Quick Answer
Screen income, debt type, prior filings, and assets in the first five questions, and most bankruptcy callers will self-sort into chapter 7, chapter 13, or not a fit before you ever put them on hold.
The five gates:
- Income vs. state median. Determines means-test eligibility for chapter 7.
- Debt type. Consumer vs. business, secured vs. unsecured; drives chapter routing.
- Prior filing history. Discharge timing under federal law controls whether a second discharge is even available.
- Total debt load and creditors. Confirms the case is worth the firm's time.
- Significant assets. Flags chapter 7 cases that may require a trustee to liquidate property.
That is the script. Everything below is the mechanism behind each question, plus how to wire the intake call into your CRM so the system tracks which ad produced which signed retainer.
Why Bankruptcy Leads Need Faster Disqualification Than Other Case Types
Personal injury intake can afford a warmer, slower approach. The caller may be in distress, the case type is binary (injured or not), and the qualifying questions are few.
Bankruptcy is different. The caller pool is wide: wage earners who qualify easily, self-employed business owners with tangled debt, people who filed two years ago and do not know what that means for today, people with equity in a house that would evaporate in a chapter 7 liquidation. All of them call the same ad.
If intake spends twenty minutes on every caller before a paralegal or attorney touches the file, the firm pays for that time on every call, including the ones that were never going to sign. Tight qualifying questions protect the firm's intake hours and, just as importantly, they protect the caller from a sales conversation about a filing that does not serve them.
The right structure: intake staff handle the five qualifying gates. Anything that requires legal judgment, advice on which chapter to file, or a reading of the means test calculation belongs to the attorney consultation. Intake is not giving legal advice; it is gathering the facts that let the attorney do so efficiently.
The Income and Means Test Questions to Ask First
Chapter 7 eligibility depends on the means test, which compares the debtor's current monthly income to the median income for their state and household size. If income is below the median, the debtor generally passes the means test without further calculation. If income is above the median, a more detailed expense calculation determines whether chapter 7 is available.
The U.S. Trustee Program publishes the current state median income figures used for means-test calculations, updated periodically. Your intake script does not need to reproduce those tables; it needs to surface enough information so the attorney can run the calculation.
Questions to ask:
- "How many people live in your household, including yourself?"
- "What is your approximate monthly take-home income from all sources, including wages, self-employment, rental income, or support payments?"
- "Have you had the same income level for the past six months, or has it changed significantly?"
The six-month window matters because the means test uses average monthly income over the six calendar months before filing, not the current month's snapshot. A caller who lost a high-paying job two months ago may look above-median on paper until staff understands the timeline.
What this surfaces: callers who are clearly below their state's median (strong chapter 7 candidates), callers who are clearly above median (chapter 13 or a full means-test calculation required), and callers whose income is variable enough that the attorney needs to see documentation before any determination is possible.
Debt Category Questions That Route Chapter 7 Versus Chapter 13
Debt type is the second routing gate, and it separates cases quickly.
Chapter 7 discharges most unsecured consumer debts: credit cards, medical bills, personal loans. It does not discharge student loans in most circumstances, domestic support obligations, most tax debts, or debts from fraud. Chapter 13 allows a debtor to restructure secured debt, catch up on mortgage arrears, and pay non-dischargeable debts over a three-to-five year plan.
Questions to ask:
- "What types of debt are you dealing with? For example, credit cards and medical bills, a mortgage you are behind on, a car loan, tax debt, or student loans?"
- "Are you trying to keep a home or a car that you are currently behind on payments for?"
- "Do you owe any back taxes to the IRS or your state?"
A caller whose debt is primarily credit cards and medical bills, who has no secured property to protect, is a straightforward chapter 7 screen. A caller who is three months behind on a mortgage and wants to save the house is a chapter 13 screen. A caller whose primary debt is student loans needs a conversation about the limited discharge options available, not a standard chapter 7 or 13 pitch.
Domestic support arrears, recent tax debt, and fraud-related judgments are worth flagging explicitly because they affect what a discharge actually accomplishes for the caller, and a caller who does not understand that may feel misled later.
Prior Filing History and Timing Red Flags
This is the section where intake errors cost the firm the most. Federal law sets hard discharge-bar periods, and the dates matter precisely.
The relevant statutes are 11 U.S.C. Section 727(a)(8), 11 U.S.C. Section 727(a)(9), and 11 U.S.C. Section 1328(f).
The core discharge-bar rules, stated correctly:
- Chapter 7 after Chapter 7. Under 11 U.S.C. Section 727(a)(8), a debtor who received a Chapter 7 discharge cannot receive another Chapter 7 discharge unless eight years have passed since the filing date of the prior Chapter 7 case.
- Chapter 13 discharge after Chapter 7. Under 11 U.S.C. Section 1328(f)(1), a Chapter 13 discharge is unavailable if fewer than four years have passed since the filing date of the prior Chapter 7 case. The debtor may still file Chapter 13 and obtain the benefit of the automatic stay and a structured payment plan; the discharge at the end of that plan is what is barred.
