How To File Bankruptcy for Free in Montana
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Filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Montana can help you wipe out many common debts, and it’s possible to do it without paying legal fees if you qualify for a fee waiver and file without a lawyer. This guide walks you through each step — from collecting documents and taking required courses to completing and submitting your forms. It also explains how Montana’s property exemptions work and what to expect with your car, home, and other belongings. If your case is simple, you may be able to use a free online tool like Upsolve to prepare and file your forms on your own.
Written by Attorney Andrea Wimmer.
Updated October 8, 2025
Table of Contents
How To File Bankruptcy for Free in Montana
Chapter 7 bankruptcy is a powerful way to wipe out debts like credit card bills, medical bills, and payday loans. And many people file successfully without hiring a lawyer
This guide walks you through the process step by step. You’ll learn how to gather your documents, take the required courses, fill out the bankruptcy forms, and file them with the court.
✨ If your case is simple, you may be able to use Upsolve’s free filing tool to get started today. It only takes a few minutes to see if you qualify.
Collect Your Montana Bankruptcy Documents
You’ll need to collect several documents before you file bankruptcy in Montana, and doing so can take some time. The documents will explain your income, expenses, assets, and debts (liabilities), which will all be addressed in the bankruptcy paperwork. You’ll need this information whether you have an attorney or not. It’s a good idea to gather these documents before you start filling out the Chapter 7 bankruptcy forms. The documents you collect will create a picture of your total current financial situation for the bankruptcy court to review.
At a minimum, you must have:
Your last two years of tax returns.
Your last 60 days of paycheck stubs.
A current bank statement.
Documents that will help you fill out the Chapter 7 bankruptcy paperwork include:
Bills and statements from your creditors
Letters from collection agencies and other third-party debt collectors
Bank statements from the last 6-12 months
Your credit report
The three major credit bureaus — Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax — are each required to provide you with a free credit report every week if you request one. If you use Upsolve’s free filing tool, it will pull your report for you. All three credit reports may not have the same information. You can compare your bills, statements, and debt collection letters to the information on your credit reports to create a list of companies you owe. You’ll need your creditors’ contact information and the amount of all your debt to properly fill out your bankruptcy forms.
Take a Credit Counseling Course
You must first take a credit counseling course if you want to file bankruptcy in the United States. The course is intended to ensure you know what your options are when you file your Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 bankruptcy. After you complete the course, you’ll have up to 180 days to file your bankruptcy case, so it makes sense to get this done early in the process. Keep your certificate handy. You’ll need to submit it to the court with the rest of your paperwork when you file bankruptcy.
You have to take the credit counseling course must be from a state-approved company. Montana currently only offers courses online or by phone. There is a fee for the course, but you can fill out a fee waiver if you can’t afford to pay it.
Complete the Bankruptcy Forms
Once you've collected all your bankruptcy documents and completed the required counseling course, it's time to start filling out the bankruptcy forms to be filed with the court for your Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Montana. The good news is that all of the forms can be downloaded for free from the USCOURTS.gov website. These will be fillable PDFs, and most will be the same nationwide since they are federal forms. The federal courts also created an instruction manual to help you fill out your forms.
If you use the Upsolve app to file your Chapter 7 case, you’ll fill out an online questionnaire, and our software will generate your forms for you based on your answers. If you use an attorney to file bankruptcy, the attorney will likely have you fill out a questionnaire, and then their staff will prepare the bankruptcy forms based on that information.
You can use the state’s Electronic Self-Representation (eSR) to file your case online. If you use this option, you’ll fill out the bankruptcy documents online, and you’ll have 45 days to complete and submit your documents. You can only use this option once during the process, so if you forget any forms, you won’t be able to go back and use the eSR system, you’ll have to submit the forms by mail or in person.
If a question on a form doesn’t apply to you, don’t leave it blank. Instead, put “none” or “not applicable.” Montana has a Local Bankruptcy Rule that says you can’t leave any items blank on your bankruptcy petition.
Get Your Filing Fee
The fee for filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Montana is $338. If your income is below 150% of the federal poverty guidelines, you’re eligible to have your court filing fee waived. If you make more than that and don’t have the money to file, start saving a portion every pay period until you have the full amount. The Montana Bankruptcy Court accepts payments in cash (exact change only), money orders, or cashier's checks. Personal checks and credit cards are not accepted. Money orders and cashier’s checks can be made payable to “Clerk, U.S. Bankruptcy Court.”
If you’re facing wage garnishment, foreclosure, or other severe collection measures, you may need to file your case quickly to take advantage of the automatic stay. An automatic stay is an order to stop collection activity, and it starts as soon as you file your bankruptcy petition. If you have an urgent need to file bankruptcy and you don’t have the full filing fee, you can make a down payment and pay the remaining amount of the filing fee in installments. You can propose a payment arrangement on Official Form 103A. More on this below.
