How to File Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in Maryland: Forms and Exemptions

To file Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Maryland, you complete a credit counseling course, pass the means test using Maryland’s income medians, submit the petition and supporting schedules to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland in Baltimore or Greenbelt, attend a short meeting with a trustee, finish a debtor education class, and receive your discharge roughly four months after filing. Most qualifying unsecured debts are wiped out, and for a typical no-asset consumer case, you keep everything you own.

Do You Qualify to File in Maryland

Two threshold questions decide whether you can file here at all: where you’ve lived and how much you earn.

On residency, you can file in Maryland if you’ve lived in the state for the greater part of the 180 days before filing. Because Maryland is a single federal bankruptcy district, at least 91 of those 180 days in-state establishes the court’s authority over your case.¹

The means test is the bigger hurdle. The court takes your average monthly gross income for the six full calendar months before filing and multiplies it by twelve. If that annualized figure is at or below Maryland’s median for your household size, you pass automatically.²

For cases filed on or after November 1, 2025, the Maryland medians published by the U.S. Trustee Program are:³

1 person: $84,699
2 people: $111,673
3 people: $132,464
4 people: $161,913
Each additional person: add $11,100

Earning more than the median doesn’t automatically shut you out. The court runs a second calculation that subtracts standardized living expenses (based on IRS National and Local Standards), payments on secured debts, and priority obligations. If what’s left over the next 60 months is low enough, you still qualify. If it’s too high, the filing is presumed abusive, and Chapter 13 repayment becomes the realistic option.²

Complete Credit Counseling First

Federal law requires every individual filer to finish a credit counseling session with an approved nonprofit agency within 180 days before filing.⁴ The session covers your income, debts, and expenses, and looks at whether alternatives to bankruptcy might work. It can be done by phone, online, or in person, and the agency issues a certificate afterward. The court will not accept your petition without it.

If a genuine emergency (a foreclosure sale set for tomorrow, say) makes pre-filing counseling impossible, the court can grant a temporary exemption. You then have 30 days after filing to finish, with a possible 15-day extension for cause.⁴ Full waivers exist for people who are incapacitated, disabled, or on active duty in a combat zone.

Gather Your Records and Complete the Forms

Most of the work in a Chapter 7 case happens before the petition ever reaches the court. Pull the following together first:

Federal and state tax returns for the two most recent years.
All pay stubs received within 60 days before filing.
An asset inventory: real estate, vehicles, bank and retirement accounts, household goods, electronics, jewelry, with current values.
A debt list: every creditor’s name, address, account number, and balance, secured and unsecured.
A monthly budget showing income from all sources and regular expenses.

Filing starts with Official Form 101, the Voluntary Petition for Individuals Filing for Bankruptcy.⁵ From there you complete a series of schedules: Schedule A/B lists property and fair market values, Schedule C claims your exemptions, Schedules I and J document current income and expenses, Schedule D lists secured debts, Schedule E/F lists unsecured debts, and the Statement of Financial Affairs asks about recent transactions, lawsuits, and transfers.

Every form is signed under penalty of perjury. Cross-reference your bank statements, loan documents, and asset valuations against what you report. Mismatches between your records and your schedules can trigger fraud allegations, a denied discharge, or the loss of property you could otherwise have protected. Most trouble for pro se filers starts here, not from dishonesty but from rushing forms that demand precision.

Know What Maryland Lets You Keep

Exemptions decide which of your assets are safe from the trustee. Maryland has opted out of the federal exemption system, so you use the state’s own list under Section 11-504 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article. The main categories:

Homestead: equity in your primary residence up to roughly $31,575. Spouses filing jointly cannot double this figure. The amount tracks the federal exemption and was last updated April 1, 2025.
Wildcard: up to $6,000 in cash or any type of property, with any unused portion available to add to the homestead exemption.
Personal property wildcard: an additional $5,000 for personal property (not real estate).
Motor vehicle: up to $5,000 of equity in one vehicle used for work or school.
Tools of the trade: up to $5,000 in clothing, books, tools, instruments, and equipment used in your profession.

If your equity in an asset exceeds the applicable exemption, the trustee can sell it, hand you the exemption amount in cash, and distribute the rest to creditors. In practice, most individual Chapter 7 cases are “no-asset” cases in which everything the filer owns falls within the exemption limits and nothing is liquidated.⁶

If you own a home with meaningful equity or a vehicle worth more than $5,000, working through the exemption math before filing is often the single most consequential step in the process.

File the Petition and Pay the Fee

The petition goes to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland, with offices in Baltimore and Greenbelt. Documents may be filed at either division.⁷

Filers without an attorney can use the court’s Electronic Self Representation (eSR) tool, built specifically for Chapter 7 individual cases. You complete the petition through eSR, then mail or deliver additional required documents (a declaration regarding electronic filing and Social Security number verification) to the clerk. The case isn’t officially filed until the clerk receives those supplemental items, so eSR is not appropriate when a foreclosure sale or garnishment is imminent.⁸ Paper petitions can also be delivered in person or mailed to either courthouse.

The Chapter 7 filing fee is $338.⁹ If you can’t pay it up front, Official Form 103A requests an installment plan, and Official Form 103B applies for a full waiver when household income is below 150 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. The fee or a completed application must reach the court within 14 days of filing, or the case may be dismissed.⁸

The Automatic Stay Kicks In

The moment the clerk records your petition, the automatic stay takes effect. It’s a federal injunction that immediately halts most collection activity: lawsuits, wage garnishments, creditor phone calls, and foreclosure proceedings all stop.¹⁰ The stay stays in place while your case is open, and creditors who violate it can face sanctions.

