You Can’t Discharge It, But There Are Silver Linings
Video Transcribed: What do you need to know about child support as a debt in your bankruptcy? Edward Kelley here, bankruptcy attorney for Wirth Law. And I’m going to answer that question and this one’s a pretty easy one. You can’t discharge it.
So if you’ve got a child support obligation, under no circumstances are you going to be able to discharge that. And in Oklahoma bankruptcy, parlance, discharge means wipe out, render uncollectible. So if you have child support debts, you’re not going to be able to get out of it. But I will give you a silver lining.
So if you’ve got a crushing child support debt and other debts, if you use the chapter seven, just the fact that you have the debt won’t prevent you from doing it if you otherwise qualify and get rid of all your other debt, you’re going to open up a ton of room for that Oklahoma child support.
And particularly, if the child support attorney enters an appearance in the case, or otherwise communicates with you, you may be able to work out a new payment plan so that when you’re trying to get that fresh start, although you can’t get rid of the debt, you can render it manageable and you can wipe out everything else that’s been preventing you from taking care of it.
In an Oklahoma chapter 13, the other individual bankruptcy, that child support arrearage, if you’ve already got a payment set up outside, you can deduct that as an expense.
Absolutely. You can also deduct a child support payment that you’re paying in an Oklahoma chapter 7. Another benefit.
In both cases, it may either allow you, like if you were over the limit normally to file a seven, but you’ve got a big child support payment, you can use that to bring you back down and qualify for that liquidation. And in a chapter 13, you can dedicate all of your payment to that child support obligation and discharge everything else.
So that will also stop collection activities and other things that may be menacing, enforcement measures you may be facing, due to that child support. So there’s definitely benefits.
Can’t discharge it, but there’s things you can do with it. So as always, you can reach out to me directly, Edward Kelley here at Wirth Law, or lots of other great Oklahoma attorneys who practice in all fields. And you can reach us all at makelaweasy.com.