If you don’t have an urgent need to file bankruptcy, then it’s best to pay the full amount when you file so you don’t risk a dismissal later because of a missed installment payment.
Print Your Bankruptcy Forms
If you’re not represented by a lawyer when filing bankruptcy in Montana, you must submit your bankruptcy documents to the court. If you use the court’s eSR system to file online, you don’t need to print your documents. But if you submit your documents by mail or in person, you’ll need to print them in a specific format:
On regular, white letter-size (8.5” x 11”) paper
In black ink
One-sided (not double-sided)
If you don’t have a printer at home, you can print your documents at a local office supply store, UPS store, or public library. Be sure to double-check the printer settings before you print! You should also check your forms to make sure that each section is filled out and there is a signature everywhere that one is required.
If you’re filing your papers in person or mailing them, Montana has a special requirement for the master mailing list of creditors (creditor matrix). The creditor matrix must be in the following form:
Courier font,
10 point or larger font,
Each name and address no longer than five lines,
Single space between each name and address, and
Several other format requirements that are listed on the court’s website.
If you filled everything out yourself and have each document saved as a separate file, it helps to print a checklist like this Chapter 7 document checklist from the Montana Bankruptcy Court. It tells you everything you need when filing your bankruptcy case though it hasn’t yet been updated to show the new filing fee amount. You only need one full set of your bankruptcy documents to file with the Montana Bankruptcy Court. But it’s a good idea to print a full second copy for your records. That way, you can easily refer to it later if needed.
If you file with Upsove, you’ll receive a downloadable packet that contains all the documents. There will be dividers on each signature page so you’ll know where to sign.
File Your Forms With the Montana Bankruptcy Court
You can mail your Chapter 7 bankruptcy documents to the Montana Bankruptcy Court in Butte, but it’s better to drop off the documents in person if you live within driving distance. You can file documents in the Butte bankruptcy court or the federal district courts in Billings, Great Falls, and Missoula.
If you drop off your documents in person, you’ll avoid post office delays, and the clerk might even point out a simple error that you can quickly revise. If you need someone to drop off the forms for you, call the court clerk to confirm that a courier or other person can file your petition for you. You can’t bring cell phones and electronic devices into a Montana bankruptcy court, you’ll need government-issued identification, and you must pass through a metal detector.
If you use Montana’s Electronic Self-Representation (eSR) system, you can submit some of your forms electronically. This eSR system is different from the CM/ECF filing system attorneys use to file petitions, and you can only use the eSR system once.
Mail Documents to Your Trustee
After you file your Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Montana, you’ll receive an official notice of bankruptcy that the court also sends to all of your creditors. This is an important notice. It tells you:
Your case number,
Your bankruptcy trustee’s name and contact information, and
The date and time of your 341 meeting.
The trustee will likely send you a letter asking you to provide certain documents. But even if they don’t, Montana’s bankruptcy court has a local form (LBF 33) listing all of the documents you’ll need to submit to the trustee. These documents must be delivered to the trustee at least 14 days before the first scheduled 341 meeting. You are allowed to submit them to your trustee via email as a pdf. If you don’t do this, the trustee can ask the court to throw out your Montana bankruptcy case.
You’ll be required to provide at least the following documents:
Federal and state tax returns for at least the two years prior to the year you file bankruptcy. The trustee could ask you to provide more than two years of tax returns, depending on your circumstances. For instance, if you had a business the trustee might ask for more than two years of taxes.
Bank statements covering the month that you filed bankruptcy.
Documents that provide proof of ownership and loans for your home, if you own a home. (This includes mobile homes.)
Documents that provide proof of ownership and loans for your cars and recreational vehicles.
Proof of IRAs, pension plans, and life insurance.
Proof of insurance for your car, home, and other assets, if any.
If you don’t have a document, you must explain why you don’t have the document. Getting these documents together before you file bankruptcy will make the process easier.
Take a Debtor Education Course
The debtor education course is a financial management course on managing your personal finances. You must take it after you file bankruptcy. If you don’t complete the second bankruptcy course, you won’t be eligible for a discharge order and your case could be closed.
You need to finish the course and file the certificate of completion with the court within 60 days of the meeting of creditors (your 341 meeting). Just like the credit counseling course, the debtor education course must be taken from a state-approved provider. You can take the course online or over the phone.
Attend Your 341 Meeting
The 341 meeting gets its name from the section of the Bankruptcy Code. It's also called a creditors' meeting or a meeting of creditors. But in reality, it's usually a meeting between you and the trustee that’s been assigned to your case. During the meeting, the trustee will verify your identity. Remember to bring two original forms of identification, one of which contains your full Social Security number. During the meeting, you’ll basically be confirming the information you provided in your bankruptcy petition.
