Just because you’ve filed for bankruptcy once, doesn’t mean you can’t do it again. As we learn in this article by Holly H. Hines, there are ways that individuals can declare bankruptcy once a number of years have passed since their last filing. Hines is a graduate Massachusetts School of Law who now focuses on helping consumers make more informed financial decisions at her practice in Worcester County, Massachusetts.
It is definitely possible for people to file for bankruptcy twice, just as long as they wait the proper amount of time in between these filings.
For someone who is interested in filing for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, for example, you can do that once every eight years. So if you filed for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, liquidated your assets, and waited eight years, then you could theoretically be ready to file again. Filing for bankruptcy usually is not a problem as long as you meet the required income levels and time periods in between filings.
Each type of bankruptcy has slightly different time periods in between filings, though. So while someone filing a Chapter 7 has to wait eight years before he can file again, someone filing for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy only has to wait four years.
Another option that people who own their own businesses have is to file two types of bankruptcies such as an individual bankruptcy and a corporate bankruptcy. In theory, a person could file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy for their personal financial problems, and then turn around and also file a corporate bankruptcy for their corporate debts.
So a person could file two bankruptcies back to back in that way, but that only works if their business is like an all-in-one kind of thing. If there were multiple owners of the business, then it wouldn’t exactly work like that. But like I said, someone could have two bankruptcy cases going if he filed a corporate bankruptcy and a personal bankruptcy at around the same time, and then that would sort of be like the person filing twice.
Unfortunately, I have seen these types of things happen where someone files for bankruptcy and then comes back in years later and does the whole thing again. With Chapter 7 filings, I have seen it happen where someone will just wait eight years and then come back in.
I am kind of amazed, though, when I see something like that because you would think that maybe the person would have gotten their finance straightened out after going through the process the first time. But things happen, and at least the people who have already filed once now understand that protection and relief is available to them.
After someone has filed for bankruptcy, I think they are more likely to know what he can do if he gets into trouble again, so he tends to be a little more proactive about his case and get involved in determining the next step at an earlier stage the second time around. He understands that there are attorneys who can assist him with his financial predicament more so than maybe the average person understands.
So like I said, we do have repeat filers — that is what we call them — and sometimes the repeat filing is justified and sometimes it is not. Sometimes for people it is just a case where their financial or life circumstances just have not improved much over the course of eight years. But then you also have cases where people are just not as diligent in managing their finances as they should be, causing them to repeat those same mistakes over and over again.
From the perspective of the courts, it really is not any more difficult to file the second time around as it is the first. As long as the debtor meets the guidelines and requirements regarding income and the length of time between filings, then he is free to go ahead and use the bankruptcy protection once again.
This article is for informational purposes only. You should not rely on this article as a legal opinion on any specific facts or circumstances, and you should not act upon this information without seeking professional counsel. Publication of this article and your receipt of this article does not create an attorney-client relationship.
