Can I File For Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Online?
Even though it would be very convenient, you cannot actually file a Chapter 7, Chapter 13 or any other type of bankruptcy online. Although a lot of people would appreciate to have the possibility to complete such a painful task on the internet, in the privacy of their homes, such a service is not yet available. On the other hand, there are quite a few web sites offering services that simplify the process of filing bankruptcy without a lawyer. To start with the beginning, let's take a look at the Bankruptcy law text. This one is available on the Cornell Law School's web site. The Legal Information Institute (LII), a research and electronic publishing activity of the Cornell Law School, is the one responsible of publishing several materials in various areas of the law, both online and packaged for download including the Constitution or the Uniform Commercial Code, for example. Some other popular collections are: the Supreme Court opinions, the U.S. Code and the Bankruptcy law. Title 11 of the U.S. Code also known as Federal Bankruptcy Code is currently divided into eight chapters and is available at this web address: http://uscode.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode11 . Another very important resource from the same web site is the collection of rules governing the bankruptcy proceedings in Federal courts, called the federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, useful for a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy as well as for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. You can read them here http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frbp/ . We must notice that the LII is ranked both in search engines and ranking systems as the most linked to web resource in the field of law. According to AltaVista, there are over 180,000 links to LII on the internet. Statistics show that every week over 10 million hits are registered on this site, from over 70 foreign nations. The site is well known also because is always up to date. The federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure for example, incorporate the revisions from Dec. 1, 2006. In order to file and take action in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case you will also need a collection of official bankruptcy forms as well as some procedural forms, in some cases. These sets of forms accompanied by filing instructions are available for both reading and download, free of any charge, in a PDF format on the U.S. Courts' web site under Library->Forms-> Other Forms: Bankruptcy Form . This site is also a very up to date one: you will notice that the Bankruptcy Official Form Changes from April 1, 2007 (which refer to some dollar amounts adjustments in the Bankruptcy Code) are also available for download. After that, a site worth visiting in order to obtain information is the one dedicated to the American Bankruptcy Institute. This institute has the purpose to support the analysis of insolvency issues, to create the environment for the exchanging of ideas among participants in the insolvency process and last but not least to provide a source of education regarding these issues. At the address http://www.abiworld.org you will be provided with a vast collection of information and up to date news. The American Bankruptcy Institute is nowadays regarded as the largest non-partisan, multi-disciplinary, organization dedicated to education on matters related to insolvency and research on the same subject. Over 11,500 bankruptcy professionals including attorneys, bankers and judges have a ABI membership and bring their contribution to providing information. |
