Real outcomes from 37.9 million federal bankruptcy cases (FJC Integrated Database, 2008–2024). Pick your court and chapter.
Across millions of federal bankruptcy cases (FJC data, 2008–2024): Chapter 7 cases are discharged about 95% of the time; Chapter 13 about 41% of cases that reach a final outcome. Having an attorney matters enormously: Chapter 13 filers with a lawyer are discharged about 42% of the time versus about 2% filing pro se. Median time to discharge is about 3–4 months for Chapter 7 and about 5 years for Chapter 13.