Legal Question in Bankruptcy in Wisconsin

Bankruptcy When One Spouse Has Previously Filed Five Years Earlier, WI Marital Property Act

One spouse filing five years ago may not cause much of an issue in a new chapter 13 filing, although it may be prudent to await the six year anniversary of the previous filing. An individual chapter 7 filing for the spouse without the previous filing history, however, would normally be a problem; discharge would be denied unless eight years had passed since the previous filing.(8 years is the required interval between chapter 7 filings even if you both file a new chapter 7 jointly.) But, there is a chance that you might get away with it if you both "opted out" of the WI marital property act long enough prior to the new chapter 7 filing. The nonfiling spouse might also need to waive any "hypothetical discharge" in the new case and probably would also need to waive any claims against the property of the filing spouse (so that the filing spouse could claim the property as 100% exempt, being its sole owner). Of course, depending upon the value of the assets you own and your ability to claim them as exempt, this plan may or may not be a good idea. The bad news is that if this idea does not work out (i.e., if the "opt out" agreement is declared invalid), the fliing spouse usually could not claim any exemption on the 1/2 interest in marital property owned by the nonfiling spouse. That would mean that the trustee could liquidate it and apply the proceeds to marital debts. As you can probably tell by now, this stuff is incredibly complex and technical, even for experienced bankruptcy lawyers. You therefore need to consult with your own lawyer before acting upon any of these online comments. My comments here do not alone create create any attorney client relationship between us.