Question: In Missouri, after filing for a chpt. 13, my husband abandoned my kids and me & moved out of the state. How does this affect our bankruptcy, if at all?

Answer: If you keep making the Chapter 13 Plan payments, it won't, by itself, affect the bankruptcy. However, if his income has changed, he is supposed to report that change to the trustee/court so the Chapter 13 Plan payment amount can be reviewed and possibly increased if his income went up, or potentially decreased if his income went down.

However, since he is not necessarily communicating accurately with you, you might want to talk to another bankruptcy attorney to see if deconsolidating the joint bankruptcy case into two separate bankruptcy cases would be in your best interest. Then, assuming you qualify for Chapter 7, you could convert your case to Chapter 7 and discharge the debt, and let him do whatever he wants with his bankruptcy case. I'm not saying this is necessarily the best course since there are a lot of factors I don't know and can't review in this format which may determine your best course, but there are certainly some things you can do to protect yourself, and you will need a consultation with an attorney to know what to do considering your income is only Disability now, etc.

Joe

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