Declaring personal bankruptcy is a huge decision that will have long-term ramifications for your financial life.
With that in mind, you should never take this decision lightly and should only choose to file after a careful evaluation of your circumstances.
But what if you have already filed and are now changing your mind about the whole thing? Can you cancel your bankruptcy? Whether you can change your mind about bankruptcy depends on what kind you file.
If you declare chapter 7 bankruptcy, you will need to get permission from the court before you can cancel the proceeding.
This, by the way, is not that easy to do.
One of the reasons behind this is the same reason that there were changes made to the bankruptcy code.
The idea is to prevent people from abusing the system instead of using that as a legitimate way to get relief from debt.
For example, if you file Chapter 7 and then get into a wreck a few days later, you may be worried about a potential lawsuit involving the accident.
You might think about dismissing the case so you can file a new one.
However, this will probably not fly with the court because it isn't in the best interest of your creditors to simply start over and file a new case.
In other words, you can't game the system.
You can't continue to dismiss your cases and file new petitions in order to include more debt obligations under your bankruptcy filing.
However, if you file Chapter 13, it is easier to have the case dismissed if you change your mind.
Chapter 13, by the way, is used to establish a payment plan in which you will pay a portion of your total debt.
Either way, it is important to learn as much as possible about the process before making a final decision.
You don't want to change your mind later only to be denied by the court.