chapter 13 ??

I m a bit confused. Is the car titled in your name or your father's name or both? Also, the payments you are making, you say it's a verbal agreement, in a chapter 7 (which sounds like it would make more sense for you than a 13 other than the payments you've been making to your father) the trustee would be highly interested in the payments to your father more than the car, though if your car technically has no lien and is in your name and is still worth a fair amount (I'm guessing not $12k), then it would depend on the exemptions you have to claim on the car. As a result of these factors, the best way to get these questions answered would be to see a local bankruptcy attorney, who can advise you as to whether a chapter 7 or 13 makes sense for you right now. Without more concrete information it is not possible to give you a more concrete answer.

If the car is in your name then it is generally your asset. You can try to argue that you only have bare legal title to the vehicle and that equitible title belongs to your father who bought the car. This argument works with real estate since it is common for people to add others to title for estate planning purposes even though they have not made any payments towards the property. Since this is not real estate, this argument may not work but is probably your best chance.

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Mr. Larkin is licensed to practice law in CA and is located in San Diego. His response here does not constitute legal advice and does not create an attorney/ client relationship. The response is in the form of legal education and is intended to provide general information about the matter in question. Many times the questioner may leave out details which would make the reply unsuitable. Mr. Larkin strongly advises the questioner to confer with an attorney in their own state to acquire more information about the specifics of their case.