• Home
  • Bankruptcy in Brief
  • ABC’s of Bankruptcy
  • Considering Bankruptcy
  • True Stories
  • Chapter 13
  • Blog
  • About Us

Northern California Bankruptcy Lawyer

On The Bankruptcy Soapbox

The Soap Box
  • How bankruptcy works
  • Mortgage Matters
  • Consumer Rights
  • Newsworthy
  • You & Your Lawyer
  • Small Business
  • Family Law

Where Do I File My Bankruptcy Case?

By Cathy Moran


Remember the kid’s geography game, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?

Clues took players all around the world to stop a gang of thieves.

When it’s debt you want to stop, if you’ve moved around in the past two or three years, the rules of the game are not child’s play.

Two issues are in play.  One concerns which courthouse your bankruptcy case is filed in.  The second is what state’s  exemptions can you use.

Where you file bankruptcy

The basic rule is that you file your case in the federal district where you have lived for the past 180 days or where you have assets.  The legal term for the correct court is “venue”.

If you’ve lived in several federal districts in that period, you file where you have lived for the greater part of the last 180 days.

So, if you’ve recently moved, you can file in the district where your new home is located after you’ve been there 91 days.  Before that point, you can file in the district you moved from.

What you keep through bankruptcy

State law where your case is filed usually defines the extent of your property interests.

State law tells the bankruptcy court what you own, and federal bankruptcy law determines what happens to that property.

Even though bankruptcy is federal law, state law controls exemptions, the law that determines what you keep when you file bankruptcy.

Because state exemption laws range from scrooge-like to Daddy-Warbucks generous, debtors in the past sometime moved to a state with generous exemption laws before filing.

The bankruptcy amendments of 2005 tried to stop people from moving to get better exemptions.  The “reform” law made a state’s exemption laws  available only to people who had lived in that state for at least two years before filing.

If you haven’t lived in the state for two years, you get the exemptions of the state where you lived for the six months beyond the 24 month requirement.

And, it gets worse:  you can only use those exemptions if the law of the state allows the use of state exemptions to non residents.  [Thanks, Congress].

If state law doesn’t authorize use by non residents, you get to use the federal bankruptcy exemptions.

Morale of this story:  if you’ve lived a mobile life in the years before filing bankruptcy, make sure your attorney knows your residential history before you file the case.

More from the Soapbox on bankruptcy procedure

File bankruptcy without your spouse

Bankruptcy as a moment in your financial timeline

Does what you own drive what kind of bankruptcy you file?

 

Image courtesy of Cara Brugman. 

More from the Soapbox

  • What Asset of Failed Business Is Most Valuable?What Asset of Failed Business Is Most Valuable?
  • Life And Death of Debt In CaliforniaLife And Death of Debt In California
  • What Happens If You Don’t Pay Your DebtsWhat Happens If You Don’t Pay Your Debts
  • The Most Costly Community Property BlunderThe Most Costly Community Property Blunder
  • California Foreclosure Law Streamlined By AmendmentCalifornia Foreclosure Law Streamlined By Amendment

Filed Under: How bankruptcy works

About Cathy Moran

I'm a veteran bankruptcy lawyer and consumer advocate in California's Silicon Valley. I write, teach, and speak in the hopes of expanding understanding of how bankruptcy can make life better in a family's future.

Coronavirus & Your Finances

About The Soapbox

You've arrived at the Bankruptcy Soapbox, a resource of bankruptcy information and consumer law.

Soapbox is a companion site to Bankruptcy in Brief, where I try to be largely explanatory and even handed (Note I said "try").

Here, I allow myself to tell stories and express strong opinions on how I think law should work for the consumer and small businesses when it comes to debt.

Moran Law Group
Bankruptcy specialists for individuals and small businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area

How Bankruptcy Works

When Can I File Bankruptcy Again

You can file bankruptcy tomorrow, so long as you don't currently have a bankruptcy case pending. When you can get a discharge in that case is a different story. The Bankruptcy Code limits the frequency of getting a discharge, not the filing and completion of the bankruptcy case. My friend Gene Melchionne wrote … Read more

More Posts from this Category

643 Bair Island Road
Suite 403
Redwood City, CA 94063
Phone: (650) 694-4700

Categories

All content copyright © Moran Law Group. All rights reserved.