Q: Can I place my arrears under chapter 13 and still pay my obligation thru the court order.

A: I assume that you are talking about payment of child support and the ongoing child support is being deducted from your pay as a result of a wage withholding order. If that is what you are stating and you are asking if you can pay the child support arrears through a chapter 13 plan and allow the ongoing support to be paid by the deduction from you wages, which is being done pursuant to the wage withholding order, then the answer would be yes in our jurisdiction. However, the bankruptcy code has several exceptions to the automatic stay, which protects you from most collection activity while in your bankruptcy proceeding. Two of those exceptions related to collection of child support still allow the interception of your tax refund and the suspension of your drivers license. My experience with our Department of Human Resources that they want the debtors to be able to continue working to pay the support. Thus, DHS will withdraw the suspension of the debtor's drivers license if that occurred prior to filing and will not issue a request as long as the debtor is complying with the terms of his plan. However, the request to intercept the debtor's tax refund generally will not be withdrawn.

You need to take the time to meet with an experienced bankruptcy attorney that handles chapter 7 and chapter 13 cases. Most attorneys will meet with you at no charge for the initial appointment. You can use the Justia "Find a Lawyer" link at the top of this page to search for an attorney.