Chapter 7 or 13? Case Assessment

Dated bankruptcy housing and utilities table for CA. Match the filing window, household size and county or listed county equivalent;

California has opted out of the federal exemptions (§703.130), so the choice is the ordinary §704 exemptions or the §703.140(b) set: federal-style, larger wildcard, smaller homestead.

The motor vehicle exemption under the section 704 system, to the amount the section states. Compare against the 703.140 vehicle exemption when advising on the election.

The California homestead exemption is the greater of a statutory floor or the countywide median sale price for a single-family home, capped at a statutory ceiling, and both figures are ADJUSTED ANNUALLY FOR INFLATION.

The exemption for tools, implements, materials and books used in the debtor's trade or profession, with a higher combined amount for spouses in the same trade. Read the amounts in the current section.

Private retirement plans and profit-sharing plans are exempt, with IRAs exempt only to the extent necessary for the support of the debtor and dependants.

California's wage garnishment limit, which is more protective than the federal cap and tied to the local minimum wage. Compute exposure from this section before advising either side.

What counts as a homestead and a dwelling for the exemption, including the residency requirement. Establish that the client actually resides there before relying on the exemption.

Dated bankruptcy housing and utilities table for CT. Match the filing window, household size and planning region rather than legacy county;

Wage execution after judgment: how much of a debtor's earnings may be taken and the procedure.

Bank execution against a judgment debtor and the exemption claim procedure available to the debtor. The section a debtor needs when an account is frozen.

The defined terms behind the exemption list, including exempt property, homestead and necessary. 'Homestead' is defined by owner-occupancy, which decides whether the exemption is available at all.

CONNECTICUT'S EXEMPTIONS, and unlike Pennsylvania this state HAS A REAL HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION. Subdivision (21) exempts the exemptioner's homestead, measured as fair market value less any statutory or consensual lien;

Dated bankruptcy housing and utilities table for DE. Match the filing window, household size and county or listed county equivalent;

Delaware has OPTED OUT of the federal scheme: an individual debtor domiciled in Delaware IS NOT ENTITLED TO ELECT the federal exemptions of 11 U.S.C.

Retirement plans, life insurance contracts and annuity contracts are exempt on the terms the section states. Often the largest asset a Delaware debtor keeps; read the conditions.

The additional exemption for a head of family, on the terms and amount the section sets. Check whether the client qualifies before computing exposure.

EIGHTY-FIVE PER CENT OF WAGES are exempt from attachment and execution, except for process to collect a fine, costs or taxes owed to the State. More protective than the federal garnishment cap;

Real estate may be seized and sold on a judgment only when no sufficient personal estate can be found. Note that Delaware has no general homestead exemption of the Massachusetts or Connecticut kind;

The specific personal property exempt from execution, attachment and distress for rent: the family Bible, school books and family library, family pictures, a church seat or pew, a burial lot, and all wearing apparel of…

Dated bankruptcy housing and utilities table for DC. Match the filing window, household size and county or listed county equivalent;

Answers whether a DC government employee's pay can be reached: since October 1, 1997, wages, salaries, annuities, retirement and disability benefits and other remuneration owed by the District government are subject to…

Non-wage earnings, insurance, annuities and pension or retirement payments are exempt up to $200 per month for a person who provides the principal support of a family, and only $60 per month for a person who does not,…

Subsection (b)(1) makes any assignment, pledge or encumbrance of unemployment benefits invalid and exempts the right to benefits from levy, execution, attachment or any other remedy for collection of debt;

A mortgage, deed of trust, assignment for the benefit of creditors, or bill of sale on exempt articles is void unless signed by the spouse or domestic partner of a debtor living with that spouse or partner, but this…

This, not 16-573, is where the DC wage garnishment formula lives: an attachment is a lien and continuing levy to the extent of 25% of the amount by which the judgment debtor's disposable wages for that week exceed 40…

The employer must withhold and pay the judgment creditor within 15 days after the close of the last pay period ending in each calendar month, until the attachment is satisfied, and payment discharges the employer to the…

The 16-572 percentage limits do not apply to execution on a DC judgment, order or decree for support or maintenance of a spouse, former spouse, domestic partner, former domestic partner, or children;

Section 28-3814 covers defined consumer debt and can include original creditors and debt buyers, but its scope excludes specified real-estate-secured and direct motor-vehicle installment loans.