One caveat matters if you’ve filed before. A prior bankruptcy dismissed within the past year cuts the automatic stay in a new case to 30 days unless the court extends it. Two prior dismissals within the year means no automatic stay at all without a court order.

Attend the 341 Meeting of Creditors

Roughly 21 to 40 days after filing, the court schedules the Meeting of Creditors, called the 341 meeting after the section of the Bankruptcy Code that requires it.¹¹ Despite the name, creditors rarely appear. The meeting takes place in a conference room, and no bankruptcy judge attends.

You’ll appear before the assigned Chapter 7 trustee and answer questions under oath about your schedules, assets, and financial history. Bring government-issued photo ID and proof of your Social Security number, such as a card or W-2. The trustee’s job is to confirm the accuracy of your paperwork and decide whether any non-exempt assets exist. In a typical no-asset case, the meeting runs about ten minutes.

If the trustee needs missing documents or has questions about valuations or potentially non-exempt assets, the meeting may be continued to a later date. Not appearing at all gets your case dismissed.

Decide What Happens to Secured Property

Chapter 7 discharges your personal liability on debts, but it does not remove liens. If a lender holds a security interest in your car or home, that interest survives. You tell the court what you plan to do with each secured asset by filing a Statement of Intention, and you generally have three choices:

Reaffirmation. You sign a new agreement with the lender to keep paying the debt under the original or renegotiated terms. The debt survives the discharge, so the lender can pursue you personally if you default later. The agreement must be filed before your discharge is entered, and you have 60 days to rescind. Without an attorney, the court must approve the agreement as being in your best interest and not an undue hardship.¹²
Redemption. You pay the lender the current fair market value of the property in a single lump sum, which can be far less than the loan balance. It works well when you owe much more than the asset is worth, though the up-front cash is the obstacle.
Surrender. You return the property to the lender, and any remaining balance is discharged with your other debts.

Reaffirmation is the common pick for filers who want to keep a car or home they’re current on. It also carries the most risk, since you’re giving up the protection of the discharge for that specific debt. Weigh whether the asset is worth it.

Finish Debtor Education, Then Get Your Discharge

After the 341 meeting, you must complete a second course: a personal financial management class focused on budgeting and credit. This is separate from the pre-filing counseling and must come from an approved provider.¹³ File the certificate within 60 days of the first date set for the 341 meeting. Miss it, and the court closes the case without a discharge.

Waivers from the debtor education requirement are narrow: mental incapacity, physical disability that prevents participation even by phone or internet, or active duty in a combat zone.

Creditors and the trustee have 60 days from the first 341 meeting date to object to your discharge.¹⁴ Objections are uncommon in straightforward consumer cases. Once the objection deadline passes and your debtor education certificate is on file, the court enters the discharge, usually about 60 days after the 341 meeting and roughly four months after the original filing.¹⁵ The order permanently releases you from personal liability on most unsecured debts, and creditors are barred from further collection attempts.

Debts That Chapter 7 Won’t Erase

The discharge is broad but not universal. Several categories pass through untouched:¹⁶

All domestic support obligations, including child support and alimony.
Recent income taxes, taxes for which no return was filed, and taxes involving fraud.
Student loans, unless you file a separate adversary proceeding within your case and prove that repayment would be an “undue hardship,” a standard most courts read very narrowly.
Debts obtained through false pretenses, false financial statements, or actual fraud, once a creditor asks the court to make that finding.
Liability for personal injury caused by driving under the influence.
Criminal restitution, traffic tickets, and most government-imposed fines and penalties.
Debts you failed to list, if the creditor didn’t learn of the case in time to participate.

That last one is preventable. Check your creditor list carefully before filing. The debt you forget is the debt that follows you.

Credit Report and Refiling Limits After Discharge

A Chapter 7 filing stays on your credit report for 10 years from the date of the petition. The individual accounts included show the discharge and age off separately. Meaningful score recovery usually shows up within two to three years, especially with a secured card or small installment loan managed responsibly.

If you’ve received a Chapter 7 discharge before, you cannot receive another one for eight years from the date of the earlier filing.¹⁷ Filing a new Chapter 7 inside that window is technically possible, but you’d get the automatic stay and trustee administration without any debt elimination. Chapter 13 is usually the better route in that situation.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1408 – Venue of Cases Under Title 11
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 707 – Dismissal of a Case or Conversion to a Case Under Chapter 11 or 13
3
U.S. Trustee Program/Dept. of Justice. Census Bureau Median Family Income By Family Size
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 109 – Who May Be a Debtor
5
U.S. Courts. Voluntary Petition for Individuals Filing for Bankruptcy
6
United States Courts. Chapter 7 – Bankruptcy Basics
7
The United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland. Locations
8
The United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland. Electronic Self Representation (eSR)
9
The United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland. Filing Fees
10
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 341 – Meetings of Creditors and Equity Security Holders
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 524 – Effect of Discharge
13
U.S. Courts. Credit Counseling and Debtor Education Courses
14
Legal Information Institute. Federal Rule of Bankruptcy Procedure 4004 – Granting or Denying a Discharge
15
United States Courts. Discharge in Bankruptcy – Bankruptcy Basics
16
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge
17
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 727 – Discharge