Legal Question in Bankruptcy in West Virginia

Re: Will bankruptcy help?

Filing Bankruptcy and riding yourself of the obligation to repay your landlord will make you feel much better and will allow you to get on with your life. From an emotional standpoint, yes, Bankruptcy will help.

From a legal standpoint, Bankruptcy should discharge all of your debts, and that is good too. However, it may make it more difficult to obtain new student loans.

It is probably impractical for the landlord to garnish the wages from your low-paying part time job. The fees and expenses of a garnishment will eat up much of what is available to take, and certainly will not pay the interest on the judgment. Each state has specific laws stating how much can be taken in garnishment, but generally they must leave you with 80% of the minimum wage for full time employment; more for part time work. At most, they can take 25% of earnings. So from your creditor's view, there isn't much to take.

Besides, students frequently change jobs and then you have to investigate where the person is working all over - not an easy task.

So if you can go two or three years without getting garnished, they probably will forget about you and you can walk. Under the statute of limitations in your state, if a judgment is not collected within that time period, it vanishes. Typically 6-7 years is the time period to wait.

So you have the pros and cons - make the decision that is right for you.

Dorothy Bunce

Dorothy G. Bunce, Attorney at Law

3436 Townhouse Drive

Re: Will filing bankruptcy help?

Bankruptcy will discharge your credit card. It will not affect your fines.

You say a "suit" for fire damage. Is there a judgment? Do you have insurance? Have you spoken with a lawyer to see if you have defenses?

Bankruptcy will discharge the debt to the landlord for the fire damage, but you don't want to file if it is not certain that you are liable for more than you can pay. You are just getting started in life on your own, and poor credit could be a major setback. Bankruptcy will remain on your credit report for up to ten years. Even if you are liable for $20,000, I'm not sure it's worth filing if you have prospects of working out a payment plan or the like.

By the way, regarding what another attorney here stated, a judgment in WV is valid for ten years and can be renewed indefinitely. It will also be honored in all other states.

Daniel Press

Chung & Press, P.C.

6723 Whittier Ave., Suite 302