Bankruptcies are obtained directly from courthouses, public information records. Bankrupt means a person is unable to meet his/her obligation and pay one's creditors. It is a legal way to get out of paying certain debts. Those debts are eliminated by a bankruptcy court and discharging them. The purpose of bankruptcy is to allow people to have a fresh start when they become heavily burdened by debt. Bankruptcy may apply to an individual, Partnership, or Corporation. The state of being unable to pay one's debts, such a person or company is subject to being proceeded against by his/her creditor, according to prevailing bankruptcy laws. Bankruptcy laws are passed to aid creditors in collecting money owed to them by bankrupt persons or company. Bankruptcy laws also can benefit those who are unable to pay their debts. Bankruptcy is also the elimination of all debts and assets. In most cases there is not enough assets to cover the outstanding debts, so this forces a person or company into bankruptcy.

Straight bankruptcy, chapter 7, stays on your credit file for ten years. Chapter 11, for 10 years and chapter 13 for 7 years. Chapter 11 is used to describe a company, corporation, or organization that has gone into Bankruptcy. Under the bankruptcy laws, such a company may be permitted by the court to continue to business for a time so long as it pays its current debts. It must emerge from "chapter 11" eventually, through reorganization, or it must cease doing business. In other words it's a company payment plan to pay back money owed. Chapter 13 is the equal to corporate chapter 11 reorganization. Under this program, the individual is given a payment plan to repay their creditors, this is also supervised by the courts, its a 3 year program, but can be extended an additional two.

If a bankruptcy inaccuracy exists on your credit file, you can have the credit bureau investigate and correct the inaccuracy. If the credit bureau cannot verify or correct the inaccuracy by way of investigation in the reasonable amount of time, the bankruptcy should be remove until it can be verified and corrected 100% by the credit bureau. There are some items not discharge with bankruptcy I think you should know about, and they are:

 

Court judgments against you or settlements entered into by you for personal injuries or death due to driving while intoxicated.

• Criminal fines   
• Debts that not included in the bankruptcy
• Government loans- including student loans 
• Debts incurred by fraud
• Alimony/child support payments 
• Penalties owed to the government
• Federal, state and local taxes/Federal taxes over 3 yrs. are dischargeable.

• Punitive damages from willful harm to another person

The next lists of items are properties you can keep under Bankruptcy, providing they are "exempt properties". The exemptions are for certain assets listed in the law, but only up to a maximum value the law allow you to keep for each kind of asset, which are:

• The family cars
• Home stead equity in your house   
• Clothes
• Personal effects
• Household furnishings of a reasonable nature 
• Life insurance
• Pensions 
• Tool's of one's trade 
• Unemployment compensation
• Government assistance in the form of social security payments

The next list of items are properties you will lose if you go through the bankruptcy process, these are "nonexempt properties". Examples of luxury items that are:

•  Boats
•  Jewelry over a certain value
• Antiques, artwork, stamp collection, coin collections
• Musical instruments such as pianos unless you are employed as a musician
• A force sale of your home if the equity you have in it is greater than the value of your mortgages and your homestead allowance.