Managing Attorney Brian D. Johnson has nearly 20 years experience helping people like you with legal problems like the ones you are facing. He has his Bachelor's Degree in History, Cum Laude, from California State University, Long Beach, and his Juris Doctor from the University of Maine. He is admitted to practice in all State and Federal courts in the State of Utah.

Chapter 13 bankruptcy is designed to allow you to keep all of your property and to consolidate some portion of your debt into a payment you can afford, based on your ability to pay. It allows you to cure delinquent mortgage payments over time while you keep your home. In many cases Chapter 13 allows you to "cram down" secured obligations like car loans and furniture accounts, meaning that you would only have to pay the value of the property you financed, instead of the entire loan. Chapter 13 also allows you to pay back taxes and child support in reasonable monthly payments, while stopping garnishments and levies. Chapter 13 basically allows you to pay what you can afford to pay, while discharging what you cannot afford to pay. This is accomplished through a monthly payment plan that consolidates all of your debt (except ongoing mortgage payments) into one payment.

Chapter 7 is designed to get you a fresh start. You make a list of everything you own, and another list of everyone you owe. If you own anything valuable, the Court checks to see whether that property is exempt (meaning the Court can't touch it); if it is not exempt, then the Court can sell it and give the money to your creditors. In exchange, the Court discharges, or forgives, all of your dischargeable debts completely.

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