CONNECTICUT BANKRUPTCY LAW

Connecticut Bankruptcy: Attorneys, Statistics, Exemptions and Courts.

Connecticut Bankruptcy Statistics: In Connecticut, in 2009, 10,334 bankruptcies were filed. Business bankruptcies accounted for 467 or 4.52% and personal bankruptcies accounted for 9,867 or 95.48% of the total filings.

Connecticut State Bankruptcy Exemptions

Homestead

The home (“homestead”) exemption is limited to $75,000 or up to $125,000 if the debt arose from hospital bills. Connecticut defines “homestead” to include real property, mobile homes, and manufactured homes for claims arising after 1993.

Personal Property

The following expenses or items are exempt in their entirety in Connecticut:

1. Spendthrift trust funds required for support
2. Clothing, food, furniture, appliances, and bedding
3. Health aids
4. Recovery for damaged exempt property
5. Security and utility deposits for residence
6. Wedding and engagement rings
7. Transfers to nonprofit debt adjuster
8. Burial plot

The following expenses or items are exempt up to a specified limit in Connecticut:

1. Motor Vehicles are limited to $1,500

Pension

The following individuals’ and their survivors’ pension benefits are exempt when filing for bankruptcy in Connecticut:

1. Public employees
2. Teachers

The following pension types are exempt or partially exempt when filing for bankruptcy in Connecticut:

1. Federal pension exemption
2. Medical savings accounts
3. ERISA qualified benefits, IRAs, Roth IRAs and Keoghs-in the same percentage as exempted wages

Insurance

The following insurance types are entirely or partially exempt when filing for bankruptcy in Connecticut:

1. Life insurance proceeds in their entirety (if there is a clause forbidding the use of proceeds to pay the beneficiary’s creditors)
2. Unmatured life insurance policies is limited to $4,000 if the beneficiary is the debtor or debtor’s dependent
3. Disability benefits

Public Benefits

The following public benefits are exempt when filing for bankruptcy in Connecticut:

1. Crime victims’ compensation
2. Workers’ compensation
3. Veterans’ benefits
4. Public assistance
5. Social Security

Tools of the trade

This is a separate exemption. The following items have been considered tools of the trade in the state of Connecticut:

1. Tools
2. Instruments
3. Books
4. Farm animals

Wages

In Connecticut, the greater of 75% or more of unpaid, disposable weekly earnings or forty times the federal or state minimum wage is exempt.

Miscellaneous

The following miscellaneous expenses are exempt when filing for bankruptcy in Connecticut:

1. Child support
2. Alimony-only those payments that constitute wages
3. Farm partnership property-animals and feed needed to run a farm when the partnership is 50% members of the same family

Wildcard

Any property, limited to $1,000.

Federal Exemptions: Yes, debtors are allowed to take federal exemptions when filing for bankruptcy in Connecticut.

Connecticut Bankruptcy Court:

United States Bankruptcy Court, District of Connecticut