Newport Beach Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Lawyer
Newport Beach homeowners who have fallen behind on a mortgage, a car loan, or a tax bill are often weighing a decision that has nothing to do with wiping out debt: how to keep the property while paying back what is owed on terms that actually fit their income. That is the question a Newport Beach Chapter 13 bankruptcy lawyer helps answer. Wadhwani & Shanfeld is a consumer bankruptcy and debt relief law firm that handles Chapter 13, Chapter 7, debt settlement, foreclosure defense, wage garnishment, creditor lawsuits, and IRS tax debt for individuals and families in Newport Beach, across Orange County, and throughout Southern California.
Chapter 13 is different from the bankruptcy most people have heard about. Rather than liquidating qualifying debts and starting over, you propose a repayment plan that runs three to five years, fold your arrears into one monthly payment, and keep your home, your car, and your other property while the plan is in effect. Once the court confirms the plan, creditors are bound by its terms. In a market where a single mortgage can run well past what a Chapter 7 homestead exemption protects, that structure is often what makes saving the house possible at all.
Why Choose Wadhwani & Shanfeld for Chapter 13 Representation
Raj Wadhwani and Greg Shanfeld are the founding shareholders and partners, and between them and their team the firm brings more than 90 years of combined legal experience to consumer debt cases. The firm serves clients in Orange County, Los Angeles County, Riverside County, and San Bernardino County, and files in every division of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, which includes the Santa Ana Division that hears Orange County cases.
Raj Wadhwani, a Southwestern Law School graduate, helped pilot the Best Case Bankruptcy software in 1998 and was the first attorney to file a bankruptcy case electronically in the Central District of California. Greg Shanfeld earned his law degree from the University of Southern California and has handled more than 10,000 bankruptcy cases over three decades. That depth matters in Chapter 13 specifically, because a plan has to be built correctly the first time: the budget, the treatment of mortgage arrears, the priority debts, and the length of the plan all interact, and a plan the trustee or a creditor can knock down costs you months.
Clients get direct access to an attorney from the first call, a free consultation, and the choice to handle everything in person or fully remotely by phone, email, video, and online chat. When a foreclosure sale, garnishment, or repossession is days away, the firm acts quickly to get a case on file. Because the firm also handles debt settlement, loan modification, and IRS representation, the recommendation you receive is based on what fits your situation rather than on the only service a firm offers.
Situations Where Chapter 13 Fits a Newport Beach Filer
- Mortgage Arrears and Foreclosure: If your lender has recorded a notice of default or scheduled a sale, Chapter 13 stops the sale the moment the case is filed and lets you spread the missed payments over the length of the plan while you keep making current payments going forward.
- Home Equity Above the Exemption: Orange County property values can push equity past what California’s homestead exemption covers. In Chapter 7 a trustee could sell a home with excess equity; in Chapter 13 you keep the home and pay unsecured creditors at least what they would have received in a liquidation.
- Income Above the Chapter 7 Means Test: Households whose income exceeds the California median for their size may not qualify for Chapter 7. Chapter 13 has no median-income cutoff for eligibility, only a requirement of steady income to fund the plan.
- Priority Tax Debt and Support Arrears: Recent income taxes and past-due child or spousal support generally survive Chapter 7. A Chapter 13 plan lets you pay them in full over time, often without added collection pressure while the plan runs.
- Car Loans and Repossession Risk: When you are behind on a vehicle loan, Chapter 13 can halt a repossession and bring the loan current through the plan, and in some cases reduce what you pay on an older vehicle loan.
- A Wholly Unsecured Second Mortgage: If your home is worth less than the first mortgage balance, a second mortgage or HELOC with no value behind it can in some cases be stripped off and treated as unsecured debt in the plan.
- Wage Garnishment and Creditor Judgments: A garnishment from a judgment creditor stops when your case is filed, and the judgment debt is handled inside the plan rather than through payroll deductions.
- Business Owners With Personal Exposure: Self-employed filers and small business owners with personal guarantees can use Chapter 13 to reorganize personal obligations while continuing to operate, provided their debts fall within the chapter’s limits.
