Bankruptcy Discharge, what does that mean?

If you are ever considering of filing for bankruptcy protection, your chief objective would be to receive the final bankruptcy discharge documents. With a bankruptcy discharge in effect, no creditors that has been mentioned in the bankruptcy petition can ever take any legal (or illegal) actions against you to recoup the debt.

Is it difficult to get a bankruptcy discharge

Unless the bankruptcy court suspects there is fraud involved in your case, bankruptcy discharge is usually awarded to those who had filed for bankruptcy. Bankruptcy is not an easy process and you should not take it lightly. It is even harder to file bankruptcy because of the new bankruptcy law that has been passed in 2005. Even with all these obstacles, most people who has filed for bankruptcy, almost all of them will get a bankruptcy discharge.

Who decides if you will get the discharge?

Your bankruptcy case will be appointed a bankruptcy judge who will be presiding over your case. Bankruptcy case should not be thought of as any other law case. Bankruptcy case is not conducted in front of the bankruptcy judge. The bankruptcy judge's duty is to use the documents gathered throughout the entire bankruptcy process and decide if the bankruptcy case should be dismissed or discharged. The bankruptcy judge makes the final determination on your bankruptcy case even though the bankruptcy trustee can make suggestion to the judge.

While bankruptcy discharge is more frequent than the bankruptcy dismissal, dismissal of bankruptcy can materialize. If the bankruptcy judge believes you are hiding assets from creditors, your case can be dismissed. The bankruptcy credit counseling courses are so important that if you do not complete them, your bankruptcy case can be closed without a discharge or dismissal.

Can a creditor affects the outcome of the bankruptcy discharge?

Even though the creditors cannot directly contest the bankruptcy discharge, they have the option to protest such discharge during the 341 meeting, or the 30-45 day period after the 341 meeting. In order for the creditors' case to be heard, the creditors will need to submit to the bankruptcy court support documents to protest against the bankruptcy discharge. The bankruptcy has the option to discharge the bankruptcy case or just specific part of the bankruptcy case and make the debtor liable for those non discharged debt.

If you have been denied a discharge (not due to fraud), the debts that you have listed in the bankruptcy filing will never ever be discharged in any bankruptcy case. If you need additional information on bankruptcy, please visit our website at ToFileBankruptcyOrNot.com.