Where a life policy is effected in favor of, assigned to, or made payable to someone other than the insured or the person effecting it, that beneficiary or assignee is entitled to the proceeds and avails against the…

Dated bankruptcy housing and utilities table for FL. Match the filing window, household size and county or listed county equivalent;

FLORIDA HAS OPTED OUT of the federal exemptions: a Florida debtor may not elect 11 U.S.C. 522(d) and must use the state scheme.

Pension, retirement and profit-sharing benefits are exempt on the section's terms. Often the largest asset a Florida debtor keeps.

How an owner designates the constitutional homestead before a levy. Florida's homestead exemption from forced sale is UNLIMITED IN VALUE, subject to the constitutional acreage limits of half an acre within a…

The wages of a HEAD OF FAMILY are exempt from garnishment, entirely up to the statutory weekly amount and beyond it only with the debtor's written agreement, with a narrower federal-style limit for others.

The personal property exemptions, including a motor vehicle to the stated value, health aids, and the $4,000 personal property exemption available to a debtor who does NOT claim the homestead exemption.

A dwelling, mobile home or modular home on land the claimant does not own is still entitled to the homestead exemption from levy and sale. Reaches clients in mobile home parks and on leased land.

Dated bankruptcy housing and utilities table for MD. Match the filing window, household size and county or listed county equivalent;

Disposable wages means the part of wages remaining after deduction of any amount required to be withheld by law, and exempt from attachment is the GREATER of (i) 75 percent of the disposable wages due or (ii) 30 times…

In a bodily injury action arising from operation of a motor vehicle, the court may assess interest against the defendant at a rate of not more than 10 percent per annum from a time no earlier than the filing of the…

Maryland's exemption scheme: subsection (b) exempts up to $5,000 in tools, books and appliances necessary to a trade, money payable for sickness, accident, injury or death, prescribed health aids, $1,000 in household…

Proceeds of a life insurance policy or annuity contract on the life of an individual, made for the benefit of or assigned to that individual's spouse, child or dependent relative, are exempt from all claims of the…

Definitional section for Maryland's wage attachment subtitle: employee includes an employee whether he is a resident or nonresident of the State, and wages means all monetary remuneration paid to any employee for his…

A levied wage attachment constitutes a lien on all attachable wages payable at the time the attachment is served and on all wages that become payable until the judgment, interest and costs specified in the attachment…

While the attachment remains a lien the employer garnishee must withhold all attachable wages and remit them to the judgment creditor within 15 days after the close of the last pay period in each month.

A money judgment entered in an action arising from a contract for the loan of money carries interest at the rate charged in the contract on the unpaid principal of the money borrowed, until the originally scheduled…

Dated bankruptcy housing and utilities table for MA. Match the filing window, household size and county or listed county equivalent;

MASSACHUSETTS PROTECTS A HOME EVEN WITH NO DECLARATION. In the absence of a valid recorded declaration, an AUTOMATIC homestead exists for the owner and family members occupying or intending to occupy the home as a…

The homestead chapter's defined terms, including home, owner, declared homestead exemption and automatic homestead exemption. 'Home' reaches a manufactured home and a co-operative interest as the section provides.

How a homestead is terminated, including by a recorded release and by a deed to a non-family member. A client who conveys without thinking can lose the protection.

Every mortgage transaction must give notice of the right to declare homestead protection. The reason most Massachusetts homeowners have a declaration on record from their closing.

