Chapter 7 or Chapter 13? How bankruptcy attorneys become the name AI gives

What does ChatGPT say when someone asks whether to file Chapter 7 or Chapter 13?

It describes the two chapters, then hands the decision back. A typical answer explains that Chapter 7 liquidates nonexempt assets and discharges most unsecured debt in a few months, that Chapter 13 keeps property under a three-to-five-year repayment plan, that a means test decides Chapter 7 eligibility, and that the reader should consult a bankruptcy attorney. That is accurate and it names nobody.

Citorian's June 2026 five-engine test of 359 personal injury answers found a firm named in 94% of direct vetting prompts but only 18% of situational ones. Citorian did not test bankruptcy, so Firm AEO treats only the shape of that gap as transferable. "Should I file 7 or 13" is situational. "Bankruptcy attorney in Columbus who handles Chapter 13 for people behind on a mortgage" is close to vetting.

Which facts actually decide Chapter 7 versus Chapter 13, and which can an engine not supply?

Four facts decide most consumer cases, and a general AI answer can state none of them for a specific reader: income against the state median for that household size, any discharge in the last eight years, nonexempt equity under the state's exemptions, and mortgage or car arrears the filer wants to cure. A firm page that states the local rule for each fact gives the engine a passage it can quote.

Why is the means test the strongest page a bankruptcy firm can publish?

Because it is a number, it is local, and it changes on a published schedule. The US Trustee Program applies Census Bureau median family income figures, effective April 1, 2026, that its July 15, 2026 data release left in place while updating IRS and administrative-expense figures. A page stating the firm's state median, by household size and with the effective date, answers the most specific version of the Chapter 7 question.

The spread is wide enough that a national answer is wrong for most readers. The table below uses the US Trustee Program's April 1, 2026 figures; for households above four people the table adds $11,100 per person. Falling under the median is the first step of the means test, not the whole of it, which is exactly the qualifier the firm's sentence should carry.

Who is asking AI about bankruptcy in 2026?

More people each month, and most of them are not yet looking for a lawyer. The Administrative Office of the US Courts reported 608,511 bankruptcy filings in the 12 months ending June 30, 2026, up 12.2%, with 382,161 under Chapter 7 and 215,490 under Chapter 13. Epiq AACER counted 30,930 individual Chapter 7 and 18,335 individual Chapter 13 filings in August 2026 alone.

The same US Courts release notes that filings fell from nearly 1.6 million in September 2010 to 380,634 in June 2022 before climbing again. A rising volume of first-time filers asks the engine threshold questions (can I keep my car, will my wages be garnished, what happens to my credit) before any vetting question. A firm with one answer page per threshold question is present at the turn where the reader decides a lawyer is needed.

What can a bankruptcy firm say in a quotable sentence?

Facts about the process, the local numbers and the firm, never a result. Bankruptcy carries a disclosure duty no other consumer practice shares: 11 U.S.C. section 528 requires a debt relief agency to state in its advertising, clearly and conspicuously, "We are a debt relief agency. We help people file for bankruptcy relief under the Bankruptcy Code," or a substantially similar statement. The Supreme Court held in Milavetz, Gallop and Milavetz v. United States (2010) that attorneys who provide bankruptcy assistance to consumer debtors are covered.

Firm AEO is a marketing company, not a law firm, and the firm's ethics counsel decides which pages count as advertising and where the statement sits. The marketing constraints that follow are the ones Firm AEO applies when drafting bankruptcy answer pages.

• •Keep the outcome out of the extractable sentence. Only 49% of Chapter 13 cases closed in 2024 ended in a discharge after a completed plan, per the US Courts BAPCPA Report, so "Chapter 13 lets you keep your house" overstates what a plan delivers and creates the unjustified expectation ABA Model Rule 7.1 prohibits.
• •Write the means-test qualifier into the same sentence as the median figure, since an engine may quote that sentence alone.
• •Place the section 528 statement where counsel decides it belongs on every page that advertises bankruptcy services, including the pages written to be cited.
• •Avoid the phrasings section 528(b) flags as misleading, such as describing a Chapter 13 plan as a "federally supervised repayment plan" without saying it is bankruptcy.
• •Date every figure. The US Courts publish filing statistics quarterly and the US Trustee Program updates means-test data more than once a year.

How should a bankruptcy firm measure whether AI names it?

With a fixed prompt set split by stage, run monthly across engines, logged out. A typical set for one market covers four threshold prompts (can I keep my car, will I lose my tax refund, how long does Chapter 13 last, do I qualify for Chapter 7 in this state), two comparison prompts and two vetting prompts naming the city. The ledger records whether the firm was named, which page was cited, and at what turn.

A bankruptcy firm cited for the means-test page but absent from vetting prompts has a corroboration gap, not a content gap, and the work moves to directory profiles and reviews. Firm AEO's monthly three-run protocol for this ledger is set out in the post on tracking ChatGPT mentions; the bankruptcy-specific change is weighting threshold prompts more heavily, because that is where filing volume is growing.