How to File Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in Washington State

To file Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Washington State, you need to pass the income-based means test, complete a credit counseling course, prepare the federal bankruptcy petition and schedules using Washington or federal property exemptions, and file everything with either the Western or Eastern District bankruptcy court along with a $338 fee. From there, you attend a short meeting with the trustee, finish a second financial education course, and wait roughly three to four months for the discharge order that eliminates most of your unsecured debts.

Confirm You Qualify Under the Means Test

Chapter 7 is only available to filers whose income falls within limits set by federal law. The means test looks at your household’s average monthly income over the six full calendar months before you file and compares it to the median income for a Washington household of your size.¹ If you’re at or below the median, you qualify without any further math.

For cases filed on or after November 1, 2025, Washington’s median income figures are:

1-person household: $86,314
2-person household: $104,354
3-person household: $128,360
4-person household: $152,553

Add $11,100 for each additional person beyond four.² These numbers update periodically, so check the U.S. Trustee’s current figures before filing.

Income above the median doesn’t automatically disqualify you. The test then lets you subtract IRS-approved living expenses, secured debt payments, and certain priority obligations. If what remains over 60 months is low enough, you still qualify. If it’s high enough to repay a meaningful share of your unsecured debts, the court can presume filing Chapter 7 would be an abuse and steer you toward Chapter 13 instead.¹

One timing rule overrides the income analysis entirely. If you received a Chapter 7 or Chapter 11 discharge in a case filed within the past eight years, the court will deny a new Chapter 7 discharge no matter how little you earn.³

Complete Pre-Filing Credit Counseling

Every individual Chapter 7 filer must complete a credit counseling session within the 180 days before the petition is filed. The session reviews your financial situation and alternatives to bankruptcy; it doesn’t require you to change your plans, only to document that you considered other options.⁴

The provider has to be on the U.S. Trustee’s approved list for the Western or Eastern District of Washington. Sessions run by phone, online, or in person, typically cost $10 to $50, and have fee waivers for people who can’t afford them. The certificate of completion must be filed with your petition. Without it, the court won’t accept your case.

Choose Washington or Federal Exemptions

Chapter 7 is often called liquidation bankruptcy, but most individual filers keep everything they own because exemption laws shield property from the trustee. Washington lets you pick between the state exemption system and the federal bankruptcy exemptions, and the choice can meaningfully change what’s protected. You cannot combine the two systems, and married couples filing jointly must agree on one or the other.⁵

Washington’s state exemptions tend to help homeowners and vehicle owners more. Key limits include:

Homestead: the greater of $125,000 or the county median sale price of a single-family home in the preceding year. In counties with high home values the county figure often provides far more protection than the floor.⁶
Motor vehicle equity: up to $15,000.
Household goods and furniture: up to $6,500 per person.
Wearing apparel: fully exempt. Furs, jewelry, and personal ornaments: capped at $3,500.
Tools of the trade: up to $15,000.
Bankruptcy wildcard: up to $10,000 in any other personal property of your choosing.
Cell phone, personal computer, and printer: fully exempt with no dollar cap.⁷

The federal exemptions often work better for renters, since the smaller federal homestead can be converted (up to $15,800 of the unused portion) into a wildcard that protects whatever you choose. Federal figures in effect from April 1, 2025 through April 1, 2028 include a $31,575 homestead, $5,025 vehicle exemption, and household goods protected at $800 per item up to $16,850 total.

There’s a residency catch. To use Washington’s state exemptions, you must have lived in the state for the full 730 days before filing. Move more recently and you may have to use the exemptions of your previous state, or default to the federal set.⁵ Nail this down before filing. Getting it wrong can cost you property you thought was safe.

Pull Your Financial Documents Together

The bankruptcy forms demand detailed disclosure, so collecting records up front saves real pain later. On the asset side, gather vehicle titles, real estate deeds, recent bank and investment statements, and retirement account balances. On the debt side, pull statements for every creditor with current balances and mailing addresses: mortgage, car loans, credit cards, medical bills, personal loans, and any judgments.