- Chapter 13 discharge after Chapter 13. Under 11 U.S.C. Section 1328(f)(2), a Chapter 13 discharge is unavailable if the debtor received a prior Chapter 13 discharge in a case that was filed within the two years preceding the filing of the current case, measured from filing date to filing date.
- Chapter 7 after Chapter 13. Under 11 U.S.C. Section 727(a)(9), a Chapter 7 discharge is barred unless six years have passed since the filing date of the prior Chapter 13 case, with exceptions for certain Chapter 13 plans in which the debtor paid all allowed unsecured claims in full, or paid at least 70 percent of such claims under a plan proposed in good faith.
Under 11 U.S.C. Section 727(a)(8), a debtor who received a Chapter 7 discharge cannot receive another Chapter 7 discharge unless eight years have passed since the filing date of the prior Chapter 7 case.
A Chapter 13 discharge is barred if fewer than four years have passed since the filing date of a prior Chapter 7 case, under 11 U.S.C. Section 1328(f)(1), though the debtor may still file Chapter 13 for a payment plan without discharge.
Questions to ask:
- "Have you ever filed for bankruptcy before?"
- "If yes, what chapter did you file under?"
- "Do you know approximately when that case was filed?"
- "Did the court issue a discharge in that case, or was it dismissed before discharge?"
Intake does not need to run the date arithmetic on the call. The goal is to capture the prior filing chapter and approximate filing date so the attorney can confirm eligibility before the consultation begins. A caller who says they filed chapter 7 "about six years ago" is a flag worth noting; a caller who says they filed last year is a clear hold pending attorney review.
Dismissals matter too. A case that was dismissed without discharge does not trigger the same discharge bar as a case that completed and received a discharge. Intake staff should know the difference well enough to ask.
Scripting the Asset Questions Without Scaring Callers Off
Asset questions are where callers disengage. The word "assets" sounds like an audit. Script them as practical questions about what the caller owns, framed around what they want to protect.
Chapter 7 is a liquidation proceeding. A trustee can sell non-exempt assets to pay creditors. Every state has exemption statutes that protect certain categories and amounts of property: a homestead exemption, a vehicle exemption, retirement accounts, personal property up to defined limits. If a caller has significant equity in a home, a paid-off vehicle above the state exemption limit, or investment accounts outside of a retirement plan, chapter 7 may not be the right tool, and the attorney needs to know before the consultation.
Questions to ask:
- "Do you own your home, or do you rent?"
- "If you own, do you have a mortgage, and is there equity in the property above what you owe?"
- "Do you own any vehicles outright, and roughly what are they worth?"
- "Do you have any savings, investment accounts, or retirement accounts?"
- "Do you own any business interests or expect to receive any inheritance or settlement in the near future?"
Frame these as: "I am going to ask a few quick questions about what you own so the attorney can make sure we have the right plan for you." That framing is accurate and non-threatening.
A caller with substantial non-exempt equity is not necessarily a bad case. It may be a chapter 13 case, or a chapter 7 case with careful planning around exemptions. The attorney decides. Intake surfaces the facts.
Handing Qualified Callers to the Right Attorney Same Day
Routing a qualified bankruptcy caller to an attorney or a scheduled consultation the same day they call is the single highest-leverage move in the conversion path from ad click to retained client.
The caller who passes your five qualifying gates is motivated. They called because the pressure is real: a garnishment notice, a creditor lawsuit, a foreclosure timeline. That urgency is the firm's best friend if the intake system moves fast. It works against the firm if the caller has to wait three days for a callback.
The handoff structure that works:
- Intake staff flag the caller as qualified in the CRM during or immediately after the call.
- A same-day consultation slot is offered before the caller hangs up, not in a follow-up email.
- The attorney receives the intake summary, including income range, debt types, prior filing history, and asset flags, before the consultation begins.
- If the caller cannot take a same-day slot, the next available appointment is booked on the call.
Screen income, debt type, prior filings, and assets in the first five questions, and most bankruptcy callers will self-sort into chapter 7, chapter 13, or not a fit before you ever put them on hold.
The firms that lose qualified bankruptcy callers between intake and consultation almost always lose them to one of two things: a slow handoff, or a follow-up sequence that does not run on weekends. Bankruptcy callers do not wait; they call the next firm on the list.
RGDM's AI lead response system handles the after-hours and weekend coverage gap, sending an immediate confirmation and booking a consultation slot without requiring staff to be available. The CRM automation layer moves the record through the pipeline stages and triggers the right follow-up sequence based on which qualifying gates the caller cleared.
The CRM Record and the Signal Back to the Platform
Bankruptcy intake calls should take no longer than eight to twelve minutes to reach a qualified or disqualified determination, with anything longer signaling that the script is doing too much work the attorney should do.
