How To File Bankruptcy for Free in Pennsylvania

Collect Your Pennsylvania Bankruptcy Documents

Regardless of whether you have an attorney, you have to submit certain documents to the bankruptcy court or the trustee when you file for bankruptcy, including:

• Your tax returns for the past two years,

• Paycheck stubs for the past two months, and

• A bank account statement covering the bankruptcy filing date.  

It’s helpful to gather additional documentation, so you have all the information you need about your income, expenses, debts, and creditors to fill out your bankruptcy forms. If you can, gather up to a year of past bank account statements (you won’t get the one that covers your filing ate until after you file), your credit report, creditor bills, and letters from collection agencies or third-party debt collectors. 

You can get a free credit report from each of the three credit bureaus once a year. If you use Upsolve’s filing tool, it will pull your credit report for you.

Take a Credit Counseling Course

Federal bankruptcy law requires everyone who files for bankruptcy to take a credit counseling class within the six months before they file. The course teaches you about your debt relief options, including bankruptcy, so you can decide if filing for bankruptcy is right for you. You have to file a certificate of completion with the bankruptcy court along with the rest of your forms. Although course administrators do charge a fee, you may be able to get a waiver. You must take the course from an approved provider for Pennsylvania.

Complete the Bankruptcy Forms

The bankruptcy forms are federal forms, and they’re the same for everyone, no matter where you live. They come with detailed instructions, and you can download them as fillable PDFs for free at USCOURTS.gov. This is where the documents you gathered in the first step will come in handy. You should be able to find the information you need in those documents. Be careful filling out the forms so you get them right the first time. 

If a bankruptcy attorney is representing you, they or their staff will ask you questions then fill out the forms for you. If you use Upsolve’s filing tool for your Chapter 7 case, you’ll fill out a questionnaire on the website. Upsolve’s software will then generate the required forms based on the answers you give in the questionnaire.

Get Your Filing Fee

The fee for filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition is $338. You can pay this fee with a cashier’s check or money order made payable to "Clerk, U.S. Bankruptcy Court.” If your current income is below 150% of the poverty guidelines, the court may agree to waive the filing fee. (See Pennsylvania’s Fee Waiver Eligibility table below.) 

When you file your bankruptcy petition, the court will assign a number to your case. At this time, an automatic stay goes into effect. The automatic stay requires creditors to immediately stop trying to collect on your debts. For example, if your house is about to go into foreclosure or a creditor is about to start garnishing your wages, these debt collection actions have to stop. If your wages are already being garnished, the creditor has to stop the garnishment once the case is filed.

You may be in a rush to file for bankruptcy to stop creditors’ actions. But what if you can’t pay the $338 filing fee all at once? You can apply to the court to allow you to pay your fee in regular monthly installments until it’s paid off. You’ll have to make an initial payment of 25% of the filing fee within 30 days of filing the petition. After that, you’ll pay monthly installments of no less than 25% of the filing fee until the fee is fully paid. Make sure to make all of your payments or the court may dismiss your case.

Print Your Bankruptcy Forms

The next step is to print and sign the bankruptcy forms. A lot of the forms look alike, so make sure you print all of them. Print the forms on one side only, in black ink, and on 8.5" x 11" letter-size paper. You should make a copy for yourself and keep it with your other important documents.  

If you file your Chapter 7 using Upsolve’s tool, you’ll receive all your forms in a packet as a single download, with dividers that flag all the signature spots.

File Your Forms With the Pennsylvania Bankruptcy Court

There are three districts in Pennsylvania: the Western, Middle, and Eastern Districts. Attorneys use the federal courts’ Electronic Court Filing System (ECF) to file documents electronically. 

Usually, all other filers must file paper copies of their documents. You can either hand-deliver the documents to the court or mail them in. Here’s the Eastern District’s mailing address and the Western District’s mailing address. If you file in person, you must show your picture ID to the clerk when you file your documents. During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the Middle District and Western District bankruptcy courts have adopted an electronic filing system for all users to file their documents electronically.

