Seven years between filings?

I often hear that a person can file bankruptcy once every seven years. But that is not true.

As far as Chapter 7 cases go, and as far as I know, that has never been the right number of years; the time between chapter 7 filings in which you can get a discharge was six years before 2005; since 2005 it has been eight years.

Perhaps the folk wisdom of “seven years” ties back to the name of the type of case—a Chapter 7 case.

More likely it is because many types of adverse information drop off a credit report after seven years.

In any event, a person can file a "second" chapter 7 bankruptcy and get a discharge (which, after all, is the point of filing at all) only if it has been at least eight years between the date the first chapter 7 case was filed and the date the second chapter 7 case is filed.

The statutory cite is: 11 USC Sec. 727, which says, in part:

(a) The court shall grant the debtor a discharge, unless—

(8) the debtor has been granted a discharge under this section, under section 1141 of this title, or under section 14, 371, or 476 of the Bankruptcy Act, in a case commenced within 8 years before the date of the filing of the petition;

Notice that the time period is: filing date to filing date, not discharge date to filing date.

There are different time periods between the filings of a chapter 7 and a chapter 13; I will deal with those in a later post.