How to File a Low‑Cost Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a scary word that gets even scarier when you realize it’s going to cost you money you don’t have to get rid of the debts you do have.

The cost of bankruptcy varies by city and state. If you want to succeed, your best chance of winning is to hire a lawyer and that means spending somewhere between $2,000 and $6,000 to get through the process.

But take (some) heart: There are ways to file a low-cost bankruptcy.

The two most common forms of bankruptcy are Chapter 7 and Chapter 13. Between them, they represent 99% of the bankruptcy cases filed in the U.S.

The least-expensive option is filing Chapter 7. If you qualify – and that’s not as easy as you might think – a Chapter 7 bankruptcy could be done in six months and costs you somewhere close to $2,000.

To qualify for Chapter 7, your income in most cases needs to be below the median income for your state. The median varies wildly from state-to-state. For families with one earner in 2025, New Hampshire ($87,356) and Washington ($85,482) have the highest; Mississippi ($52,797) and Louisiana ($53,677) have the lowest. There are rare instances in which you can document certain allowable expenses and qualify for Chapter 7 even if your income is more than your state’s median.

To help you, consider taking the free Chapter 7 calculator below to estimate whether you will qualify for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in your state based on your income and household size.

What makes Chapter 7 even more appealing is that you might be able to hold on to most of your assets by claiming them as exempt property. You are not required to sell your home or other necessities like your car, clothes, and tools for work to settle your debts.

The idea behind this approach is to allow consumers a fresh start, without having to completely start their lives over. With allowed exemptions, 95% of filers in the United States are able to protect all of their assets.

Protecting those assets requires filing Schedule C: The Property You Claim as Exempt to the bankruptcy court. The form is vital. If you don’t claim any exemptions, or if you claim the wrong one, the property may not be protected. That means possibly selling the house or car to pay the debts.

Among the properties that can be declared exempt:

• Vehicles
• Personal property like household goods, furniture and musical instruments
• Clothes
• Health aids
• Real estate used as the home
• Social Security benefits
• Life insurance
• Unemployment benefits and compensation

With a simple Chapter 7 filing, it is conceivable that you could proceed without an attorney (called a pro se filing), but there is a risk. A survey by the American Bankruptcy Institute shows the success rate of Chapter 7 bankruptcies filed with an attorney is significantly higher than those filed without an attorney.

“There are many people who file bankruptcy pro se and do it fine. The issue is you don’t know what you don’t know until you are in the case,” says Ashley Morgan, a debt and bankruptcy attorney/owner at Ashley F. Morgan Law, PC, in northern Virginia. “A pro se filer is held to the same standard as someone who files the case with an attorney.”

What about a Chapter 13 filing? That is more complex and in almost all cases requires an attorney, which makes it more expensive than Chapter 7. Expect to spend perhaps as much as $6,000 for court costs and attorney fees.

It’s almost always worth it, though. Consumers who tried to file a Chapter 13 case on their own, failed 98% of the time.

Is Chapter 7 a Good Option for Low-Cost Bankruptcy?

Chapter 7 bankruptcy is the cheapest way to file bankruptcy, partly because the cost of an attorney to help you through Chapter 7 generally is less than hiring a lawyer for a Chapter 13 filing. In some cases, a Chapter 7 bankruptcy is obvious and simple enough to get through without an attorney at all, saving that fee. Chapter 13 cases generally involve more complications and a longer process (3-5 years) that more often call for legal help.

Plus, there are ways to reduce or waive costs in Chapter 7 that aren’t available in Chapter 13. If someone has no tangible assets, their Chapter 7 filing fee and/or bankruptcy court fee can be waived. Chapter 13 doesn’t allow for any fee waivers, though you can petition to pay the filing fee in installments in either a Chapter 7 or a Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

The first step toward economizing bankruptcy costs is passing the Chapter 7 bankruptcy means test. Once you convince the bankruptcy court that your income is below your state’s median, you qualify to file and can investigate your options to get fees and other costs vacated. If all that happens and you elect to file pro se, you have a chance to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy totally free of charge.