What to Do Now if You Are Considering Chapter 13
The first practical step is to find out exactly where your deadlines sit. If a foreclosure is in motion, California law requires the notice of default to state that no sale date can be set until roughly 90 days after it is recorded, and the sale itself cannot take place sooner than three months and 20 days after the notice of default. The notice of sale must be mailed and posted at least 20 days before the sale. Reinstating a monetary default under Civil Code section 2924c is possible until five business days before the sale date, so the window to cure is narrower than the window to file bankruptcy. Filing a case stops the sale at any point before it happens, which is why people who are close to a sale date should call before they gather everything else.
If a lender has repossessed or is about to repossess a car, the seller must give at least 15 days’ written notice before disposing of it, 20 days if the notice is mailed from or to an address outside California, and you can request a 10-day extension of the redemption period in writing. Those notice rules also affect whether a deficiency can be claimed against you. If a creditor has sued you, a response deadline is running, and if a judgment has been entered against you, wages and bank accounts may be reachable. Keep every notice, summons, and letter, because they establish dates the attorney will need.
Gather the paperwork a Chapter 13 filing is built on: recent pay stubs or business income records, tax returns, a list of every creditor and balance, your mortgage statement and any default notices, vehicle loan statements, and documents showing the value of your home and other property. Chapter 13 plans are funded from disposable income, so an accurate monthly budget matters more here than in almost any other kind of filing. Be careful about moving assets, paying one family member back ahead of others, or running up cards in the weeks before filing, because those moves can create problems with the trustee.
Your case will be filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California. Newport Beach is in Orange County, so cases are heard in the Santa Ana Division. Chapter 13 involves a meeting of creditors, a plan confirmation hearing, and monthly plan payments to a trustee, and the firm can handle your case fully by phone, email, video, and online chat so that work, distance, or health does not stand in the way. If a creditor suit is pending in Orange County Superior Court, an attorney can coordinate the response with the bankruptcy filing so the automatic stay is in place before a deadline passes.
How a Chapter 13 Plan Is Built and What It Costs You Each Month
A Chapter 13 plan sorts your debts into categories, and the category determines what you pay. Secured debts you want to keep, such as a mortgage in arrears or a financed car, are cured or paid through the plan. Priority debts, including recent taxes and support arrears, must be paid in full. General unsecured debts, such as credit cards and medical bills, receive whatever is left after those obligations, though the plan must pay them at least as much as they would have received if you had filed Chapter 7. Whatever remains unpaid on those general unsecured debts at the end of a completed plan is discharged.
The length of the plan, three or five years, depends largely on your income relative to the California median for a household your size. Filers under the median can often propose a three-year plan; those above it are generally expected to commit to five. Your monthly payment is the number that makes the plan work: it must cover the trustee’s fee, ongoing mortgage or car payments, arrears, and priority debts, and it must be something your budget can sustain. A plan that is too tight fails and the case can be dismissed, which is why the budgeting work done before filing is among the most important parts of the case.
Exemptions work differently in a Chapter 13 than in a Chapter 7 because you are not surrendering property, but they still set the floor for what unsecured creditors must receive. California has opted out of the federal exemption scheme, so filers choose between two state systems, one with a large homestead protection that generally favors homeowners and one with a flexible wildcard that often suits renters, and you must use one system for the whole case. To use California’s exemptions you generally must have lived in the state for at least 730 days. Picking the right system is one of the early decisions your attorney makes with you, and in Orange County, where home values are high, it shapes the entire plan.
Chapter 13 Questions From Newport Beach Homeowners and Families
How fast does Chapter 13 stop a foreclosure sale?
The automatic stay takes effect the moment your petition is filed, and it halts the foreclosure, including a sale that is scheduled for the next day. Because the stay only helps if the case is on file before the sale occurs, anyone with a sale date approaching should contact an attorney immediately so a case can be prepared and filed quickly.
Can I keep my house in Chapter 13?
Most filers do. Chapter 13 is designed for people who want to keep their property, and you remain the owner while you cure missed mortgage payments through the plan and stay current going forward. The main risk is falling behind on the plan or on the new monthly mortgage payments, which is why the budget must be realistic.
How long does a Chapter 13 plan last?
Plans run three to five years. The length depends on your income compared with the California median for your household size and on how long it takes to pay the arrears and priority debts the plan has to cover. Some plans can end early if you pay off what the plan requires.
Who qualifies for Chapter 13 instead of Chapter 7?
Chapter 13 requires regular income sufficient to fund a plan and has no median-income cutoff the way Chapter 7 does. People whose income is too high for Chapter 7, who have equity they need to protect, or who owe debts Chapter 7 cannot discharge, such as recent taxes or support arrears, are common Chapter 13 filers. An attorney reviews your income, property, and debts to determine which chapter fits.