An additional homestead for owners who are sixty-two or older or who are disabled, which can stack per qualifying owner on the terms the section sets. Check it whenever an older client's home equity is the issue.

THE DECLARED HOMESTEAD: one or more owners who occupy or intend to occupy the home as a principal residence acquire an estate of homestead by a WRITTEN DECLARATION RECORDED under section 5, currently protecting up to…

What a homestead declaration must contain and how it is recorded. Getting the contents wrong means no declared homestead; follow the section.

The homestead continues for the benefit of a surviving spouse and minor children after death or divorce, as the section provides. Worth raising in both estate planning and a divorce.

MASSACHUSETTS'S PERSONAL PROPERTY EXEMPTIONS: necessary clothing and beds, household furniture to the stated value, tools and implements of trade, a motor vehicle to the stated value, cash or savings to the stated…

August 2026 amendments to D.N.J. LBR 2016-5 and 3011-1. The former provides the Chapter 13 compensation election and disclosure, a $6,000 standard-fee route with excluded services, application procedures and the…

Court notice dated September 10 and published September 11, 2026, reports reassignment of Judge Sherwood cases effective September 9 to a Gravelle-TBA designation while retaining Newark vicinage and rotating calendars…

Dated bankruptcy housing and utilities table for NJ. Match the filing window, household size and county or listed county equivalent;

The companion 2025 exemption for the same protected class. Retirement accounts, pensions, disability benefits and veterans' benefits of veterans, service members and military spouses are exempt from creditor claims, and…

L.2025, c.326, s.4 creates the only residence exemption in New Jersey, and it is unlimited in value.

Monetary reparations payments designated for or received by a Holocaust survivor of Nazi persecution from any governmental source or victim assistance source are exempt from all claims of creditors and from levy,…

The percentage cap, and it does not read the way it is usually summarized. Subsection a: in no case shall the amount specified in an execution against wages, debts, earnings, salary, income from trust funds or profits…

The Public Employees' Retirement System exemption. The right to a pension, annuity or retirement allowance, to the return of contributions, and any benefit or right accrued or accruing under the act, together with the…

Life insurance proceeds payable to a third party beneficiary are exempt from the creditors and representatives of the insured and of the person who effected the policy, whether or not the right to change the beneficiary…

The annuity exemption carries an explicit monthly cap. Benefits, rights, privileges, powers and options due or prospectively due the annuitant are not subject to execution, garnishment, attachment, sequestration or…

Dated bankruptcy housing and utilities table for NY. Match the filing window, household size and county or listed county equivalent;

Official DFS notice retains historical columns and the April 1, 2024 adjusted figures. Match each statutory row and county base tier to its dated column: 2024 homestead amounts are $204,825, $170,700 and $102,400;

New York bankruptcy exemptions incorporate CPLR 5205 and 5206, specified insurance and annuity rights, one motor vehicle and listed benefit or recovery interests.

The aggregate limit covers CPLR 5205(a) personal property and only the annuity contracts meeting the listed conditions.

CPLR 5253 requires three-year adjustments to the exemptions in CPLR 5205 and 5206 and DCL 282 and 283, rounded to the nearest $25, and publication by DFS.

This is the section that answers the opt-out question for New York, and it answers it the opposite way from Virginia and Maryland. Section 285, added by L. 2010 ch.

Answers the pension question for public employees: the right of a member to a pension, an annuity or a retirement allowance, the right to the return of contributions, and the moneys in the retirement funds are exempt…

Answers the judgment lien question. A money judgment becomes a lien on the judgment debtor's real property only when it is docketed with the clerk of the county where the land sits, priority runs from that docketing,…

This answers the wage garnishment question, and New York beats the federal 25 percent by a wide margin: the installments under an income execution may not exceed ten percent of the judgment debtor's gross income, and no…

The entry point to Article 10, which New York replaced with the Uniform Voidable Transactions Act by L. 2019 ch.

