What is a reaffirmation agreement and do I need to sign one?
A reaffirmation agreement is a written agreement filed with the bankruptcy court during the pendency of your bankruptcy case and acts to ratify a specific contractual obligation that is subject to the reaffirmation agreement. In other words, the bankruptcy will automatically discharge certain debts unless you reaffirm the debt during your case, in which case that specific debt will not be discharged. You are not obligated to reaffirm any debt(s). However, a reaffirmation agreement may be preferable in certain circumstances, including debts secured by personal property (i.e. car loans) as the new bankruptcy laws have been interpreted to require either reaffirmation of a secured loan or surrender of the collateral subject to the loan. Thus, if no reaffirmation agreement is filed, the secured lender may still repossess the collateral even though you are current on your payments.