What happens to my credit cards and medical bills?
Those general unsecured debts are paid whatever the plan allows after secured and priority debts are handled, and the plan must pay them at least what they would receive in a Chapter 7 liquidation. Any balance left after you complete the plan is discharged. Creditors cannot keep calling you or suing you while the plan is in effect.
Can Chapter 13 stop a wage garnishment?
Yes. Filing stops most garnishments immediately through the automatic stay, and the debt behind the garnishment is addressed in the plan. Under California law, an ordinary judgment garnishment is capped at the lesser of 20 percent of weekly disposable earnings or 40 percent of the amount by which weekly disposable earnings exceed 48 times the minimum hourly wage, with different multipliers for biweekly, semimonthly, and monthly pay. Bankruptcy typically ends the garnishment entirely.
Can I lose my job for filing Chapter 13?
Your employer is not automatically notified, though they may learn of it if they are a creditor or if plan payments are deducted from your paycheck. California and federal law prohibit an employer from firing you solely because you filed for bankruptcy, and California law also bars firing an employee because wages are garnished for a single judgment.
What if my bank account was already levied by a creditor?
California automatically protects a set amount in a deposit account from a judgment levy without you needing to file a claim of exemption, and the bank must apply it before turning money over. That protection does not apply to levies for wages owed to another, child or spousal support, or debts owed to the state. Filing bankruptcy halts a pending levy and puts a stop to further collection by judgment creditors.
Is a debt too old for a creditor to sue me over?
In California, the time to sue on a written contract debt is four years, and on an oral contract debt it is two years. A payment on a time-barred debt does not revive it, and only a signed written acknowledgment restarts the clock. The expired deadline is a defense you must raise in a written answer; if you ignore the lawsuit, a court can still enter judgment. A money judgment itself is enforceable for 10 years and can in many cases be renewed.
Can I file Chapter 13 if I filed bankruptcy before?
Often yes, subject to waiting periods. You can file Chapter 13 four years after a Chapter 7, and two years between Chapter 13 filings. The waiting periods depend on the earlier chapter and the dates involved, so the specifics are worth reviewing with an attorney before you plan around them.
Is it worth hiring a lawyer instead of using a document preparer?
A bankruptcy petition preparer can type your information into forms but cannot give legal advice, choose exemptions, or represent you if the trustee or a creditor objects. Chapter 13 involves a plan that must be confirmed by the court, so mistakes can cost you property or your discharge. Representation by a bankruptcy attorney is especially important in a case this structured.
Serving Chapter 13 Clients From Newport Beach Across Southern California
Wadhwani & Shanfeld represents Chapter 13 clients in Newport Beach and the surrounding Orange County communities, including Costa Mesa, Tustin, Huntington Beach, Fullerton, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Westminster, Buena Park, La Habra, Placentia, Cypress, Mission Viejo, and Laguna Niguel. From there the firm serves clients throughout Los Angeles County, including Long Beach, Lakewood, Signal Hill, Norwalk, Bellflower, Paramount, Gardena, Cerritos, Torrance, Compton, Inglewood, Huntington Park, Hollywood, Santa Monica, and the San Fernando Valley communities of Sherman Oaks, Encino, Woodland Hills, Reseda, Northridge, Granada Hills, North Hollywood, North Hills, Mission Hills, San Fernando, Sylmar, and Van Nuys.
The firm also helps clients in Santa Clarita and the Antelope Valley, including Lancaster, Palmdale, and Acton, and across the Inland Empire and eastern San Gabriel Valley in Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Upland, Fontana, San Bernardino, Pomona, Chino, Chino Hills, Montclair, Claremont, Glendora, and West Covina, as well as Riverside and the Coachella Valley. Whether you live in Newport Beach or farther out, you can handle your Chapter 13 case entirely by phone, email, video, and online chat.
Talk With a Newport Beach Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Attorney
If you are behind on a mortgage, facing a foreclosure sale, or carrying debt that a repayment plan could resolve, a conversation with a Newport Beach Chapter 13 bankruptcy attorney at Wadhwani & Shanfeld will tell you whether Chapter 13 is the right path and what a plan would look like for your income and property. The consultation is free, you speak directly with an attorney from your first call, and virtual consultations are available if that is easier. Call today so you know your options before the next deadline arrives.