Dated bankruptcy housing and utilities table for OH. Match the filing window, household size and county or listed county equivalent;

OHIO HAS OPTED OUT of the federal exemptions: an Ohio debtor may not elect 11 U.S.C. 522(d) and must use the state scheme in section 2329.66.

The trustee procedure by which an Ohio debtor subject to a demand may have earnings administered for creditors, as an alternative to garnishment.

OHIO'S EXEMPTIONS, and they are generous: a HOMESTEAD exemption in the residence, a motor vehicle, household goods, tools of trade, a wildcard, and full protection for most retirement accounts, all at the amounts this…

Carve-outs narrow DIVISION (A)(1) OF SECTION 2329.66 ONLY: debtor-given mortgages and security interests, small manual-labor claims (confirm the cap), vendor's purchase-money and mechanic's liens, any mortgage lien,…

Dated bankruptcy housing and utilities table for PA. Match the filing window, household size and county or listed county equivalent;

Pennsylvania's general exemption is $300. THERE IS NO PENNSYLVANIA HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION, which is why Pennsylvania debtors almost always elect the FEDERAL exemptions under 11 U.S.C. 522(d) instead of the state set.

The specific exemptions that supplement the $300: wearing apparel, bibles and school books, sewing machines, uniforms, and, importantly, certain retirement funds, insurance proceeds and annuity payments on the terms the…

WAGES IN THE EMPLOYER'S HANDS ARE EXEMPT from attachment and execution, subject to listed exceptions including divorce and support obligations, board for four weeks or less, certain landlord judgments, and restitution.

Dated bankruptcy housing and utilities table for TX. Match the filing window, household size and county or listed county equivalent;

Retirement plans and accounts are exempt on the section's terms. Often the largest asset a Texas debtor keeps.

Texas exempts personal property up to an aggregate fair market value that the section states, higher for a family than for a single adult, in addition to the unlimited homestead. Confirm the current figures.

THE TEXAS HOMESTEAD IS THE MOST PROTECTIVE IN THIS COLLECTION: unlimited in value and exempt from seizure, subject only to the encumbrances the section allows, namely purchase money, taxes, work and materials, owelty,…

The acreage limits that define a Texas homestead: up to 10 acres for an urban homestead, and up to 200 acres for a rural family homestead or 100 acres for a single adult.

The categories of exempt personal property, which are unusually generous and include home furnishings, farming or ranching vehicles and implements, tools of a trade, two firearms, and livestock in the numbers the…

Dated bankruptcy housing and utilities table for VA. Match the filing window, household size and county or listed county equivalent;

Two debts defeat every property exemption created under the Code: (1) the purchase price of the property or any part of it, including property exchanged for or converted into other property, and (2) spousal or child…

Beyond the Chapter 2 exemptions (§ 34-4 et seq.), a householder holds exempt from creditor process the family Bible, wedding and engagement rings, portraits and heirlooms, a burial lot and preneed funeral contract,…

Virginia has opted out: NO INDIVIDUAL MAY EXEMPT FROM THE BANKRUPTCY ESTATE THE PROPERTY SPECIFIED IN 11 U.S.C. § 522(d), except as expressly permitted under Title 34.

A veteran residing in Virginia with a service connected disability of forty percent or more as rated by the U.S.

A parent supporting a dependent minor child residing with him may exempt from wage garnishment an extra $34 per week for one child, $52 per week for two children, and $66 per week for three or more children, on top of…

Where the debtor's total account balances exceed the $1,000 minimum protected balance of 34-4.3, the bank must run an account review looking back two months immediately preceding the day before the review and protect…

Retirement allowances and other benefits under Title 51.1, and the systems' assets, are NOT SUBJECT TO EXECUTION, ATTACHMENT, GARNISHMENT OR ANY OTHER PROCESS;

Lets a householder who has set apart no real estate, or less than the full value allowed, claim the balance of the § 34-4 allowance in personal estate by the writing § 34-14 requires.