At the conclusion of an individual's bankruptcy case, the court enters an order closing the case, and a copy of this order is sent to you. Unless the trustee has assets to distribute to creditors, case closing takes place fairly quickly in chapter 7 cases. In a chapter 13, the court will not close the case until after you finish making payments under the plan or the court dismisses the case. A court will dismiss your case if you do not make payments to the trustee on time.

You must now complete an instructional course in personal financial management from an approved agency prior to receiving a discharge, with limited exceptions.

In a chapter 13 case, if you owe domestic support obligations such as alimony or child support, you must also certify to the court you have paid all amounts due.

The terms of a confirmed plan bind you and each creditor. If you have an unexpected financial problem during your chapter 13 case, you should immediately consult with your attorney. It is often possible to deal with changed circumstances by amending the chapter 13 plan. Also, it is sometimes possible to add debts that you incurred after filing chapter 13 to the plan, so that they will be discharged with other debts at the completion of the plan.

Yes. You can voluntarily pay the debt. Often people voluntarily repay with debts to family members or friends. However, the key to this kind of payment is that it is entirely voluntary; you have no legal obligation to pay a discharged debt, and the creditors can take no action to pressure or persuade you into making the payments.

A reaffirmation agreement is an agreement providing that you will pay a creditor's debt even though the debt would otherwise be discharged in bankruptcy. Your creditor must agree to the reaffirmation, so while the debt can be renegotiated, but most reaffirmation agreements simply require you to pay the debt as originally agreed.

In a chapter 13 you must pay your home mortgage loan in full. The good thing is that the case gives you time to pay this off over the original term of your mortgage. You must pay any overdue payments over the course of the three to five-year plan. You must make your regular monthly payments time. This means that if you were behind on the mortgage payment when you filed for bankruptcy, you will be making a larger mortgage payment during your plan to make up for the past due debt. You will not be allowed to reduce the interest rate on your mortgage loan.

Chapter 7

Soon after filing the petition, you must declare whether you will return the property, purchase the property from the creditor or enter into a Reaffirmation Agreement with the creditor. However, if you do not do one of these things, the stay will terminate and the creditor may take the property.

Chapter 13

Just by filing a bankruptcy petition, an "automatic stay" against all collection efforts goes into effect. Creditors must stop all efforts to collect from you. Creditors must stop making calls to you, stop sending letters, stop all lawsuits to collect, and stop doing everything else to make you pay.

No, not at all. Secured creditors get extraordinary rights in a bankruptcy case. Bankruptcy may temporarily delay secured creditors, but most voluntary liens (such as those held by your mortgage bank and your car lender) have to be satisfied by either paying the creditor or surrendering the property to the creditor.

However, you have some opportunities to remove involuntary liens and a small category of voluntary liens.

Chapter 7

A "secured creditor" is a creditor that has a lien on an item of your property. A lien is an interest in property that allows a creditor to have your property sold to satisfy your debt to that creditor. Mortgage lenders and car lenders are secured creditors. They have voluntary liens on your property.