Hi fbresnah, Before you step in the bucket of personal bankruptcy, I'd urge you to determine what you REALLY expect to get out of it. Bankruptcy is an effective tool for protecting income producing assets (like business inventory, machinery, and investments) from being siezed by creditors, thereby preventing any possibility of recovery. Many (most?) people who use personal bankruptcy have no income producing assets to protect, and thus take a much worse medicine than the problem they are actually addressing. Also, most folks who use personal bankruptcy are primarily attempting to "stop the noise" of the creditors & collectors who are relentlessly harrassing & pursuing them. If you fall into the category of those who have no income producing assets to protect, you can often get FAR better results, with FAR fewer negative side effects by using alternative strategies. Ken and I have gone from intense adversaries in our opinions to what I believe is allies in the concern for the common man who gets stuck in the mechanism of the public credit game. I know that at his core he cares deeply about people, and I think he knows that about me too. Together (or not exactly together, sometimes,) we've dived deep into various aspects of this topic... and some great stuff has come out of it. I'd invite you to surf a few of the following threads. Some examples of misery sustained, and misery conquered! http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/finance/msg0914195427209.html?4 http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/finance/msg081156017751.html?15 http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/finance/msg1122145213469.html?49 http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/finance/msg0811432230158.html?29 http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/finance/msg010459412351.html?5 All the best to you with your challenges, Dave

First of all are you sure you don't qualify for a chapter 7? The fallout rate for Chapter 13 filers is extremely high and they don't give you a refund if you pay for 3 years of a 5 year plan and then cannot keep paying. You don't discharge your debts either if you don't finish. Not all bankruptcy lawyers do Chapter 13 because they are difficult to do given the new Bankruptcy law which was designed with major input from the banks. They convinced the congress back in 2000 that they would be in financial trouble if the Bankruptcy law wasn't changed to better protect them. So it does--but it is set up to be difficult for debtors. If you want to try it without a lawyer--go ahead but if your case is dismissed for mistakes then its harder to refile with corrected information.

Arkansas is not a community property state. Bankruptcy is Federal law, but exemptions are state law. See a Bankruptcy attorney together, they will tell you honestly the effect, but make sure its an attorney and not some "paralegal" firm that will not be accurate. The "paralegal's" cannot go to court and often encourage people to lie and are often sanctioned by the court because of it. Since Bankruptcy is federal law, even in Los angeles there is only one Bankruptcy court (several judges) and attorneys don't want to get involved with somebody whose bankruptcy is going to be dismissed because you shouldn't have filed in the first place. Its a lot of extra work and the bankruptcy court regulates how much attorneys can charge more than any other field. We used to get cases where the husband wanted the wife to file or vice versa --evidently dreaming that it would not affect both of them. Good luck on that. The new Bankruptcy law was bought and paid for by the Credit Card companies so you can bet that getting rid of her debt without affecting you is most unlikely, as your income will be used in the calculations as to whether you can do a Chapter 7 or a Chapter 13 (which is a payback) You have a house,and have something to lose, so go talk with a Bk attorney; you need to know the value of your house and the amount of exemption that is allowed in your state. Myfask is correct that some companies who are hiring, will look at your credit rating--but they are looking for a large amount of debt. Employees who steal or embezzle usually owe a great deal of money. If you just filed BK, you don't need to steal because the credit card companies aren't calling you everyday or attempting to garnish your wages. Credit card companies are pretty aggressive trying to get you to pull more cards after the BK---your credit is not gone forever. Some companies even solicited the attorneys to recommend their special "after bankruptcy secured cards" Yes the legal fees for attorneys have gone up a lot--I got out of the field because the new laws make the attorney responsible for the client's errors. If they didn't know how much they owed how in the world would I know. Unless your wife practiced fraud; buying furniture, art, etc. and selling it, or ran up more debt than normal just before filing,credit card companies do not contest the BK. There is enough fraud out there that they don'thave to go after somebody who is a typical filer.

Zalco - I'm not sure what your point is, since we're essentially saying the same thing. Revlon has been in trouble for years: high debt levels, poor management, inability to adapt to a changing marketplace. No one is saying the supply chain issue is the cause of its downfall, just that it may have been the proverbial last straw for a company already at breaking point. None of the articles I've read is ignoring or downplaying the long-standing problems at the company. I simply took issue with the implication in Elmer's comment that it was too soon for any credible reporting: given that the company has a long and very public history of financial and management issues, anyone who follows the industry at all would be able to explain why this happened. In fact, the WSJ reported on many of these issues, and rumours of the impending bankruptcy filing several days before it actually took place.