16. You can Include Debts Incurred after the Filing of your Chapter 13 Bankruptcy in your Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Conversion
Converting to Chapter 7 Bankruptcy from Chapter 13 Bankruptcy allows you to Discharge debts that were incurred after the filing of your Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Petition and before the Conversion of your Case to Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. This is very helpful to people who are suffering from chronic illnesses or know they will incur future, uninsured medical expenses at the time they file their Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Petition.
For example, if a person owes $100,000.00 in medical bills and expects to incur an additional $50,000.00 in medical bills over the next year, they would not want to file Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. This is because, if they filed a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy case before the additional medical bills were incurred, they would be barred from filing another Chapter 7 Case for 8 years. If, on the other hand, they file a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy case to ward off their existing creditors and stay in the Chapter 13 case until the additional, uninsured medical bills are incurred, they can then convert to Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and discharge the $100,000.00 of medical bills incurred prior to filing their Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Case as well as the $50,000.00 of medical bills that were incurred while their Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Case was pending.