The trustee’s job is to verify the information you provided to the court, which they’ll have reviewed prior to this meeting. During the meeting, the trustee will put you under oath to ask you questions about your case. Most meetings are over in less than 10 minutes, and the trustee typically asks only the standard questions everyone filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Montana has to answer. If you’ve amended your original filing or you have a complicated case, the trustee might ask you more questions and your meeting could be longer.
Your creditors are invited to attend the meeting and can either just observe or ask you questions while you are under oath and on the record. The majority of 341 meetings take place without any creditors making an appearance. It’s often not worth a creditor’s expense to attend.
Be sure to check your court notice or call the court to find out if the meeting will be held in person, on the phone, or online. In-person meetings are held in the Butte bankruptcy court, or the Billings, Great Falls, or Missoula federal district courts but you won't appear before a judge, just your trustee.
Deal With Your Car
In the rural areas of Montana, it’s difficult to manage without a car. Even if you’re a Bozeman city dweller, a car can be a necessity. Naturally, you worry about how your car will be handled if you file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Montana. You have options, but they vary depending on whether you own your car free and clear, or it’s still being financed or leased.
If you own your car free and clear, you’ll likely be able to keep your car as long as it is fully covered by one of the available exemptions in Montana. Cars are exempt up to $4,000 in Montana for single filers. If you still owe on a car loan or lease and your monthly payments are current and within your budget, you can enter into a reaffirmation agreement with the creditor that holds the loan. If you do this, you agree to continue paying the loan even after filing for bankruptcy.
If you don’t want the responsibility of a lease or loan or you’re behind on your payments, then returning the car is an option. This vehicle surrender usually allows you to walk away without future car loan debt because the bankruptcy discharge will eliminate the unsecured debt. Sometimes it’s better to surrender a car and get a car after the bankruptcy discharge. You can decide which option is best for you.
Montana Bankruptcy Means Test
To file Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you’ll need to pass the means test. This is a set of calculations the court uses to determine whether you qualify based on your income and expenses.
🧮 The means test has two parts:
Step 1: You’ll compare your total household income to Montana’s median income for a household of your size. If you’re under the limit, you qualify to file Chapter 7.
Step 2: If your income is over the limit, you’ll move on to the second part of the test. This step looks at your income after subtracting certain living expenses to calculate your disposable income.
Calculating expenses can get legally complex. If you reach this point, it’s often useful to contact a bankruptcy lawyer to confirm your eligibility and see what your options are. Upsolve can help you schedule a free consultation with a local attorney.
Data on Median Income Levels for Montana
Montana Median Income Standards for Means Test for Cases Filed In 2025 | ||
---|---|---|
Household Size | Monthly Income | Annual Income |
1 | $5,591.42 | $67,097.00 |
2 | $6,755.42 | $81,065.00 |
3 | $8,145.08 | $97,741.00 |
4 | $9,659.42 | $115,913.00 |
5 | $10,584.42 | $127,013.00 |
6 | $11,509.42 | $138,113.00 |
7 | $12,434.42 | $149,213.00 |
8 | $13,359.42 | $160,313.00 |
9 | $14,284.42 | $171,413.00 |
10 | $15,209.42 | $182,513.00 |
Data on Poverty Levels for Montana
Montana Fee Waiver Eligibility for Cases Filed In 2025Eligible for fee waiver when under 150% the poverty level. | ||
---|---|---|
Household Size | State Poverty Level | Fee Waiver Limit (150% PL) |
1 | $1,255.00 | $1,882.50 |
2 | $1,703.33 | $2,555.00 |
3 | $2,151.67 | $3,227.50 |
4 | $2,600.00 | $3,900.00 |
5 | $3,048.33 | $4,572.50 |
6 | $3,496.67 | $5,245.00 |
7 | $3,945.00 | $5,917.50 |
8 | $4,393.33 | $6,590.00 |
9 | $4,841.67 | $7,262.50 |
10 | $5,290.00 | $7,935.00 |
Montana Districts and Filing Requirements
Montana has one federal bankruptcy district with four divisions: Butte, Missoula, Great Falls, and Billings.
If you’re filing by mail, send your forms to the Butte division, no matter where you live. If you’re filing in person, go to the courthouse that serves your county.
👇 You can use the table below to find your division or check out Montana’s divisional map.
