Maryland Bankruptcy Laws

The Maryland bankruptcy laws have been designed in a way that allows you to use the federal supplemental exemptions in conjunction with the state specific exemptions. However, you cannot substitute the state specific exemptions completely with the federal exemptions. The Maryland bankruptcy district courts are located at four places – Baltimore, Greenbelt, LaPlata, and Salisbury. However, all places of the state come under the counties of jurisdiction.

Property Exemptions Under Maryland Bankruptcy Laws

Following are the various types of properties that are allowed to be exempted under the Maryland bankruptcy laws.

•Surprisingly, the Maryland bankruptcy laws do not allow any homestead exemptions. No properties can be exempted under this section. However, the relief is that you can use any property held as tenancy to exempt against debts owed by one spouse – but as obvious, this relief is only for the married couple.
•Exemptible insurance policies, funds, and benefits include fraternal benefit society benefits, medical benefits deducted from wages, and disability or health benefits.
•If you are using any property in a partnership business, you can get that exempted under the miscellaneous exemptions.
•Pension funds are also exemptible under the Maryland bankruptcy laws, but only for the following people:
◦State employees
◦Deceased Baltimore police officers
◦State police
•ERISA-qualified benefits are included in the pension exemptions, but you are not allowed to exempt IRAs under the Maryland bankruptcy laws.
•Personal properties like books, furniture, pets, and clothing can be exempted for up to the amount of one thousand dollars in total.
•Lost future earnings recoveries also come under personal property exemptions as per the Maryland bankruptcy laws.
•Under tools of trade exemptions, you are allowed to exempt clothing, books, tools, instruments, and appliances, but only up to the value of five thousand dollars in total. However, the Maryland bankruptcy laws specifically add that car or automobiles cannot be included under tools of trade exemptions.