Mail Documents to Your Trustee

When you file for bankruptcy, the court will then appoint a bankruptcy trustee. The trustee is responsible for making sure the process goes smoothly and for selling any unprotected property (known as non-exempt property) you may have to pay debts you owe to creditors. Your trustee will likely reach out to you soon after they’re assigned to your case, and the court will let you know who your trustee is in your Form 309A.

Once you’re assigned a bankruptcy trustee, the court also schedules a meeting of creditors. You’ll need to send your trustee some documents at least seven days before the creditors’ meeting. This includes your most recent two federal income tax returns and a bank statement for dates that include your bankruptcy filing date. The trustee may also ask for pay stubs.

Make sure you respond to your trustee’s requests quickly and send in the information the trustee asks for. Refusing to hand over certain documents could make the trustee think you’re hiding something about your finances.

Take a Debtor Education Course

You must complete an approved debtor education course to get a discharge order from the bankruptcy court. You’ll need to complete the course within 60 days of the creditors’ meeting. Though you can take the court before the meeting if you choose. Then, be sure to submit your certificate of completion to the court in that 60-day timeline. 

If you don’t complete your debtor education course, the bankruptcy court may close your case without entering the discharge order, so, without erasing your unsecured debts like credit card debt and medical bills. You must take a course that’s been approved by the court where you file to erase your dischargeable debts. The Pennsylvania bankruptcy courts maintain a list of approved course providers.

Attend Your 341 Meeting

The 341 meeting is also called the creditors' meeting. It’s informal and it’s usually held in a courthouse, but not in a courtroom. A creditors’ meeting will happen about a month after you file for bankruptcy. Usually, only the debtor and the trustee are at the meeting — creditors’ don’t usually attend. 

You have to bring a government-issued picture ID and acceptable proof of your Social Security number or the meeting won’t go forward. Your trustee will place you under oath and ask standard questions that are asked in every Chapter 7 creditors’ meeting. The trustee may also want some additional information to get a clearer picture of your finances. After the meeting, the bankruptcy process is almost over.

Creditors’ meetings are usually straightforward, though every now and then things can go wrong. The main problem is usually when the debtor forgets to bring a picture ID and proof of their Social Security number, so don’t forget these documents. 

Pennsylvania districts are currently holding creditors’ meetings via telephone or videoconference as a COVID-19 precaution.

Dealing with Your Car

You may be wondering if you’re going to have to surrender your car when you file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The answer is, “It depends.” Whether you’re leasing your car, financing it with a car loan, or you own it free and clear, you have options. 

First, if you own your car free and clear, you may be able to keep it, depending on its fair market value and any available exemptions. If your car’s fair market value is much higher than any available exemptions, the Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee may sell the car to pay your credit cards and other unsecured debts. We’ll cover exemptions more later.

If you’re still making monthly car payments, but your car is worth a lot less than what you still owe on it, it may be a good idea to just surrender your car to the lender you financed the car with. You won’t have to make any more monthly payments on it and your car loan will be erased in the discharge. 

If you want to keep your car and continue to make the monthly payments, you’ll have to sign a reaffirmation agreement. This is essentially a new pledge to the lender that you’re going to continue to make your monthly payments. It also means you’ll lose bankruptcy protections, so if you don’t make your payments, you put yourself at risk of a deficiency judgment after a repossession. 

If you want to keep your car but you don’t want to make any more monthly payments, you’ll have to pay the lender the current value of the car, in what is referred to as redemption. You must make the payment in a lump sum. Once you pay the lender the value of your car, your loan is terminated. 

If you’ve surrendered your car and you want to buy another one, you may want to wait until the bankruptcy court enters the discharge order and your credit score has some time to recover. Also, make sure you can afford the monthly payments on the new car. You don’t want to end up back in financial trouble.