Filing for bankruptcy in Florida sets off a federal court process that can erase most of your unsecured debts in roughly four months under Chapter 7, or restructure them into a three-to-five-year repayment plan under Chapter 13. Along the way you complete a credit counseling course, submit a sworn petition with detailed financial schedules, receive immediate protection from creditors, attend a short meeting with a trustee, finish a second financial education course, and ultimately receive a discharge order that permanently wipes out qualifying debt. Florida’s exemption rules are unusually protective, especially for homeowners, so most filers keep their property. The trade-off is a long credit report mark and limits on how soon you can file again.
Choosing Between Chapter 7 and Chapter 13
The first real decision is which chapter fits your situation. Chapter 7 is a liquidation case. A court-appointed trustee reviews your assets, sells anything an exemption doesn’t protect, and distributes the proceeds to creditors. Most remaining unsecured debts are then wiped out. The case typically closes in about four months, and in Florida most filers lose little or no property because the state’s exemptions are broad.
Chapter 13 is a reorganization. Instead of surrendering non-exempt property, you propose a repayment plan that lasts three years if your household income is below the Florida median, or five years if it is above. The plan cannot run longer than five years.1United States Courts. Chapter 13 – Bankruptcy Basics At the end of the plan, remaining qualifying debt is discharged. Chapter 13 is often the right choice if you are behind on a mortgage or car loan and want to cure the arrears over time while keeping the collateral.
Chapter 13 has debt ceilings. For cases filed between April 1, 2025, and March 31, 2028, you can carry no more than $1,580,125 in secured debt and $526,700 in unsecured debt. Above those limits, Chapter 13 is not available.
Do You Qualify for Chapter 7? The Means Test
Chapter 7 is not open to everyone. A federal “means test” compares your household income over the previous six months, annualized, to the Florida median for a household of your size.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 707 – Dismissal of a Case or Conversion For cases filed between November 1, 2025, and March 31, 2026, Florida’s medians are $68,085 for one earner, $84,305 for a household of two, $95,039 for three, and $111,819 for four, with $11,100 added for each additional person.3United States Department of Justice. Median Family Income Table – November 1, 2025
At or below the median, you pass automatically. Above it, a second calculation subtracts allowed expenses from your income to measure your ability to repay. Pass that second calculation and Chapter 7 is still available; fail it and Chapter 13 is generally your option. Disabled veterans whose debts arose primarily during active duty are exempt from the test altogether.
What You Have to Do Before Filing
Two things must be in place before the petition goes in: a credit counseling certificate and a complete financial inventory.
Credit Counseling
Within the 180 days before filing, you must complete a briefing from an approved nonprofit credit counseling agency.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 109 – Who May Be a Debtor The session, typically $15 to $20, can be taken by phone or online and walks through your budget and possible alternatives to bankruptcy. The certificate it produces must be filed with your petition; without it, the court will dismiss the case.5United States Department of Justice. Credit Counseling and Debtor Education Information
Gathering Your Financial Records
Every document you file is signed under penalty of perjury, so accuracy matters. You will need pay stubs or other income proof for the past six months, federal tax returns for the past two years, bank statements, a full list of your assets (real estate, vehicles, financial accounts), and a complete list of your debts with creditor names and balances.
Filing the Petition and the Automatic Stay
With the counseling certificate and documents assembled, your attorney files the petition electronically with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. The filing includes the main petition and detailed schedules of assets, debts, income, and monthly expenses.
Court fees are due at filing: $338 for Chapter 7, $406 for Chapter 13. If you cannot pay upfront, you can request installments, and Chapter 7 filers can also apply for a full fee waiver.6Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure Rule 1006 – Filing Fee Attorney fees are separate and typically run from about $900 to $2,500 or more for Chapter 7, depending on complexity.
The moment the petition is filed, the automatic stay takes effect. This court-ordered freeze stops virtually all collection activity: wage garnishments, foreclosures, repossessions, lawsuits, and collection calls must stop immediately.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay A creditor who knowingly violates the stay can be ordered to pay your actual damages, including attorney fees, and in serious cases punitive damages.
The stay does have limits worth knowing. It does not stop criminal proceedings, and it does not halt family law matters such as child custody disputes, paternity actions, divorce (apart from the property division), or domestic violence cases. Collection of child support and alimony from property outside the bankruptcy estate continues, and government agencies can still conduct tax audits, issue tax deficiency notices, and pursue regulatory enforcement.
The Meeting of Creditors
Roughly 20 to 60 days after filing, you attend what is called the “341 meeting of creditors.” Despite the name, actual creditors rarely appear in routine consumer cases.8Legal Information Institute. 341 Meeting The important person in the room is the bankruptcy trustee.
The meeting happens in a conference room, not a courtroom, and no judge is present. The trustee places you under oath and asks questions about your assets, debts, income, and the accuracy of your paperwork. Most meetings last under 10 minutes, and your attorney will be with you.9United States Department of Justice. Section 341 Meeting of Creditors
What Property You Get to Keep
Losing the house, the car, or retirement savings is the fear that drives most hesitation about filing. Florida’s exemption system is designed to protect more than most states do.
