There is no legal limit on how many times you can file bankruptcy in Texas. You can file as many cases as you need to. What the law actually restricts is how often you can receive a discharge, the court order that wipes out qualifying debts. Depending on which chapter you filed last and which one you want to file next, the wait between discharges runs from two to eight years.
Filing a Case Is Not the Same as Getting a Discharge
This distinction decides almost every question about repeat bankruptcy. Filing a case triggers the automatic stay, which stops creditor calls, lawsuits, wage garnishment, and foreclosure while the case is open. A discharge is something different: it’s the order at the end of a successful case that permanently eliminates qualifying debts.
You can file a new case even when you’re not yet eligible for a new discharge. The stay will still kick in, at least briefly. But the court will refuse to discharge your debts in that new case, and once it closes, your creditors go right back to collecting. For most people, the discharge is the whole point. Filing without discharge eligibility is a short-term shield, and as you’ll see below, the shield itself has limits when you’ve filed recently.
Waiting Periods Between Discharges
Federal law sets four waiting periods based on the chapter combination. Each one runs from the filing date of the prior case to the filing date of the new one.
Chapter 7 After a Prior Chapter 7
Eight years. This is the longest waiting period in the bankruptcy code.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 727 – Discharge Chapter 7 eliminates most unsecured debt without any repayment plan, so Congress made you wait the longest before using it again.
Chapter 13 After a Prior Chapter 13
Two years. The gap is short because Chapter 13 already requires three to five years of repayment before a discharge is granted in the first place.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1328 – DischargeChapter 13 – Bankruptcy Basics
Chapter 13 After a Prior Chapter 7
Four years from the Chapter 7 filing date.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1328 – Discharge This is the sequence behind the informal “Chapter 20” strategy described below.
Chapter 7 After a Prior Chapter 13
Six years from the Chapter 13 filing date.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 727 – Discharge There’s one exception. If you paid at least 70 percent of your unsecured debts under the Chapter 13 plan and the court found the plan was proposed in good faith, the six-year bar doesn’t apply.4United States Bankruptcy Court. Prior Bankruptcy – If I Had a Prior Bankruptcy, How Soon Can I Get Another Discharge Debtors who paid substantially into their plan get earlier access to Chapter 7.
Filing Again Before the Waiting Period Is Up
You can technically file a new case any time. What you can’t do is expect the same protection you got the first time. Two rules make repeat filings risky.
Shrinking Automatic Stay
If a previous case was dismissed within the past twelve months, the automatic stay in your new case expires after just 30 days. To keep it in place, you have to file a motion and convince the judge the new case was filed in good faith. The court presumes it wasn’t if the earlier case was dismissed because you failed to follow court orders, missed plan payments, or your finances haven’t materially changed.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay Overcoming that presumption requires clear and convincing evidence of changed circumstances.
If two or more cases were dismissed within the past year, no automatic stay takes effect at all when you file again.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay You can ask the court to impose one, but the same good-faith presumption applies, and until the court rules, creditors can foreclose, repossess, and garnish. This is where a pattern of file-dismiss-refile stops working.
The 180-Day Bar After Certain Dismissals
A dismissal isn’t a discharge. When a case is dismissed, the debts survive and creditors resume collection. And some dismissals block you from refiling at all for 180 days.
Under federal law, you cannot refile for 180 days if your prior case was dismissed because you willfully failed to follow court orders or appear, or if you voluntarily dismissed your own case after a creditor filed a motion to lift the automatic stay.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 109 – Who May Be a Debtor That second scenario is common: a mortgage lender moves to lift the stay so it can foreclose, the debtor dismisses to head off the ruling, and then finds the courthouse doors closed for six months.7United States Bankruptcy Court. Special Warning to a Debtor Thinking of Filing a Bankruptcy Petition
A dismissal “without prejudice” doesn’t trigger the 180-day bar. You could refile the next day. But the shrinking-stay rules above still apply for a full year after the dismissal.
The Chapter 20 Sequence
Bankruptcy lawyers use “Chapter 20” as shorthand for a deliberate two-step: file Chapter 7 first to erase unsecured debts like credit cards and medical bills, then file Chapter 13 to set up a repayment plan for secured debts like a mortgage or car loan. There’s no actual Chapter 20 in the code. It’s just 7 plus 13.
Clearing the unsecured debt in the first case frees up income to fund a focused plan in the second. Because the four-year rule may block a discharge in the Chapter 13 if it’s filed too soon after the Chapter 7, the second case often isn’t about getting a discharge at all. It’s about using the Chapter 13 plan to cure mortgage arrears or car loan defaults over three to five years while the automatic stay keeps the lender from taking the collateral.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1328 – Discharge
What Repeat Filings Do to Your Credit
Every case you file lands on your credit report as its own entry. A Chapter 7 stays for up to ten years from the filing date. A completed Chapter 13 may drop off after seven.8United States Bankruptcy Court Northern District of Georgia. How Many Years Will a Bankruptcy Show on My Credit Report
If you filed Chapter 7 five years ago and file Chapter 13 today, both entries sit on your report side by side until the older one ages off. Some mortgage and auto loan programs impose their own waiting periods measured from the most recent filing, so a second case resets a clock lenders care about. One bankruptcy is survivable on credit. Two stacked close together stretch the recovery.
Debts That Survive Every Bankruptcy
Filing again won’t reach debts the law protects from discharge in any case. If a debt survived your first bankruptcy because it falls into one of these categories, a second or third case won’t touch it either. Non-dischargeable debts include:9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge
- Child support and alimony
- Most recent tax debts, though older taxes may qualify under specific conditions
- Student loans, unless a separate action proves undue hardship
- Debts obtained by fraud, if a creditor proves it
- Personal injury liability from drunk driving
- Criminal fines and restitution
- In Chapter 7 cases, debts you failed to list in your paperwork
Understanding which category a stubborn debt falls into matters more than filing count. If the debt is dischargeable and enough time has passed since your last case, a new filing can eliminate it. If it isn’t, no number of filings will.