What Does Exemption Doubling Mean in Bankruptcy?

You will hear of many different terms and options throughout your bankruptcy proceedings. They can be difficult to understand, but at the same time can refer to the bankruptcy proceedings that may be very important to you. This is one of the reasons why you want to be sure to use a good Fort Worth bankruptcy lawyer, so your rights and options are protected when going through this type of debt relief.

Protecting Property

You and your spouse may have decided to file a joint bankruptcy petition, which means you are both going bankrupt. In this case you may be entitled to what is known as exemption doubling. This will be determined by the particular State that you are in. There may be some limitations.

Exemptions refer to the property that you are allowed to keep when going bankruptcy. In a chapter 7 bankruptcy there are Federal and State bankruptcy exemptions.  When you are doubling an exemption is means that both you and spouse can put an exemption claim against the same asset. In most cases the doubling of an exemption is only applicable to property that is in owned in joint name by both you and your spouse.

It is really important to determine whether the state that you live in allows you the option of using the Federal exemption list rather than the State exemption list. If so, then you may be eligible for the exemption doubling. Some states don’t allow the use of the Federal exemption list but will allow the use of exemption doubling.