Division | Counties Served | Courthouse |
---|---|---|
Butte | Beaverhead, Broadwater, Deer Lodge, Jefferson, Gallatin, Granite, Lewis & Clark, Madison, Park, Powell, Silver Bow | 📍Mike Mansfield Federal Courthouse 400 North Main Street, Room 273 Butte, MT 59701 |
Missoula | Flathead, Lake, Lincoln, Mineral, Missoula, Ravalli, Sanders | 📍Russell Smith Federal Courthouse 201 E. Broadway Missoula, MT 59802 |
Great Falls | Blaine, Cascade, Chouteau, Fergus, Glacier, Hill, Judith Basin, Liberty, Meagher, Phillips, Pondera, Teton, Toole | 📍Missouri River Federal Courthouse 125 Central Avenue West Great Falls, MT 59404 |
Billings | Big Horn, Carbon, Carter, Custer, Daniels, Dawson, Fallon, Garfield, Golden Valley, McCone, Musselshell, Petroleum, Powder River, Prairie, Richland, Roosevelt, Rosebud, Sheridan, Stillwater, Sweet Grass, Treasure, Valley, Wheatland, Wibaux, Yellowstone | 📍James F. Battin Federal Courthouse 2601 2nd Avenue North Billings, MT 59101 |
💻 Montana also offers an online filing option called Electronic Self-Representation (eSR) for people filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy without a lawyer. The system is free to use and walks you through the forms step by step before you submit them to the court.
Here’s how it works:
You create a secure account and have up to 45 days to complete your forms online.
Once you submit your eSR package, you’ll get a confirmation email with eSR Declaration and Social Security Number statement forms to print and sign.
You must then mail or hand-deliver those forms to the court, along with:
Your $338 filing fee, or a fee waiver or installment request
A certificate of credit counseling
Only after these are received will your case be filed and assigned a case number.
Local Forms
In addition to the standard bankruptcy forms, Montana requires a few local forms for Chapter 7 filers:
LBF 33 – Trustee Document Checklist: Lists the documents you must send to your trustee before your 341 meeting
LBF 36 – Declaration Under Penalty of Perjury: Confirms that everything in your paperwork is true and complete
LBF 37 – Notice of Compliance: States that you’ve submitted all the required documents for your case
Creditor Matrix: Lists the names and mailing addresses of everyone you owe money to. Used by the court to send official notices to your creditors.
See Montana’s formatting guide for creating a Creditor Mailing List.
You can download all of these from the Montana Bankruptcy Court’s local forms page. These forms must be filled out, signed, and submitted with your other paperwork when you file.
✏️ One more note: Don’t leave any questions blank on your bankruptcy forms. If a question doesn’t apply to you, write “none” or “not applicable.” Montana’s Local Rules require every line to be completed.
How to Pay Your Filing Fee
💰 In Montana, you can pay the $338 filing fee with a money order or cashier’s check made out to Clerk, U.S. Bankruptcy Court. If you can’t afford the fee, you can request a fee waiver or ask to pay in installments when you file your bankruptcy forms.
🚫 The court doesn’t accept cash, credit cards, or personal checks.
Upsolve Member Experiences
4,958+ Members OnlineMontana Bankruptcy Exemptions
When you file Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Montana, you can use exemptions to protect certain property from being sold to pay creditors. Exempt property is off-limits to the trustee, which means you get to keep it.
In Montana, you must use Montana’s exemptions (not the federal ones), and you need to have lived in the state for at least two years before filing to claim them.
Here are some of the most important exemptions available in Montana:
🏡 Homestead exemption: Protects up to $409,450 of equity in your home (your primary residence).
🚗 Vehicle exemption: Protects up to $4,000 of equity in one car.
🛠️ Tools of the trade: Protects up to $4,500 in items you need for work.
🐾 Personal property: Protects household goods, jewelry, firearms, sporting equipment, and pets up to a combined total of $7,000, as long as each item is worth no more than $1,250 individually.
📚 Pensions & retirement accounts: Most tax-exempt retirement accounts are fully protected.
❌ Wildcard exemption: Montana does not offer a wildcard exemption (unlike federal law).
Montana Bankruptcy Lawyer Cost
Most bankruptcy lawyers in Montana charge a flat fee for Chapter 7 cases. The typical cost ranges from $1,075 to $2,125, according to Ascend data. Costs depend on how complicated your case is and where you live. Attorney fees are usually the biggest expense in bankruptcy, but some people find the support worthwhile, especially if they own a home or have significant assets.
Many bankruptcy attorneys in Montana offer a free consultation. This gives you a chance to ask questions, understand costs, and see if the lawyer feels like a good fit.
Montana Legal Aid Organizations
Legal aid organizations provide free or low-cost legal help to people who can’t afford an attorney. In Montana, groups like the Montana Legal Services Association and other nonprofits may be able to help if you want guidance or representation during your Chapter 7 bankruptcy.