waive those fees. The answer itself could be pretty easy to file pro se, especially if you can do a general denial (depends on the size of the lawsuit). Look at forums on the Internet for sample answers and the correct form for responding. When you get interrogatories and request for admission from the plaintiff, it gets harder to do the paperwork right but there is online defendant boilerplate in forums for responding to the boilerplate interrogatories of each debt collector. So if you default, your judgment creditor will almost certainly find your new job and drain 25% your paycheck. That's why I think you should defend the lawsuit if you can get a court waiver for the fees. Your paycheck may be exempt from garnishment, but it took over 6 months to get the money back from the sheriff pre-COVID in California.

But right now with things still in pause, find a job in anything and pocket the money for the down payment on your new place. I'm starting to see job ads in California.

1- Thank you for this good, solid alternative. Its true Californians are known for living rent-free but thats not a tactic I can do with a clear conscience.

2- You are correct that I should look to establish a solid foundation by getting income cause money is the problem and solution here. Mentally I cant deal with so many tasks and projects...10 chrome tabs i can do..10 todos to find work, file a bk, answer a lawsuit, take care of family, take care of self, etc, no way lol. I need some wins in my life to attack all the other areas in this hole im in.

3- I need to research more about what an answer and general denial is for this cc balance lawsuit. Ive seen some very complicated posts with '12 answers' or whatever. And some with general denial. Maybe there is a Nolo book on this. I havent found one

4- I really like this idea of delaying the BK so i can save back up to my exemptions amounts (30k in california). I honestly would be AMAZED if i could pull off saving up to that kind of money while pushing off the creditors. Just how long do credit card lawsuits last? A few months? Years?

5- The other reason to file for BK is my credit is so shot now so im not sure how much worse a BK adds to it. If it makes me a black sheep for the next 8 years, i need to understand what life is like. But as you say, having 30k saved up is a hellava cushion. Ive never saved up more than a few thousands..and that made me feel rich lol... then it was all spent and im back in the hole again. lol