Chapter 7 -- can they take my car?; Question about summons; legal aid

[jul0317]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Nebraska

I am going to file for chapter 7 but I'm not sure when I should do this. I am unemployed; I have nothing really that my creditors can take (no house, savings, retirement, etc), except my car. I bought it from a co-worker and made payments to her; it is paid off. It was worth $6k but now after an accident I'm guessing it's about $3500. I called Legal Aid of Nebraska to see if I could get legal assistance to file; they said they couldn't help me because I am collection proof and it doesn't make any sense to file until I am in danger of being collected, like when I get a job they can garnish my wages. But they sent me a bankruptcy handbook and it said they can take any vehicle if it's worth over $2500. So does anyone know if they can take it or not?

Also, I have 14 total creditors I received a summons 2 wks ago from one of them and I'm sure the rest of them will follow soon (I stopped paying on all bills around the same time). Do I need to do anything? Do I really need to file an answer to the summons if I'm not really going to contest the debt and I'm filing for bankruptcy? Do I have to go to court?

Legal Aid gave me the number for the volunteer lawyer project who sent me an application. Should I really wait until I get a job to go forward with filing or just get it out of the way so I don't have to deal with 14 different summons?

Thanks!What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

 

[bigun]

If they did take it, they'd have to pay you the $2500 exemption amount. Likely, the trustee would abandon it to you.
In general. I think you should wait until you can support yourself post bk before you file. For sure, you need a job with insurance benefits. You don't want to file and 6 months later, someone is seriously ill or injured and you have large medical debt you can't discharge because, you already played the bk card.
Any judgment you get prior to filing will be discharged. The legal aid people are right. There really isn't much a creditor can do to you.

 

[jul0317]

So for the summons what should I do? Should I just ignore them since it's not really going to affect me?