Every caller who reaches intake gets a CRM record, whether they qualify or not. This is not busywork; it is the data layer that makes the ad system smarter over time.
The record should capture:
- Source (which ad, which campaign)
- Date and time of call
- Qualifying gate outcomes (income range, debt type, prior filing flag, asset flag)
- Pipeline stage: new lead, qualified, consultation scheduled, retained, or disqualified with reason
The signed retainer is the event that matters for ad optimization. When a caller moves to the "retained" stage in the CRM, that event needs to travel back to Meta and Google via the Conversions API and offline conversion upload. That signal tells the platforms which callers actually became clients, not just which ones submitted a form.
Sending a signed-case signal from the CRM back to Meta and Google via the Conversions API lets those platforms optimize ad delivery toward callers who actually retain, not just callers who submit a form.
Without that signal, Meta optimizes toward form submissions. Some of those submissions are people five years out from a prior discharge who were never going to file. With the signed-case signal, the platform learns what a bankruptcy retainer looks like and finds more of those people.
Every bankruptcy caller who does not qualify today is a CRM record, because the situation that disqualifies them now may change in six months.
A caller who filed chapter 7 three years ago does not qualify for another chapter 7 discharge today. That same caller may qualify in five years. A CRM record with a follow-up task set for the appropriate window is worth keeping.
How This Connects to the Firm's Acquisition System
Intake qualifying questions are one component of a full acquisition system. The ad brings the caller. The qualifying questions determine whether that caller is worth the attorney's time. The CRM tracks the case from call to retained. The signal back to the platform makes the next month's ad spend smarter than this month's.
RGDM builds that system end to end for bankruptcy firms and other consumer-law practices. The details of how we do it for law firms specifically are at /industries/law-firms. An example of the system running in a real firm is the Nordanyan Law case study.
If you want to see what the acquisition system looks like for your specific case mix, the starting point is a Case Acquisition Review. We pull the numbers, map the gaps, and show where the signed cases are coming from and where they are not. Book one at /contact.
Frequently Asked Questions
What questions determine bankruptcy chapter eligibility?
The core eligibility questions cover household income relative to the state median (for chapter 7 means-test purposes), the type and nature of the debt (consumer vs. business, secured vs. unsecured), prior bankruptcy filing history and discharge timing under 11 U.S.C. Sections 727 and 1328, and the nature of assets the debtor holds. These questions do not produce a legal determination; they produce the information an attorney needs to make one.
How do intake staff screen bankruptcy callers?
Intake staff work through a fixed qualifying script covering income, debt type, prior filings, and assets, and they capture the outputs in the CRM. They do not give legal advice and do not determine which chapter applies; they gather facts and flag the case for attorney review. Callers who pass the qualifying gates get a same-day or next-available consultation offer before they hang up.
What disqualifies a bankruptcy lead early?
The fastest disqualifiers are: a prior Chapter 7 discharge within the past eight years (bars another Chapter 7 discharge under 11 U.S.C. Section 727(a)(8)), income that is so clearly above the state median that a chapter 7 means test is unlikely to pass without a full expense analysis, debt types that are largely non-dischargeable (student loans as the primary obligation, domestic support arrears), and a case so small in total debt that the filing cost does not make economic sense for the debtor.
How long should a bankruptcy intake call take?
Eight to twelve minutes is the target window to reach a qualified or disqualified determination. A call shorter than that may be skipping questions. A call longer than that is often doing work that belongs in the attorney consultation, not the intake screen. After-hours calls handled by an AI response system should capture the core qualifying data and book a callback or consultation slot for the next business day.
Does a prior bankruptcy filing always disqualify a caller?
No. Prior filings create discharge-bar windows, not permanent ineligibility. The relevant windows under federal law are: eight years from the prior Chapter 7 filing for another Chapter 7 discharge, four years from the prior Chapter 7 filing for a Chapter 13 discharge, and two years (filing date to filing date) from a prior Chapter 13 case for another Chapter 13 discharge. A caller outside those windows may be fully eligible. A caller inside those windows may still file Chapter 13 for the benefit of the automatic stay and a payment plan, even if the discharge at plan completion is unavailable.
Should bankruptcy intake callers be asked about assets before speaking to an attorney?
Yes, at a basic level. Intake staff should ask whether the caller owns a home with equity, vehicles, savings, and investment or retirement accounts. These answers flag cases where chapter 7 may involve trustee liquidation of non-exempt property, which the attorney needs to address in the consultation. Intake staff do not analyze the exemptions; they surface the facts so the attorney can.
How does intake connect to the ad system?
Each caller should be linked to the ad that generated the call via a click ID or UTM parameter captured at the landing page and passed into the CRM record. When the caller signs a retainer, that signed-case event is sent back to Meta and Google via the Conversions API or offline conversion upload. This allows both platforms to optimize future ad delivery toward people who resemble actual retained clients rather than people who only submitted a contact form.