For income, get pay stubs or earnings records covering the six months before your filing date. You also must provide the trustee a copy of your most recent federal tax return (or transcript) at least seven days before the 341 meeting.⁸ The IRS also expects you to have filed returns for the last four tax periods before the bankruptcy date; missing returns can delay or derail the case.⁹

Document monthly living expenses with utility bills, insurance statements, and bank records. Unusual financial interests belong on the list too: a pending lawsuit, an expected inheritance, or a tax refund you haven’t received yet. Trustees look closely at refunds in particular.

Prepare the Petition and Schedules

The federal judiciary publishes Official Bankruptcy Forms that every Chapter 7 filer must use. The core document is Form 101, the Voluntary Petition for Individuals, which identifies you and opens the case.¹⁰

Along with the petition you’ll complete a series of schedules:

Schedule A/B lists everything you own, from real estate to clothing.
Schedule C claims your exemptions. This is where the state-versus-federal choice is recorded.
Schedule D covers secured debts like mortgages and car loans.
Schedules E/F cover priority unsecured debts (like certain taxes) and general unsecured debts.
Schedule I states current monthly income.
Schedule J states current monthly expenses.

You’ll also complete the Statement of Financial Affairs, which asks about property transfers, payments to creditors over $600, and any lawsuits you’re part of. A separate form documents the means test calculation. Every form is signed under penalty of perjury, so errors can trigger dismissal or worse. If you’re filing without an attorney, cross-check every number against your source documents before signing.

File With the Correct Washington Court

You file in the bankruptcy court covering your county of residence. The Western District of Washington has courthouses in Seattle and Tacoma and handles counties west of the Cascades.¹¹ The Eastern District operates out of Spokane and Yakima for the rest of the state.¹²

Attorneys file electronically through CM/ECF. Self-represented filers usually submit documents in person or by mail to the clerk’s office. The filing fee is $338. If you can’t pay it all at once, Form 103A spreads payment over installments. If your household income is below 150% of the federal poverty guidelines, Form 103B requests a full fee waiver.

The moment the petition is filed, the automatic stay takes effect. Collection calls, lawsuits, wage garnishments, and foreclosure proceedings all stop. Creditors who violate the stay can face sanctions. The stay lasts the whole case unless a creditor convinces the court to lift it for a specific debt, which sometimes happens with mortgage lenders.

Attend the 341 Meeting of Creditors

Between 21 and 40 days after filing, you attend the Section 341 meeting of creditors. In Washington these are frequently held by phone or video, though some remain in person. Despite the name, actual creditors rarely show up in routine consumer cases.

Your assigned bankruptcy trustee runs the meeting. They’ll ask you questions under oath to confirm the information in your schedules: whether every asset is listed, whether every income source is disclosed, and whether you understand what you’re giving up. If your paperwork is clean, the meeting usually takes 10 to 15 minutes.

Bring government-issued photo identification and proof of your Social Security number, both originals. Acceptable photo ID includes a driver’s license, passport, military ID, or state ID card. For the Social Security number, bring your card, a W-2, a pay stub showing the number, or an IRS Form 1099.¹³ Forgetting these means a rescheduled meeting and a delayed discharge.

Finish Debtor Education and Receive Your Discharge

After the 341 meeting, you must complete a second course focused on personal financial management. This is separate from the pre-filing counseling and covers budgeting, money management, and using credit responsibly going forward. It also comes from a U.S. Trustee-approved provider and typically runs $10 to $50, with fee waivers available.

File the completion certificate with the court within 60 days of the first date set for your 341 meeting.¹⁴ Miss that deadline and the court can close your case without a discharge, meaning you’d have to reopen it and pay the fee again.

