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“ Craig D. Robins, Esq., has been a practicing Long Island bankruptcy attorney for over twenty-four years ”
Written by Craig D. Robins, Esq.Exemption statutes are the laws that enable debtors to keep and protect certain assets. There are set values for most exemptions.
Some of the most important exemption categories can be doubled if a husband and wife file a joint bankruptcy petition in the state of New York.
For example, the homestead exemption in New York is $50,000. If a husband and wife file a joint bankruptcy petition, and they own the house together, they can pool their homestead exemptions for a total of $100,000 of bankruptcy protection.
With jointly-held bank accounts, married debtors filing a joint bankruptcy petition can exempt a total of $5,000, rather than the exemption amount of $2,500 per person.
The exemption for cars, however, cannot be doubled, as the exemption amount is per car, and not per person.
