How to File Bankruptcy While Incarcerated
Managing your financial affairs from jail or prison is a challenging task. Most men and women who are incarcerated end up watching their finances crumble. Debts increase, and for most people there is no source of income while they are incarcerated. If you reach the point during your incarceration that you feel you must file for bankruptcy, you need to understand the steps to take (and which to avoid) in regard to filing bankruptcy while incarcerated.
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Instructions
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Identify the resources that are available to you in the institution's law library. Under the law in all states across the country, and under applicable federal law as well, a penal institution must permit inmates access to legal materials. With that said, the requirement normally extends no farther than providing inmates the legal materials required to deal with criminal matters. However, many prison and jail law library programs do provide supplemental resources to assist inmates in filing cases for divorce and bankruptcy.
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Gather the bankruptcy resources available in the institutional library, including standardized forms. Make certain that these materials are up to date. On each standard form, and in all other resources pertaining to bankruptcy, there will be an issue date on the materials. Because you are incarcerated, the typical bankruptcy court judge will allow some lenience in regard to outdated materials provided your documents and forms are not more than five years old.
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Request the director of the institutional law library program to obtain any missing materials, including forms, that you need to file bankruptcy. Most jails and prisons have access to law books, documents and other information from other institutions and libraries in the public domain through transfer programs.
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Complete all documents required to initiate a bankruptcy case. The primary documents required are the petition for bankruptcy and the matrix of creditors. The matrix of creditors is a complete list of all of your creditors, together with their addresses and the balance due to them from you.
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Send the completed petition for bankruptcy to the clerk of the bankruptcy court. While you theoretically can file in the state in which you are incarcerated, if your residence prior to going to prison was located elsewhere, your best option likely is to file in that court. Mark the envelope in which you send your bankruptcy petition and related documents "legal mail." Although legal mail is inspected for contraband, institutional staff are prohibited from reading the contents.
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