Judgments that can be discharged in Chapter 13 are, as a rule, the ones based on ordinary unsecured debts: credit cards, medical bills, personal loans, deficiency balances after a repossession, and most breach-of-contract claims. The court looks past the judgment to the debt underneath it. If that underlying debt would have been dischargeable, winning a lawsuit doesn’t change the answer. Judgments tied to child support, alimony, recent taxes, criminal restitution, DUI injuries, and certain fraud claims are the main exceptions, and they survive Chapter 13 no matter how faithfully you complete your plan.
What Filing Does Right Away
The moment you file a Chapter 13 petition, the automatic stay stops collection on any pre-filing judgment. Wage garnishments halt, frozen bank accounts get released, and a creditor who was preparing to foreclose on a judgment lien has to stand down. The statute stays enforcement of any judgment obtained before the case began and bars any new act to collect on a pre-filing debt.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay
The stay lasts for the duration of the case, typically three to five years.2United States Courts. Chapter 13 – Bankruptcy Basics A creditor can ask the court to lift it “for cause,” but unsecured judgment creditors rarely succeed because the plan itself is their remedy.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 362 – Automatic Stay
Judgments That Get Wiped Out
If the judgment is based on a debt that bankruptcy would otherwise discharge, completing the plan eliminates your personal obligation to pay whatever balance remains.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1328 – Discharge The most common examples:
- Credit card judgments
- Medical debt judgments
- Personal loan and signature loan judgments
- Deficiency balances after a car repossession or property foreclosure
- Most breach-of-contract judgments
The discharge is not immediate. You have to finish every payment your plan requires, and only then does the court issue the discharge order. That order permanently bars the creditor from contacting you, suing you, or otherwise trying to collect the discharged balance.4United States Courts. Discharge in Bankruptcy – Bankruptcy Basics
Judgments That Survive
Federal law carves several categories of debt out of the discharge, and a judgment resting on one of them stays enforceable after your case closes.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1328 – Discharge5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 523 – Exceptions to Discharge The ones that matter most for judgment debtors:
- Domestic support obligations. Child support and alimony judgments are never dischargeable and must be paid in full through the plan.
- Certain tax debts. Recent income taxes, taxes on a late or fraudulent return, and taxes the debtor tried to evade all survive.
- Criminal restitution and fines imposed as part of a sentence.
- Death or personal injury caused by driving, boating, or flying while intoxicated.
- Debts obtained through false pretenses, misrepresentation, or actual fraud, but only if the creditor files an objection in bankruptcy court and the court agrees. This exception is not automatic.
- Embezzlement, larceny, and breach of fiduciary duty, subject to the same objection requirement as fraud.
- Government-funded or government-guaranteed student loans, unless you prove undue hardship.
One boundary is easy to miss. A judgment for willful and malicious injury to another person survives, but a judgment for willful and malicious damage to someone’s property does not.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1328 – Discharge
Where Chapter 13 Beats Chapter 7 on Judgments
A Chapter 7 discharge cannot eliminate debts for willful and malicious injury to property, obligations from a divorce property settlement, or debts incurred to pay non-dischargeable taxes. A Chapter 13 discharge can eliminate all three.4United States Courts. Discharge in Bankruptcy – Bankruptcy Basics If a judgment against you falls into any of those buckets, the chapter you pick can decide whether the debt follows you out of bankruptcy.
How the Plan Pays a Judgment Creditor
Discharge doesn’t mean the creditor gets nothing. You propose a repayment plan lasting three to five years, depending on whether your income is above or below your state’s median, and you send a single monthly payment to a bankruptcy trustee who distributes it. The plan has to commit all of your projected disposable income for the plan period, and unsecured creditors must receive at least as much as they would have gotten in a Chapter 7 liquidation.2United States Courts. Chapter 13 – Bankruptcy Basics
In practice, unsecured judgment creditors often receive only pennies on the dollar. What’s left when the plan ends is discharged. Priority debts, including child support and recent taxes, must be paid in full during the plan.
Judgment Liens Are a Separate Problem
A judgment creditor who records the judgment with the county land records has a lien on any real estate you own in that county. The lien is a claim against the property itself, distinct from your personal obligation to pay. A discharge eliminates the personal obligation. It does not, on its own, remove the lien.4United States Courts. Discharge in Bankruptcy – Bankruptcy Basics
If the lien stays on your title, it has to be paid when you sell or refinance, and the creditor could try to foreclose on the lien even after your case is over. Handling the lien inside the bankruptcy case is what prevents that.
Motion to Avoid the Lien
You or your attorney file a motion asking the court to “avoid” the judgment lien. It is not automatic. The court will grant it only if the lien impairs an exemption you can claim on the property.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 522 – Exemptions
The impairment test compares three numbers against the property’s value: the judgment lien, all other liens on the property (like your mortgage), and the exemption amount you’re entitled to claim. When those three added together exceed the property’s value, the judgment lien impairs the exemption to that extent and can be avoided in whole or in part.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 522 – Exemptions The federal homestead exemption protects $31,575 of equity in a primary residence as of April 2025, and many states set a higher amount. The homes easiest to clear are those with big mortgages and modest equity, because there’s little value left for the judgment lien to attach to.
Once the court avoids the lien, the debt is treated as unsecured. It joins your other unsecured claims in the plan, and any remaining balance is discharged at completion.
Recording the Order
The lien-avoidance order is legally effective when the court signs it, but the county recorder’s office won’t know that. Get a certified copy and record it with the recorder in the county where the property sits. Some recorders require the legal description and parcel number on the document, and there will be a recording fee that varies locally. Skipping this step usually surfaces years later, when a title insurer refuses to issue a policy on a sale or refinance until you produce proof the lien was avoided.
If You Can’t Finish the Plan
Three to five years of payments is a long commitment, and not everyone finishes. If you stop paying without court approval, the case is typically dismissed. Dismissal ends the automatic stay and restores your creditors’ rights to the full original debt, less what you paid in. No discharge issues, and any judgment liens you hadn’t formally avoided remain on your property.
A “hardship discharge” is possible in narrow circumstances. You have to show the failure to pay isn’t your fault, that unsecured creditors have already received at least the Chapter 7 equivalent, and that modifying the plan isn’t practicable. Even when granted, it only wipes out debts that Chapter 7 would have discharged, so the broader Chapter 13 protections for property-damage judgments and divorce property settlements disappear.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 11 USC 1328 – Discharge Courts don’t hand these out easily.