Trustee Letter

[GIVFOUR]

Today I Got On The Pacer Site And Saw That The U.s. Trustee Said My Chapter 7 Case Was Presumed Abuse. It Said That My Income Per Month Multiplied By 12 Is Higher Than The Means Test. She Didn't State Yet If She Was Going To Dismiss It Or Recoment It For A Chapter 13. I Work Alot Of Overtime From June -nomember And Now I Am Not Getting Overtime And Not Even My Regular Time. I Am Married And Filed Alone And I Am Afraid That She Added My Husband Income In With Mine And It Went Over The Means Test. I Live In Virginia And I Don't Know What To Do Now. I Don't Get Overtime Throughout The Year And Now I Am Without My Regular Pay And A Chapter 7 That Will Get Dismissed. What Do I Do?

[woeisme]

You are posting in the wrong section of the forum GIVFOUR. This section is not for posting questions, it's a listing of frequently asked questions and their answers. You'll have better luck getting responses if you move your post to the CH 7 section.

Your husband's income does need to be included for a CH 7, even if you are filing separately. If your combined household income is above the mean for your state, it is a presumption of abuse. If your work situation has changed, you may have to wait until your 6-month look-back reflects that change to file CH 7, if you meet the income requirement after the overtime falls off when you add your current income with your husband's. Are you using a lawyer? If so, you should contact him/her with these questions. If not, you need to really spend a lot of time learning the BK laws ASAP because if you didn't even know that your entire household income is used to determine the means test, you're going to have a really hard time when it comes to proving that you meet CH 7 requirements despite the presumption of abuse based on the means test. If your case gets dismissed, then I think you will have to wait 180 days to re-file, at which point you may be able to meet the means test because of your reduced income, but you may then have a problem because of the repeated filings may be considered an abuse of the system too. So I would really recommend some legal help if at all possible.

As I said, try moving this post to the CH 7 section, and you may get a lot more responses from people who may have better suggestions than I do. Good luck.