Assuming no creditor or the trustee objects, the discharge order usually arrives 60 to 90 days after the 341 meeting. The discharge eliminates your personal liability for most unsecured debts, and creditors who received notice can never try to collect those debts from you again.¹⁵

Debts Chapter 7 Won’t Erase

Not everything gets wiped out, and misreading this list is one of the most common reasons people feel blindsided after a case closes. The main non-dischargeable categories include:

Child support and alimony, without exception.
Most student loans, unless you file a separate action proving undue hardship.
Recent income tax debts. Generally the tax must be more than three years old with a timely-filed return to qualify for discharge. Taxes tied to fraud or unfiled returns are never dischargeable.
Debts obtained by fraud or misrepresentation, including credit card charges over $500 for luxury goods within 90 days of filing and cash advances over $750 within 70 days.
Liability for death or personal injury caused by intoxicated driving.
Criminal restitution and most government fines.
Debts you forgot to list, if the creditor didn’t learn about the case in time to participate.¹⁶

Divorce-related property settlement obligations also survive. If your decree assigned you a joint credit card, bankruptcy won’t shift that obligation to your ex-spouse.

Deciding What to Do With Secured Debts

Chapter 7 wipes out your personal liability, but it doesn’t erase a lender’s lien on collateral. A car lender or mortgage holder can still repossess or foreclose after discharge unless you deal with the debt during the case. Three options exist.

Reaffirmation is a new contract keeping you personally liable for the debt in exchange for keeping the property. You keep paying as if the bankruptcy never happened, but you also lose discharge protection on that specific debt. The agreement has to be filed before discharge, and you have 60 days after filing it to rescind.¹⁷ Filers without an attorney need the court to separately approve the reaffirmation. Reaffirming is common on car loans when the vehicle is roughly worth what’s owed, but if you fall behind later, you’ll owe any deficiency with no bankruptcy shield.

Redemption lets you keep personal property by paying the creditor the item’s current value in a lump sum, even if you owe more. If a car has a $12,000 loan balance but is worth $7,000, you can redeem it for $7,000.¹⁸ The full payment must be made at once. Specialty lenders offer redemption loans for this, usually at high interest.

Surrender hands the property back to the creditor. Any remaining balance is wiped out by the discharge. Surrendering an underwater car or an unaffordable home is sometimes the cleanest exit.

What to Expect After Discharge

A Chapter 7 filing can appear on your credit report for up to 10 years from the filing date.¹⁹ The practical impact fades well before then. Many filers see score improvement within a year or two because discharged debts stop being reported as delinquent. Secured credit cards and small installment loans become available fairly quickly to filers who rebuild deliberately.

You can’t get another Chapter 7 discharge in a case filed within eight years of the previous Chapter 7 filing date.³ Chapter 13 has a shorter four-year wait, which leaves some flexibility if trouble returns. The discharge itself is permanent for the debts it covers. Those creditors cannot legally contact you about those obligations again.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 707 – Dismissal of a Case or Conversion to a Case Under Chapter 11 or 13
2
U.S. Department of Justice. Census Bureau Median Family Income by Family Size – Cases Filed on or After November 1, 2025
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 727 – Discharge
4
Executive Office for U.S. Trustees. Volume 9 – Credit Counseling and Debtor Education
5
United States Bankruptcy Court Western District of Washington. Exemptions – Property You Can Keep
6
Washington State Legislature. RCW 6.13.030 – Homestead Exemption Amount
7
Washington State Legislature. RCW 6.15.010 – Exempt Property
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 521 – Debtors Duties
9
Internal Revenue Service. Declaring Bankruptcy
10
U.S. Courts. Voluntary Petition for Individuals Filing for Bankruptcy
11
United States Bankruptcy Court. Western District of Washington
12
United States Bankruptcy Court Eastern District of Washington. United States Bankruptcy Court Eastern District of Washington
13
U.S. Department of Justice. Proof of Identification and Social Security Number Required at 341(a) Meeting of Creditors
14
United States Bankruptcy Court. Chapter 7 Filing Requirements
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 524 – Effect of Discharge
18
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 722 – Redemption
19
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports