Filing Bankruptcy in Anchorage, Alaska

Collect Your Anchorage Bankruptcy Documents

When learning how to file bankruptcy in Anchorage, start by knowing that you’ll need a lot of information to provide the court. To give the Anchorage Bankruptcy Court the information they need, you’ll need to collect a lot of financial documents. So, be sure to set aside a lot of time to collect your Anchorage bankruptcy documents now to save yourself headaches later. The Court wants information on your income, debts, and expenses, so there are a few documents you should always get. You need to have paystubs and documentation of income received from other sources in the last 6 months, as well as your most recent tax returns (which the IRS can give you). You should also get a copy of your credit report - you can request a free copy every year. But, go through any collection notices you’ve received in the last few months as well, because these may be so recent they don’t show up on your annual credit report. If there is anything else showing income or assets – bank account statements, vehicle registration, retirement accounts, property appraisals – it will be helpful to gather those as well. 

Take Credit Counseling

Bankruptcy laws say that you can’t even file your Anchorage bankruptcy until you take a credit counseling course. The course is there to explain your options – including alternatives to filing bankruptcy – to make sure you are aware they exist. A course completion certificate needs to be filed with your bankruptcy forms for your case to begin. The certificate is only valid for 180 days, so don’t take the class more than 6 months before filing bankruptcy in Anchorage. The course can be taken in person, online, or over the phone from an approved provider with a brick and mortar course provider located in Anchorage. There is usually a fee between $10 and $50 for the course, but you can ask for a waiver if your income falls below a certain level. 

Complete the Bankruptcy Forms

Completing all the forms you’ll need to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Anchorage will be the most time-consuming step, but if you’ve done a good job collecting documents earlier in the process, it will go more smoothly. Alaska bankruptcy law and procedure will have you fill out nearly two dozen forms you’ll give to the Court. The good news, if you hired a lawyer, is they will usually fill out the forms for you. However, if you’re working alone, the forms are available for free online and the government has even created a free instruction manual to help you complete them. If you need more help than this, there is inexpensive bankruptcy software you can purchase to help, and you can always complete Upsolve’s screening to see if you qualify for our help.

Get Your Filing Fee

Even though the idea of needing to pay for help when you’re struggling financially seems a little strange, it’s very real. The filing fee for Chapter 7 bankruptcy is $338 payable in exact cash or a money order due when you file your Anchorage bankruptcy case. If a lump sum payment will be challenging, you can ask the Court to let you pay the fee in up to 4 installment payments within 120 days of filing. Make sure your installment payments are on time – the Court can throw out your Alaska bankruptcy case if even one is late. If paying at all will cause you serious financial difficulties, this fee waiver application will ask the Court to see if your income is low enough to avoid paying it. The Court can decide to either waive your fee or pay installment payments. The Court will review your application and either tell you that your filing fee is waived, or else order you to pay the fee in up to 4 installments. 

Print Your Bankruptcy Forms

Unless you hired a lawyer to handle your Anchorage bankruptcy, you’ll have to print all your forms in order to submit them to the Court. You’ll need one single-sided copy for the Court, and these can be printed on regular 8.5” x 11” paper on any home or office printer, or at a print shop or your local library. If you’re getting help from Upsolve, we’ll email you a PDF document containing all your completed forms you can print as one large document – just make sure you have enough paper. If you completed everything on your own, you should probably use a checklist so you don’t accidentally forget a document. Be sure to sign on each form where it’s required. Also, even though the Alaska Bankruptcy Court only needs one copy of the signed forms, it’s a good idea to print or make a copy of what you’re giving to the Court for your own records.

Go to Court to File Your Forms

You can file your Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Anchorage either by bringing your signed forms, counseling course certificate, and filing fee (or waiver request) to the Court in person or mail them in. If you’re mailing everything in, note the Court will not accept cash for your filing fee – only a money order. If you include a self-addressed, stamped envelope and a copy of your petition, they’ll send it back to you with a stamp indicating it has been accepted by the Court. The Last Frontier has three locations – Anchorage, Juneau, and Fairbanks. However, only Anchorage and Fairbanks will accept in-person bankruptcy filings. Filing bankruptcy in Anchorage in person is recommended if it’s not too far of a trip there.  You will know that day you have completed all the requirements correctly and your case has been filed. Once you go through security at the Court entrance, go to the Clerk’s office, give them your forms, certificate, and fee, and tell them you’re filing bankruptcy. They will process your forms, and in about 15 minutes (unless they are busy) they should give you back a stamped copy of your forms that includes important information about your case, your Trustee, and your 341 Meeting. 

Mail Documents to Your Trustee

The Court Clerk should have given you the name of the Trustee assigned to supervise your Anchorage bankruptcy case and verify the information you included in your forms. They also oversee your 341 or “Creditors’ Meeting. If they ask for additional information, make sure you cooperate quickly and completely – they can recommend the Court not discharge your debt if they feel you are not complying with bankruptcy procedure. Even if you don’t hear from your Trustee, you received their contact information when you filed bankruptcy. Make sure to send them your most recent federal tax return no less than a week before your scheduled 341 Meeting. 

Take Bankruptcy Course 2

There is a second bankruptcy course you must take when filing bankruptcy in Anchorage in order to be eligible for a discharge of your debts. It’s a Debtor Education Course, and it’s meant to teach you responsible financial decision making and keep you from needing bankruptcy relief again. This course is not offered in-person in Alaska, but may be taken online or over the phone in about 2 hours through an approved company. You or the company providing the course needs to file a certificate of completion with the Court, so check with them to see if they will file it for you. Courses usually have a small fee ranging from $10 to $50, but you may qualify for waiver if your income is under 150% of the federal poverty line.

Attend Your 341 Meeting

In a Chapter 7 bankruptcy , your 341 Meeting is usually scheduled about a month after filing bankruptcy in Anchorage. These meetings usually only take about 5 minutes, and even though your creditors can attend (along with you, the Trustee, and your attorney if you have one) they usually don’t. The meeting is supposed to confirm the information you have provided the Trustee and make sure you have disclosed all your assets truthfully – essentially, that you’re not trying to keep valuable things away from your creditors and cheat the process. Preparing for the meeting is a simple process, but all that preparation won’t help if you don’t show up to the meeting or forget your to bring the appropriate government documents so the Trustee can verify your identity and Social Security Number in order to hold the meeting! Once the meeting is done and you’ve completed the second counseling course, you can expect an order from the Court discharging your eligible debt 2 months later. 

Dealing with Your Car

There’s one final step in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Anchorage if you own a car or have a car loan you are still paying. If you own your car, the exemption limit will tell you if you can keep your car. If your car is worth more than the car exemption limit – the value of a vehicle you’re allowed to keep – a Trustee can sell it and use the profit over that limit to pay your creditors. If you’re using federal bankruptcy exemptions and it’s worth less than $4,000, you can keep it outright. 

If you are still paying on a car loan, you have a couple of choices, but you’ll still have to pay for the car to hold on to it. If it’s in your budget and you can keep paying your monthly car payment, the lender can decide to enter a reaffirmation agreement where you’re expected to keep making payments as originally agreed under the loan terms before your Anchorage bankruptcy until you’ve paid off the balance of the loan. If, however, your loan balance is a lot more than the current value of your car, you can avoid paying the loan balance if you can afford one large lump sum payment for the current value of the car to redeem it. If neither of these are an option or you are facing expensive repairs worth more than the value of the car, it may be the best choice to surrender the car and give it back to the lender so you are not responsible for payments or the loan balance anymore.