When a Creditor Sues You Inside Your Bankruptcy

Adversary proceeding defense — Middle District of Florida.

Filing bankruptcy does not always end everything. A creditor can file a separate lawsuit inside your bankruptcy case — an adversary proceeding — asking the judge to rule that their debt survives your discharge, or in the most serious cases, that you should get no discharge at all.

It has a complaint, discovery, and a trial. There is a strict deadline. And if you ignore it, you lose by default.

The burden is on the creditor, not on you. Being sued is not proof you did anything wrong — and creditors lose these cases more often than they expect, because what the law requires them to prove is much narrower than being angry about a debt.

If you have been served with one, call us. (813) 231-2088.

Jump to a section

1. What an adversary proceeding actually is
2. Two kinds — and the difference is enormous
3. The deadline
4. The grounds creditors use
5. What the creditor has to prove — and why they often can’t
6. Cases we have tried
7. If you have just been served

Part 1: What an adversary proceeding actually is

Short answer: a lawsuit inside your bankruptcy case, with its own case number, its own deadlines, and its own trial.

Most of a consumer bankruptcy is administrative. You file, you go to the meeting of creditors, and a few months later the discharge order arrives. Nobody argues about anything.

An adversary proceeding is different. Someone — usually a creditor, sometimes the trustee — files a complaint against you in the bankruptcy court. You have to answer it. There is discovery. There can be depositions. And if it does not settle, there is a trial in front of the bankruptcy judge.

It is litigation, and it is treated like litigation.

The law behind this: Fed. R. Bankr. P. 7001 (defining the proceedings that must be brought as adversary proceedings); Part VII of the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, which applies most of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to them.

Part 2: Two kinds — and the difference is enormous

	§ 523 — one debt	§ 727 — your whole discharge
What the creditor asks for	That their debt survives your bankruptcy	That you receive no discharge at all
If they win	That one debt follows you out. Everything else is still discharged.	Every debt survives. You went through bankruptcy and got nothing.
Who usually files	An individual creditor	The trustee, the U.S. Trustee, or a creditor
How common	Uncommon	Rare

A § 523 complaint is serious. A § 727 objection is existential — and it is worth knowing that a creditor who files one and cannot support it will sometimes withdraw it rather than take it to trial.

The law behind this: 11 U.S.C. § 523(a) (debts excepted from discharge); 11 U.S.C. § 727(a) (grounds for denying a discharge entirely).

Part 3: The deadline

Short answer: 60 days after the first date set for your meeting of creditors. It is enforced strictly, and it cuts both ways.

A creditor who wants to challenge the dischargeability of a debt under § 523(a)(2), (a)(4) or (a)(6) — or object to your discharge under § 727 — must file within 60 days after the first date set for the § 341 meeting of creditors. Not 60 days after the meeting actually happens. After the first date set.

If they miss it, the complaint is generally barred, and those debts are discharged with everything else.

If you miss your deadline to answer, the court can enter a default judgment against you — and the debt survives without anyone ever hearing your side.

One clarification that matters. Not every nondischargeable debt requires a lawsuit. Most recent income taxes, domestic support obligations, and student loans are excepted from discharge automatically — no creditor has to do anything. Only the fraud-type grounds under § 523(a)(2), (a)(4) and (a)(6) require the creditor to file and prove their case.

The law behind this: Fed. R. Bankr. P. 4007(c) (60-day deadline for § 523(c) complaints); Fed. R. Bankr. P. 4004(a) (same deadline for § 727 objections); 11 U.S.C. § 523(c)(1) (the grounds a creditor must affirmatively pursue or lose).