But even assuming the fees aren’t waived and you hire an attorney to help, most costs associated with Chapter 7 are less than they are in a Chapter 13 filing, with a small exception for the filing fee. Here is a look at comparative costs, noting that there are variances in attorney fees from location to location as well as in the cost of the two educational courses required of both kinds of bankruptcies.

Waived Bankruptcy Filing Fee

If you apply for a bankruptcy filing fee waiver when you submit the rest of the paperwork, a court can issue an order that allows relief from the $338 in Chapter 7 filing, administrative and trustee surcharge fees. Low-income individuals may be able to have them waived altogether or pay them in installments. These individuals are on the path to a low-cost bankruptcy.

To have the fee waived, you must show that your income is below 150% of the poverty level for your family size in your state, and that you cannot pay the fee in installments. Fill out and file Form 103B: Application to Have the Chapter 7 Filing Fee Waived.

The federal government sets the poverty guidelines that determine whether your income qualifies you for a fee waiver. The below-150% of the poverty level income numbers are uniform in the contiguous 48 states and Washington, D.C., with differences established for residents of Hawaii and Alaska. The numbers in the chart below are monthly incomes equal to 150% of the poverty level.

With each additional family member, the level goes up.

If you don’t qualify to have the fee waived, you could apply to have the fee paid in installments, which spreads the cost over as many as four payments. For this approach, file Form 103A, Application to Pay the Filing Fee in Installments. On the application, you must state that you cannot pay the entire fee. You then offer a payment plan, but it cannot exceed four payments or extend longer than 120 days after filing.

Not paying the fees on time and in a proper manner will be a serious issue to the bankruptcy trustee, so once the court approves the installment request, be diligent about paying the fees and paying on time.

Waived Bankruptcy Course Fee

Bankruptcy filers are required to take two courses on the subject before their debts are forgiven. A credit counseling course must be completed before filing Chapter 7, and a Debtor Education Course is required once you receive a case number.

The pre-bankruptcy credit counseling course helps determine if bankruptcy is the right step. They are offered by credit counseling agencies approved by the U.S. Trustee Program office, and a certificate of completion must be submitted with the rest of your bankruptcy paperwork within 15 days of when you file.

The debtor education course is a mandatory two-hour course focused on handling personal finances after bankruptcy. Among other names, these courses are sometimes called Financial Management, Second Bankruptcy Course, Post-Filing Course, Pre-Discharge Course and, of course, Debtor Education.

Both courses are taken through approved providers, with the cost dependent on which provider you choose. Typical fees for each course range from $10-$50, though the combined cost of both courses may be as low as $30 and should never be higher than $50.

As in the filing fee, the cost of the courses can be waived if your income is so low that you feel you cannot afford the fee. Both courses, in other words, can be free for low-income filers. Unlike the filing fee waiver application, which is submitted to the bankruptcy court, the request for a fee waiver of either of the two required courses is made through the agency or entity that provides the courses.

Remember that these courses are mandatory. If you don’t complete the credit counseling course, your case could be dismissed. If you do not complete debtor education before the deadline, you will not receive a discharge and will still owe the debts that brought you to bankruptcy. Take the course requirements seriously.

Filing Chapter 7 Without an Attorney (Pro Se Bankruptcy)

If your goal is a cheap bankruptcy in Chapter 7 and you’re confident you can file without an attorney (or simply can’t afford one), by all means give it a try. Needed forms are available online, and if your case is relatively simple, it can be done pro se. After all, the most expensive part of Chapter 7 might be the fees charged by attorneys, which should be no surprise.

Lawyers.com put the average attorney’s cost to file Chapter 7 at $1,450. It’s wise to plan for between $1,000 and $3,500 with Chapter 7, more if it’s Chapter 13. Remember, though, that if you forego an attorney, you will have to represent yourself in front of the trustee and answer all questions.

So, understand the risk. According to the latest statistics from the American Bankruptcy Institute, 96.9% of Chapter 7 cases filed with an attorney were closed with debt discharges, meaning the bankruptcy was successful. That’s as opposed to only 64.8% of cases filed without an attorney that resulted in a discharge of debts in 2024.

If you’re going to go through the process on your own, it’s important to know exactly what to expect before you begin.

“Accuracy in your paperwork is critical. Errors can lead to case dismissal or fraud allegations,” says Brian Zinn, the managing partner and owner at ZinnLaw in Fort Myers, FL. “The bankruptcy trustee will scrutinize your filings, so complete honesty and thorough documentation are essential.”

Filing a Chapter 7 DIY bankruptcy without a lawyer makes sense when you can prove to the court that your yearly household income is less than your state’s median income, when you don’t own much property and what you do own is protected by bankruptcy exemptions, when most of your debt is unsecured (meaning you didn’t use collateral to get it), and when you haven’t been charged with fraud over any of your debts.

Why Chapter 13 Is More Expensive

Chapter 13 is a legitimate and effective way to file bankruptcy, but in almost all cases, it will be more expensive than Chapter 7. That’s mostly because Chapter 13’s complexities require hiring a lawyer. A Chapter 13 attorney typically can cost $3,000 and perhaps up to $5,000 in extreme cases.

Chapter 13 means you and the court come to an agreement on a monthly payment plan to pay down debts, which allows you to keep most, if not all, of your possessions. Creditors can object to the plan, but only before the court approves it; once the court OKs the approach, you and creditors are bound by the terms. Typically, the monthly payment is based on what you, the filer, can afford, and it includes a significant fee that goes to the trustee of your case. (In a Chapter 7 case, you only pay a one-time trustee surcharge of $15.)

In other words, you’re still paying off some of your debt over the 3-5 years it takes to complete Chapter 13. A successful Chapter 7 bankruptcy, on the other hand, eliminates most of your unsecured debt in a relatively short time without requiring you to make ongoing payments to your creditors.

And as we mentioned earlier, there are no filing fee waivers available in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

Chapter 13 is best if you are behind on your mortgage, if you have debts that cannot be discharged, if you have a loan with a high interest rate or if you have more than one house. The cost of the attorney is a significant expense.

At the same time, it’s almost always necessary to have an attorney because those who file Chapter 13 without a lawyer typically fail; navigating the system is that complex.

How to File Bankruptcy on Your Own (DIY Bankruptcy Guide)

Almost everyone involved in the bankruptcy process recommends using an attorney. That does not mean you have to. The process can be complicated and is intimidating, but filing without an attorney might save you $1,000, or more.

Your case could be simple enough to file pro se if you do not have:

• A car or home loan.
• A personal business.
• Property other than necessary items like clothes or household items
• Non-dischargeable debts like child support, student loans or unpaid taxes; these debts are not wiped out in a Chapter 7 filing.

You can certainly start the process on your own by taking the mandatory credit counseling course, which must be completed within 180 days before you file your bankruptcy petition. You won’t need an attorney for that.

Then take a look at the forms you’ll need to submit to make a rock-solid case, and investigate the availability of free or low-cost pro se bankruptcy resources in your community. Finally, familiarize yourself with how bankruptcy is managed in your local jurisdiction, because the rules can vary from locale to locale.

Those steps should give you a sense of the complexity of bankruptcy laws and whether you’re equipped to navigate them on your own.

Carefully consider, then, if you need a bankruptcy attorney. A lawyer who understands the ins and outs of the procedure can help. Yes, it might cost money, but if you do not handle your case properly, it might cost you far more than an attorney would.

“If you have assets you are worried about losing, then bankruptcy really shouldn’t be do it yourself,” says Morgan, the debt and bankruptcy lawyer from northern Virginia. “If you are not worried about losing anything, then filing bankruptcy yourself might not be a problem.

