Expert: Mark J. Markus- California Bankruptcy Attorney - 9/23/2005

Question
 hi Mr.Markus! i was writing to ask advice. i live in miss., and about 3 months ago, filed chapter 13 because of overwhelming credit card bills. they got that way because of things breaking down; the car (3 times) and the appliances. paying for all those things put me back in payments so far there was no getting caught up. now they have been taking 189 dollars out of my paycheck since i filed. today the court wrote and talked about 368 dollars a paycheck, which is of course something i cannot live on. i have to pay for food, utilities, etc.  now my lawyer said i could do a chapter 7, but since i own a car and a house, both of which were gifts, making a long story short, he said a chapter 7 probably will not work. he explained they look at the fact that i own a home and a car, which has nothing to do with bankrutpcy. he said i could discharge it, so i plan to do that. i asked him if the credit card companies will know i did that, and he said they wont. he told me not to call them and tell them i did the discharge. 3 of the credit cards were sold to third parties for pennies on the dollar. so..what i need to ask you is that, after i file the discharge, will the third party companies send me the remainder of the bills at home?  what else could i expect to happen after the discharge?  thanks so much!

Answer
Hi James.  Your question as stated doesn't make much sense.  First of all, you don't file a discharge.  A discharge is a legal benefit you get after successfully completing a bankruptcy case which removes your legal obligation to repay on a debt.  If you receive a discharge of your debts in a Ch. 13 case, then you do not have to repay any debts which were discharged in the case.  I don't know what you mean by "third party companies".   Hope this helped.