The Homestead
Florida’s constitutional homestead exemption protects the full value of your primary residence from forced sale, with no dollar cap. The property can be up to half an acre inside a municipality or 160 contiguous acres outside one.10FindLaw. Florida Constitution Art X Section 4
Two timing rules matter. To use Florida’s exemptions at all, you must have lived in the state for at least 730 days (about two years) before filing. More recent arrivals may be stuck with their prior state’s exemptions. And if you acquired the home within 1,215 days (about three years and four months) before filing, the unlimited protection is capped at a federally set dollar amount, with any equity above the cap unprotected.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 522 – Exemptions Equity rolled over from an earlier home in the same state does not trigger the cap.
Vehicles, Personal Property, Wages, and Retirement
- Up to $5,000 of equity in one motor vehicle.12The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 222.25 – Other Individual Property of Natural Persons Exempt From Legal Process
- Up to $1,000 in personal property such as household furnishings under the state constitution.
- A $4,000 wildcard for any personal property, available only if you do not claim the homestead exemption, and not usable against child support or spousal support debts.
- Head-of-family wages (you provide more than half the support of a child or dependent) are fully exempt from garnishment when disposable earnings are $750 per week or less. Above that figure, a creditor still needs your specific written consent to garnish.13The Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 222.11 – Exemption of Wages From Garnishment
- Employer-sponsored retirement plans such as 401(k)s are protected without a dollar limit. Traditional and Roth IRAs are protected up to $1,711,975 in combined value for the 2025 through 2028 period, and money rolled over from an employer plan does not count toward that cap.
Keeping a Financed Car or House: Reaffirmation
If you file Chapter 7 and want to keep a vehicle or other secured property that still has a loan on it, you will usually need to sign a reaffirmation agreement. The reaffirmation is a new contract to keep paying the debt as if the bankruptcy had not happened.14Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 524 – Effect of Discharge
The upside is that you keep the collateral and the lender reports the payments to the credit bureaus, which helps your rebuild. The downside is real: if you later default on a reaffirmed debt, the lender can repossess and still pursue you for any deficiency, debt you could otherwise have walked away from. Your attorney must certify that the agreement is not an undue hardship and that you signed voluntarily. Without an attorney, the court itself must approve it. You have 60 days after the agreement is filed to rescind.
If you decide not to reaffirm, the underlying debt is discharged, but the lender can still repossess the collateral even if you are current on payments, because nothing contractually requires the lender to let you keep it.
The Debtor Education Course and Your Discharge
After filing but before discharge, you must complete a second course: a personal financial management class offered by a provider approved by the U.S. Trustee Program.15United States Courts. Credit Counseling and Debtor Education Courses You file the completion certificate (Official Form 423) with the court. In a Chapter 7 case, it is due no later than 60 days after the meeting of creditors. In a Chapter 13 case, you must file it before making your last plan payment. The course is short, generally available online, and costs about $15 to $20. Missing the deadline delays or blocks your discharge.
The discharge is the point of all of this: a court order permanently eliminating your obligation to repay qualifying debts. In Chapter 7, it typically arrives about 60 days after the meeting of creditors if no one objects.16Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge In Chapter 13, it comes after you finish all plan payments.17Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1328 – Discharge Once entered, creditors can never again try to collect those debts.
Debts Bankruptcy Will Not Erase
Some debts survive bankruptcy no matter which chapter you file. The most common include:
- Domestic support obligations, including child support and alimony.
- Student loans, dischargeable only on a showing of “undue hardship,” a standard that remains difficult to meet.
- Income taxes that came due within the past three years, taxes where the return was filed late within the past two years, and taxes you tried to evade.
- Debts arising from fraud or willful injury to another person or their property.
The full list is longer.16Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge Still, the debts that weigh most heavily on typical consumer filers, credit cards, medical bills, and personal loans, are generally dischargeable.
Life After the Case: Credit, Taxes, and Future Filings
A bankruptcy filing can stay on your credit report for up to 10 years from the filing date under federal law.18Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1681c – Requirements Relating to Information Contained in Consumer Reports In practice, the major credit bureaus remove completed Chapter 13 cases after seven years.19United States Bankruptcy Court. Credit Report – How Do I Get a Bankruptcy Removed From My Report The score hit is immediate but fades. Many people qualify for secured credit cards within months and for conventional loans within two to four years.
Taxes work in your favor here. Canceled debt is normally taxable income, but debt discharged in a Title 11 bankruptcy case is not, so no surprise tax bill follows.20Internal Revenue Service. Publication 908 – Bankruptcy Tax Guide The discharged amount can reduce certain tax attributes you would otherwise carry forward, such as net operating losses or capital loss carryovers.
If you ever need to file again, waiting periods apply between discharges, measured from one filing date to the next:21United States Bankruptcy Court. Prior Bankruptcy – How Soon Can I Get Another Discharge
- Chapter 7 after Chapter 7: eight years.
- Chapter 13 after Chapter 7: four years.
- Chapter 13 after Chapter 13: two years.
- Chapter 7 after Chapter 13: six years, unless you paid at least 70 percent of unsecured claims in good faith in the earlier case.
Filing before the waiting period expires does not block a new case from being opened, but it does block a discharge in that case.