Expert: Mark J. Markus- California Bankruptcy Attorney - 7/25/2008

Question
Hi,
I am planning on filing for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy soon in California, but I wanted to know a couple of things before I do...

The first one regards property exemptions.  I have two cars, one car is paid in full, and the other car I still have a loan on.
The value of both cars minus the amount I owe on the second car is $20,000.  
I know I could only exempt up about $3,000 for a car.  But I was told by a paralegal that I could exempt both cars if I use the Real Estate exemption since I don't own any real property.

Is this true?  And is it possible to keep both of my cars?

My second question is this:

Recently I was wrote a bad check.  I placed the check into my banking account, and the bank allowed me to later withdraw all of the money.  Then later the bank found out that the account the check came from had insufficent funds to cover the check.
Now I owe the money to the bank, which I don't have.  I wanted to know if I am able to discharge this amount owed to the bank in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy if this happened just last month (June)?

I went to law school, but unfortunately I know nothing about bankruptcy law yet, lol...  Maybe this whole process will teach me more.


Thank you for any response to this matter.

Amber

Answer
1.  Exemption analysis is very involved and I cannot tell you with certainty what assets you will or won't be able to exempt without first having a comprehensive consultation and knowing ALL the relevant facts, including the values of each of your assets, etc.  But, based on the facts as you have stated them, if the total equity in your two vehicles is $20,000 (not sure what method of valuation you're using for the vehicles, but that's another issue) and you have no other assets that need to be exempted, then yes, you should be able to protect the value in the vehicles--assuming California's exemption laws are applicable in your case.

If you would like to schedule a free phone consultation, please visit http://www.bklaw.com/consult/ and complete the 5 short steps there.

2.  Yes.