If you don't have equity in a home that you want to keep, you can protect (exempt) up to the following:

$23,250 – Any combination of things (referred to as the "wildcard" exemption)
$3,525 – One vehicle (the resale value of it above the amount owed on it)
$11,075 – Life insurance (the current cash value to you of that policy)
$1,425 – Jewelry (at the resale value – craigslist, ebay, etc. – not the replacement value)
$2,200 – Items used for your occupation
All of your household items and clothing that individually are not worth more than $550
All (usually) of your retirement accounts
Note that the $23,250 wildcard exemption may be used to “pick up” excess amounts from any number of exemption categories, such as a car that's worth more than $3,525 above the amount owed on it.

If you do have equity in a home ("homestead") that you want to keep, you can protect (exempt) different amounts of that equity based on your age and other factors.

$75,000 – Single person, age 64 or younger
$100,000 – Married person with the spouse living in the house, age 64 or younger
$175,000 – Debtor or spouse (living in the house) is one of the following:
– 65 or older
– Physically or mentally disabled so as to be unable to engage in substantial gainful employment
– 55 years of age or older with a gross annual income of not more than $15,000 or, if the debtor is married, a gross annual income of both debtor and spouse of not more than $20,000.

If you need to use this set of homestead exemptions to exempt the equity in a home, you do not get the "wildcard" exemption, but some of the other specific exemptions are larger.

One more thing. If you have not lived in California for the two years prior to filing bankruptcy, you will probably need to use another state's exemptions or the federal set of exemptions. That's a whole other subject and way too complex to cover here.

That's enough to say about exemptions here, except that they are a very important topic in a bankruptcy and must be treated with a great amount of knowledge and attention.

- You can't have received a discharge in a prior Chapter 7 bankruptcy filed within eight years of filing the new Chapter 7.

- You must pass the "Means Test":

The simple version: If the gross income (of you and your spouse) for the past six months x 2 (to make it a one-year value) is not greater than the official California median income for a household of your size, you pass. Here are the official California median incomes as of November 1, 2011:

1 person in family: $47,683
2 people in family: $61,539
3 people in family: $66,050
4 people in family: $74,806
Add $7,500 for each individual in excess of 4.

The full version: If your income is above the California median income, then you must pass the "full" Means Test which is a complex formula of income and official and actual expenses.

- When you essentially can't (see the section just above).

- When you have property that you want to keep but would be lost in Chapter 7 because (1) exemptions wouldn't protect that property or (2) you can’t pay the back payments owed on secured property (often a house or car).

In those situations, you would want to consider a Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

California bankruptcy attorney Malcolm Ruthven represents clients throughout the San Francisco Bay Area in Marin County, Sonoma County, San Francisco County, Alameda County, Contra Costa County, Napa County, and San Mateo County, including cities and towns such as San Rafael, Alameda, Belvedere, Berkeley, Burlingame, Contra Costa, Corte Madera, Fairfax, Greenbrae, Healdsburg, Kentfield, Larkspur, Mill Valley, Napa, Novato, Oakland, Petaluma, Richmond, Rohnert Park, Ross, San Anselmo, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, Sausalito, Sonoma, Solano, Tiburon and Vallejo.