Right Now Is a Great Time to File
Video Transcribed: Hello, this is Edward Kelley I am a Bankruptcy Attorney Tulsa. I am here to talk about chapter seven bankruptcy today. So the question I’m going to discuss is how do I file a chapter seven bankruptcy in Oklahoma? So first you have to find out if you need to. So how do I know that? Well, a lot of people ask me, is there a debt minimum to file a chapter seven bankruptcy? And the answer is no.
Although if you at least I’d say 5,000 in debt, it probably doesn’t make a lot of sense for you to do it. For example, I charge 1500 from start to finish, which is one of the probably lower prices that you’re going to find, especially for a skilled, highly competent attorney. You may find nonlawyers or fly-by-night services that’ll go less than that. But anyway, that’s to give you an example of the neighborhood of fees that you’re looking at for bankruptcy.
So if your debt is not significantly more than that, probably not going to make a lot of sense for you. You could pay off the debt and thus not suffer any adverse effects otherwise and accomplish the same thing. But if you have 5,000 or more, it may make good sense for you to do a bankruptcy.
So you’ve decided to do it. Do you qualify? Well, right now is a great time to file. With COVID, they’ve raised the IRS standards for income, given you some incentives and all the various chapters of bankruptcy, to be able to do it, understanding people have a greater need to do it. Attorneys have lowered their prices as I have, understanding the hardship people are going through and the need they have.
So for example, for one person, you’re in the 40,000s. If you make that or less then you can qualify to do a chapter seven, which is a liquidation, which means get rid of your debt and run. The only thing you have to give up is collateral tied to your debt or non-exempt assets.
We’ll talk about that more in the next video. So for two people, you add about 10,000 per person. So you’re really over 50,000 for two people at this point and still allowed to file a chapter seven. This is higher than I’ve ever seen in my career cap for doing a seven. So this is a good time to do it. Also, as I mentioned, certain assets are exempt, your home, your vehicles up to at least 7,500 in value.
So most people are fine there, but if you have a summer home, oil royalties, things like that, those aren’t exempt and may be taken and converted up to the amount you owe your creditors. So that’s a determining factor for a lot of people.
And you can’t have filed bankruptcy in the last eight years. So how do I file a chapter 7 in Oklahoma? Hire a good attorney, preferably myself, Edward Kelley, and do it. So in the next video, we’ll explore a little bit more about exempt versus non-exempt assets.
