“Confirmed? Confirmed…what? Is that a bad thing?”
My client’s reaction the other day to my great news made me realize I hadn’t fully explained the desirable status of confirmation of his Chapter 13 bankruptcy case.
There are so many terms and phrases associated with bankruptcy law, it is easy for someone who has been deep in this world for so long to forget how confusing it could all be to someone who has never heard of such lingo as case confirmation.
With Chapter 13 bankruptcy, we are combining all of your outstanding debt into a lump sum to make a payment plan for just one payment for everything. Once we have this payment plan worked out, I hand it to the judge so he can confirm it. This is what we want! Financial strain over, no more garnishments or collection traumas.
So, what does this new payment look like? A whole lot less than you’ve been looking at for the years leading up to this moment. I see many of my clients leave paying just $100 a month for everything – and after their term is up (sometimes as short as 36 months), they are done. No more payments, clean slate, they’re done! The original amount of debt doesn’t matter, after the payment plan is fulfilled, it is $0. All that matters is the type of debt you enter into your bankruptcy claim, but those credit cards, medical bills, and most other debt is gone for good.