“Once you are in a Chapter 7, you cannot just dismiss the case if you do not like the result. I have seen people file Chapter 7 pro se and then find issues in the case and try to hire a lawyer. Sometimes the lawyer can fix the issue; sometimes the lawyer cannot fix the issue. It is way more expensive to fix the issue than prevent it.”

Some of the pros of filing on your own include:

• Hefty attorney fees are avoided.
• You keep control of the process.
• Software can be used for forms and guidance.
• Non-attorney petition preparers can help.
• Low-cost or free legal aid is available.
• You learn first-hand about the bankruptcy process.

Some of the cons include:

• Bankruptcy law is complex.
• Bankruptcy forms are numerous and complicated.
• Simple mistakes on your part can torpedo your case.
• The trustee might look more deeply into your finances if you are without legal assistance.
• Your creditors will have expertise you don’t.
• Court employees and bankruptcy judges aren’t allowed to give advice.

At least, you should consult with a bankruptcy attorney as part of your decision-making process because that first consultation typically is free. Even if you do not have property or assets and even if you think you have the simplest case in the history of bankruptcy, it’s probably wise to seek the free first consultation.

Jon Lieberman, a bankruptcy attorney with the law firm Sottile & Barile in Loveland, Ohio, says that anyone considering filing pro se should first go to the website for the bankruptcy court in the local area and learn the local rules and requirements.

“The courts will discourage individual, pro se, non-attorney filings,” Lieberman says. “But if people are going to do to it on their own, they may as well do it the best they can.”

What If I Can’t Afford a Bankruptcy Attorney?

If you are at a low-income level and can’t afford an attorney, there are still options for getting help filing your bankruptcy case.

Here are three choices worth researching for help filing a bankruptcy.

• Legal Aid Society
• Legal Clinics
• Pro Bono Legal Services

At any of those types of organizations, you should have access to free or low-cost consultations. They might even provide someone who will represent you in your bankruptcy case at a price you can afford.

Generally speaking, there are income limits based on the poverty line that you must satisfy to receive free help. Most of the free legal service organizations expect your income to be less than 200% of the poverty line for a household your size.

For example, in 2025 the poverty line for a single person in the contiguous 48 states and D.C. is $15,650, meaning to qualify for free legal assistance, the household income would have to be less than $31,300 ($15,650 x 2 = $27,180).

A 2-person household has a poverty line of $21,150, which makes the qualifying standard for free legal services, household income of less than $42,300 ($21,150 x 2 = $42,300).

Add $5,500 for each additional person in the household to determine the poverty line, then multiply that number by 2 to see if you qualify for free assistance.

Although the bankruptcy court can’t give you legal advice on your case, many offer free information sessions about filing pro se, as well as guidance about preparing the many required forms. It’s also worth checking with law schools in your area, as many offer bankruptcy assistance from students being supervised by experienced faculty.

Also, some bankruptcy attorneys will allow you to pay their fees in installments rather than in full before the case is filed, which can help you manage the cost.

And while it’s risky, in the time before you actually file your bankruptcy, you might also simply stop paying off the debts you hope to get discharged and use that money to pay the up-front attorney fees. If you try it, you should only stop paying your unsecured debts such as credit cards, medical bills and personal loans and continue to make payments on secured debt (mortgage, auto loans, etc.) and on debts that can’t be discharged in bankruptcy such as student loans, child support and alimony. It sounds like a Catch-22, but it’s wise to consult with a bankruptcy attorney (which costs money) before you employ that particular strategy to pay his or her fees.

Whatever the state of your finances, do some shopping around to see if perhaps you really can afford an attorney. Look for an attorney who will take your case for a flat fee rather than bill you on an hourly basis and then compare the flat-fee rates you find. Find out if they offer an installment plan for their fees.

Where to start that search? Try the American Bankruptcy Institute’s website, which has a page titled Bankruptcy Resources that lists and links bankruptcy attorneys in your area, as well as local pro bono services. Your state’s bar association and your local bankruptcy court will offer similar references.