Bankruptcy Compass pages are written to be accurate, useful, fair to debtors and creditors alike, and honest about where each fact comes from and what a page cannot know. This page sets out how that works and where its limits are.
This page is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice, and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Bankruptcy law and exemption amounts vary by state and change. Ask a bankruptcy lawyer, legal aid or the court about your situation.
How a page is made
- Research. We start from the Bankruptcy Code, the Federal Register, the court rules and forms, US Trustee Program pages, state statutes and official adjustment notices, and note what they do and do not settle.
- Writing. A draft is written from that research under the Bankruptcy Compass name.
- Fact-check. A separate check compares each amount, fee, limit, percentage, date, form and rule with its source, and reworks every sum on the page.
- Graphics. Any charts or diagrams repeat figures from the text and add no new facts. Every amount in a graphic shows its state or “federal”, the dates it applies to and its source. No graphic shows what a reader will keep or pay.
- Final review. A last read looks for errors, gaps and anything that could mislead someone about their property, a deadline or a court step. If it finds a serious problem, the page is fixed and reviewed again. We do not publish a page with a serious problem still open.
Each page ends with the date its sources were checked. No process catches everything, so please tell us if you find a mistake.
Our sources
Every amount, fee, limit, date, percentage, form and rule links to a primary source at the claim: the US Code, the Federal Register, the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, the US Trustee Program, uscourts.gov and individual bankruptcy courts, state statutes and official adjustment notices, and federal agencies such as the IRS, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission. A state rule reaches a page only if we read it in the statute or an official notice. If we cannot confirm something, we leave it out or say plainly that it is not confirmed. Our how we check page explains how each kind of fact is handled.
Law firm pages, legal publishers and commercial guides are never a source, not for a rule, an amount, an example or a statistic. Claims from firms and sellers appear only as claims we have checked, without naming the firm.
Rules for every page
A wrong exemption amount or a wrong date can mislead someone about their home, their car or their discharge. So every page follows these rules:
- A clear note near the top. Every page says it is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice, and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney, that bankruptcy law and exemption amounts vary by state and change, and who to ask about your situation.
- No national rule that doesn’t exist. Exemptions, homestead rules and wage protections are largely state law. We explain how the federal frame works, then give only the state rows we have read.
- Amounts with their dates. Every amount shows the period it applies to and its source, and every state row shows the day we read it, in text, tables and graphics. Rows we have not read say “not confirmed” and link the state’s code.
- No personal verdicts. Pages explain the rules, what each choice involves and who decides. They never say whether you should file, which chapter to choose, whether you qualify, whether a debt will be discharged in your case, what you will keep, what the tax effect of your case will be, or whether to reaffirm or repay a debt.
- Sums, not outcomes. Calculators say “estimate”, show their working and never say “you qualify” or “you will keep”.
- No forms to fill in. Pages may explain what an official form asks and link it on uscourts.gov, but we offer no petition, schedule or letter builder and no template.
- No case questions, no referrals. We answer no questions about individual cases and name no lawyer, credit counselling agency, debt relief firm, lender or filing service as a recommendation. Where free help matters, pages name the kinds of help: legal aid, the court’s self-help pages, law school clinics and the US Trustee Program’s approved course lists.
- Tax points carry their source. Where the IRS or the Code does not say something directly, we say so and send you to a tax professional.
What we do not claim
- We are not a law firm, a debt relief agency or a bankruptcy petition preparer, and nothing here creates an attorney-client relationship.
- We do not claim to have filed the cases, attended the hearings or handled the debts we describe.
- We do not invent authors, quotes, client stories, case results or reader comments.
- We do not rank or recommend lawyers, agencies, lenders or companies, and we do not call anyone “best”.
- We give no average or typical lawyer’s fee, because we found no national public data behind one.
- Photos are stock images chosen to illustrate a topic. They do not show people or cases we know of, and we do not use images meant to frighten or shame.
Fairness
Bankruptcy is a legal process, not a moral failing, and it is not painless either. Pages are written for anyone trying to understand it: people thinking about filing, people who have filed, spouses and family members, and creditors. We describe what trustees, creditors and courts do without casting anyone as a villain, and what lawyers do without selling their services. We set out the costs and limits of bankruptcy and of its alternatives side by side. Where courts disagree or a rule is unsettled, we show that and do not pick a winner. Sometimes the honest answer is that a court or a lawyer has to answer the question.
Calculators
Our calculators are formulas with named inputs and shown working, and each formula is checked against answers worked by hand before it goes live. They use the tables they name, with their dates, and the numbers you enter. Every default that is a rate or a rule says where it comes from, or that it is our assumption, and you can change it. They give estimates, never a decision about your case.
Updates and corrections
Income limits, exemption amounts and court rules change, so pages are rechecked on the schedule set out on our how we check page, and sooner when we learn a source they rely on has changed. A page shows an updated date only when its content really changed. Errors are fixed and recorded on our corrections page.
Sister sites
We sometimes link to three sister sites where a topic meets theirs: Executor Field Guide on estates and the debts of someone who has died, Landlord Rulebook on evictions and landlord and tenant rules, and Injury Claim Handbook on injury claims and payments. They are connected to us, which is why we call them sister sites. They are also funded by display ads, so a visit there can earn ad money too. None of them sells leads or makes referrals.
Advertising and independence
Display advertising pays for this site, and advertisers have no say over what we publish. We use no affiliate links, accept no paid placements, sell no leads, make no referrals to lawyers, credit counselling agencies or debt relief firms, and offer no filing services. Our about page has more on how the site works.