This is the case of Willie Banister from Chicago, Illinois who was appearing for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy consultation. Mr. Banister has never filed a bankruptcy before. He is not a homeowner. He is renting on a month to month lease from a landlord in Chicago. He does not own a motor vehicle. In terms of personal property, he has household goods worth approximately $300 and clothing worth approximately $300. He does not have a 401(k), IRA or other pension or profit sharing plan. He does expect a tax refund of $1100. He cannot sue anybody for personal injury or workers compensation and he does not expect to inherit any money in the next six months. He is divorced and he works for the CTA and he has several children that do not live with him. His income is approximately $4000 per month as he is paid every other week.
In terms of monthly expenses, he has rent, electric, gas, transportation, food, clothing, auto insurance and his total expenses are nearing the $4000 per month that he earns from his job. In terms of the Statement of Financial Affairs, he has made approximately $12,000 this year. He earned approximately $48,000 last year and a little bit less than $48,000 the year before. He did have a vehicle that was repossessed back in July that was a Chevy Impala automobile and he has closed a checking account and a savings account back in July as well from Chase Bank. There are no co-debtors; it’s just him on these debts. He does not owe any student loans and he does not owe any tax debt either state or federal.
In terms of debt, he has no credit card debt, no medical debt. He has $1200 worth of personal loans and he has parking tickets of $3300 from the City of Chicago and of course that repo’ed auto of deficiency for $3000.
But I am recommending in this case is a Chapter 13 bankruptcy to repay the parking tickets and the repo fees over the next 3 to 5 years at a rate of approximately $150 or $175 per month. What this will do is it will keep his license from being suspended because he’s making payments through the Chapter 13 to repay the debt on the parking tickets. And he will be able to save a little bit of money going forward so he won’t be without some spending money because we can put those in the budget. So Chapter 13 is going to be the way to protect Mr. Bannister’s license and to make sure he is repaying non-dischargeable debt that would not go away in a Chapter 7. Thus, Chapter 13 is a solution in this case.
