Effective 7 November 2026.
Bankruptcy Compass gives general information only. It is not legal, tax or financial advice, and it is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney.
General information only
Everything on Bankruptcy Compass (bankruptcycompass.com) is general information, published to help readers understand how personal bankruptcy works in the US. It is not legal advice, and it does not take your debts, your income, your property, your state or your circumstances into account. It is not a substitute for the advice of an attorney who knows your facts and the law that applies to you. Ask a bankruptcy lawyer, legal aid or the court about your situation.
Not a law firm, debt relief agency or petition preparer
Bankruptcy Compass is not a law firm, a debt relief agency or a bankruptcy petition preparer. It does not offer legal services, prepare or file documents, represent anyone, or refer anyone to a lawyer, a credit counselling agency, a debt relief company or any other service. Reading this site, using a calculator or writing to us does not create an attorney-client relationship. What you send us is not confidential or privileged the way a conversation with your own lawyer can be.
No view on your case
Nothing on this site says whether you should file for bankruptcy, which chapter to choose, whether you are eligible, whether a debt will be discharged in your case, what property you will keep, what the tax effect of your case will be, or whether to reaffirm or repay a debt. Those are decisions for you, with advice from someone who knows your case, and some are decided by the court.
Rules vary by state
Bankruptcy is federal law, but much of it depends on the state. Which exemptions you may use, how much a homestead, vehicle or wildcard exemption protects, how wages are protected, how property owned with a spouse is treated and which rules apply after a move all differ from state to state. Which state’s exemptions apply can depend on where you lived in the years before filing, not only where you live now. A rule on a page for one state does not apply in another. Where we have not read a state’s rule, the page says “not confirmed”, and that tells you nothing about what the rule is.
Amounts and rules change
Federal bankruptcy amounts adjust every three years. Many states index their exemptions on their own dates. The income figures used in the means test are updated by the US Trustee Program, and court rules, official forms and fees change too. An amount is right only for cases filed in the period it applies to. Each amount on this site shows that period and the day we read it, and it may have changed since. Check the current figure with the original source, the court or a lawyer before you rely on it.
Tools show sums, not outcomes
Calculators and lookup tools do arithmetic on what you enter and on the tables, rules and assumptions they show. Their results are estimates. They do not say whether you qualify for a chapter, what you will keep, what a court will confirm, what you will pay or when you can file again. A means test result says whether the income entered is above or below a median and what the form’s arithmetic gives; the official forms and the court decide. Facts the tool does not ask about, a court’s reading of the law or a local rule can change the answer.
Deadlines and urgent matters
Bankruptcy cases run on deadlines, and so do foreclosures, garnishments and lawsuits. Nothing on this site, and no message to us, stops a deadline running, a sale going ahead or a collection continuing. If you have a court paper, a sale date or a garnishment, contact a lawyer, the court named on the paper or a legal aid office now.
Tax
Notes on how debts and bankruptcy are taxed are general and name the IRS or Code source they come from. They are not tax advice. Ask a tax professional about your own situation and return.
Forms
We host no petitions, schedules, letters or templates. Where a page explains what an official form asks, that explanation does not replace the form, its instructions or the court’s local rules. Get forms from uscourts.gov or your bankruptcy court.
Accuracy
Pages are checked against the sources they cite, but no check catches everything. Check important details with the original source before you rely on them. See also our terms of use.
How our content is made
Every page is fact-checked against its sources before it is published. Pages appear under the Bankruptcy Compass name. Our editorial policy and how we check page explain the process.
Advertising and independence
Bankruptcy Compass is free to read and funded by display advertising. Advertisers have no say over what we publish, and an ad on a page, including an ad for a lawyer, a lender or a debt relief company, is not an endorsement or a referral. We use no affiliate links, accept no paid placements, sell no leads, make no referrals and offer no filing services. Names of companies, agencies, courts and publishers are used only to identify them, and we are not affiliated with them.
External links
We link to statutes, courts, agencies and other websites so you can check what we say. We do not control those sites and are not responsible for their content.
Questions and corrections
If you think something is wrong, email contact@bankruptcycompass.com with the page address and a source, and we will look at it. We can’t answer questions about individual cases or recommend lawyers or services. See also our corrections page.