Can I File Bankruptcy Again If My Last Case Was Dismissed?

So long as the court did not enter an order barring you from filing a new case, then you are free to file another case after your prior case was dismissed. There are a few repercussions that you must address in the new filing.

If you file a new case after you had one case dismissed in the prior year, then the Automatic Stay of Bankruptcy will only go into effect for the first thirty days of the case. You must file a motion with the court asking that the Automatic Stay be extended to protect you for the life of the case. In doing so, you generally have to prove why the current case will be successful when the last case failed and was dismissed. This is a common situation in Chapter 13 cases where an individual had a significant negative event while their prior case was pending, usually a job loss or medical issue, and that resulted in the debtor being unable to maintain their trustee payments, leading to dismissal. It is usually advisable to wait until that situation is resolved, you have found a new job or are healthy again, before filing a new case. So long as you have a reasonable basis for filing a new case, the courts in general have been willing to extend the Automatic Stay and give your new case an opportunity to succeed.

Now, if you have two cases that have been dismissed in the prior year, the new case is more challenging. The Automatic Stay of Bankruptcy will not go into effect at all upon the filing of the new case. You must file a motion with the court to impose the Automatic Stay in order to receive the full protection of the bankruptcy. In this motion, you again must explain to the court why your prior two cases failed and why you expect the new case to succeed. As you can imagine, courts are less lenient when it comes to imposing the Automatic Stay than they are when it comes to extending it.

You should also recognize that the court has the power to bar an individual from filing another case if they have filed repeated failed cases and the court believes that their filings are in bad faith. The argument is that bankruptcy should be reserved for the honest but unfortunate debtor who is making a genuine effort to obtain a fresh start. Repeated filings can be seen as an abuse of the system, meant only to hinder and delay collection efforts by creditors and filed with no real expectation of success. Should the court make that determination, they can bar a new filing for as long as they see appropriate. The majority of cases I have seen where this occurred have barred debtors for a period of six months to two years, but I have seen cases barring a debtor for longer periods or requiring the debtor to file a motion with the court to receive permission to file a new case.

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