Legal Question in Bankruptcy in California

Re: Can I still be paid?

Can you be paid? Maybe you can. The first thing you must realize is that the bankrutpcy imposes a federal stay on all actions or efforts to collect a debt, so you can't do anything towards collecting on your settlement. You do have, however, the following options:

1. Asking permission of the court to be "excused" from bankruptcy, and thus go ahead and collect the judgment. This is called a motion for relief from the stay.

2. Filing an adversary proceeding, which asks the court to determine whether or not the type of debt fits under one of the exceptions to discharge, and thus will survive the bankruptcy; or

3. Renewing your judgment. Under California law, if you have a judgment (you mentioned both the word "judgment" and also "settlement", so I'm a little confused as to what you have) it can be renewed. A court-ordered judgment can be renewed every 10 years, so if the bankruptcy is successful (and not dismissed), you can start collecting on the judgment 10 years from the original date of the judgment.

Re: Can I still be paid?

Who in their right mind will dismiss a case until all the money is paid. I doubt there is a judgment. So there is no settlement and the case should be placed in either inactive status due to the bankruptcy stay or else the case will be on the active status and set for a trial. Unless the parties come to the table again and resettle the case. I don't know about renewing a judgment. Because the bankruptcy court dismisses the debt.