Part 4: The grounds creditors use

Section	What it says	What it looks like in real life
§ 523(a)(2)(A)	Money obtained by false pretenses, false representation, or actual fraud	“She told me what she needed the loan for and it wasn’t true”
§ 523(a)(2)(B)	A false written statement about your financial condition	An inflated financial statement given to a lender
§ 523(a)(4)	Fraud or defalcation while acting in a fiduciary capacity; embezzlement; larceny	A partner or trustee accused of taking funds
§ 523(a)(6)	Willful and malicious injury to another or their property	A business dispute, a damaged vehicle, a claim of deliberate harm
§ 727(a)	Concealing assets, false oath, failing to keep records, failing to explain a loss of assets	An objection aimed at the discharge itself

Who actually files these

Ex-spouses. Former business partners. Private lenders who lent to a friend and feel betrayed. Credit unions and banks on personally guaranteed loans.

Frequently the motive is anger rather than economics. That is worth knowing when you are the one who has been served: being sued is not evidence that you did something wrong. It means somebody is upset and has hired a lawyer.

Part 5: What the creditor has to prove — and why they often can’t

This is the part that decides these cases, and almost nobody explains it.

The burden is theirs

The creditor has to prove their case by a preponderance of the evidence. You do not have to prove your innocence.

“Willful and malicious” is much narrower than it sounds

§ 523(a)(6) does not cover every intentional act that ends up hurting someone. The Supreme Court has held it requires a deliberate or intentional injury — not merely a deliberate act that leads to injury. Negligence does not qualify. Recklessness does not qualify.

In the Eleventh Circuit, willful means acting with a deliberate intent to cause injury, or in a way substantially certain to cause it. Malicious means wrongful and without just cause.

A business decision that went badly, a loan that could not be repaid, a deal that collapsed — none of those are willful and malicious injury, however strongly the other side feels about it.

Fraud means fraud

Under § 523(a)(2)(A), the creditor must show a false representation, that you knew it was false, that you intended to deceive them, that they justifiably relied on it, and that they were damaged as a result. Every element. A disappointed expectation is not a misrepresentation, and a debt you could not repay is not a debt you never intended to repay.

Exceptions to discharge are read narrowly

Courts construe exceptions to discharge narrowly, in favor of the debtor, because the fresh start is the point of the Bankruptcy Code.

Put it all together and the picture is this: a creditor who feels cheated is not the same as a creditor who can prove fraud, and the gap between those two things is where these cases are won.

The law behind this: Grogan v. Garner, 498 U.S. 279 (1991) (creditor bears the burden by a preponderance of the evidence); Kawaauhau v. Geiger, 523 U.S. 57 (1998) (§ 523(a)(6) requires a deliberate or intentional injury, not merely a deliberate act that causes injury); In re Walker, 48 F.3d 1161 (11th Cir. 1995) and In re Jennings, 670 F.3d 1329 (11th Cir. 2012) (Eleventh Circuit standard for willful and malicious); Field v. Mans, 516 U.S. 59 (1995) (justifiable reliance under § 523(a)(2)(A)).

Part 6: Cases we have tried

Most consumer bankruptcy firms do not try adversary proceedings. They settle them, or refer them out. We try them.

The following were all tried to judgment in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division. Client names are withheld.

We also defend foreclosure cases at trial. See our foreclosure defense work.

Part 7: If you have just been served

1. Do not ignore it. A default judgment in an adversary proceeding means the debt survives your bankruptcy without anyone hearing your side.
2. Note the date you were served, and find the deadline to respond on the summons.
3. Do not call the other side’s lawyer. Anything you say can be used at trial.
4. Do not sign or agree to anything — a stipulation, a payment plan, a consent judgment — before someone reviews it. Agreeing that a debt is nondischargeable is permanent.
5. Gather everything: texts, emails, bank records, the loan documents. In these cases the contemporaneous record usually decides it.
6. Call us. If your bankruptcy attorney does not handle adversary proceedings, that is common, and we take referrals.

(813) 231-2088 — the consultation is free.

About this article

Written by Alan Dexter Borden, a Florida consumer bankruptcy attorney admitted to The Florida Bar in 2008, admitted in all three of Florida’s federal districts, who serves as counsel of record in the adversary proceedings described above.

Last reviewed: August 28, 2026.

This article is general information about federal bankruptcy law, not legal advice about your situation. Every case is different. Reading this does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Client names have been withheld from the case descriptions above. The orders themselves are public records of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida.