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Q.What effect does a bankruptcy filing have on the collection of Alimony and Child Support?
A.Alimony, spousal support or maintenance, and child support are "priority debts and are not dischargeable in any bankruptcy. In fact, under the new bankruptcy law, people who are owed unpaid child support and alimony (i.e. the bankruptcy filer's family members) take priority over all other creditors.
Filing a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy should have no effect on the collection of back owed child support or alimony because the Bankruptcy Code specifically excludes an "automatic stay" on actions to collect child support or spousal maintenance. However, filing a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy might enable the bankruptcy filer to get control over his or her entire debt load as the debts of other non-priority creditors will be significantly reduced, if not eliminated so as to enable the Chapter 13 bankruptcy filer to pay his priority debts (Alimony and Child Support) under the Chapter 13 Plan.
In other words, neither a Chapter 7 nor a Chapter 13 bankruptcy affects or reduces the petitioner's obligation to pay past or future child support or spousal support.
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