With the new bankruptcy laws coming into force in April, there has never been a better time to declare yourself bankrupt. Anyone going ahead between now and April 2004 will be discharged April 2005. Anybody going ahead after 1st April will be discharged after 12 months maximum and in the most simple cases this can be reduced to as little as 1 month. You will be debt free from the moment you hand in your debtors petition form, and if an income order is made then you will only have to pay a maximum of 60% of your available income after all your essential living costs have been taken out.Obtaining a mortgage as a discharged bankrupt is now a pretty straight forward process, although typically you may have to pay 1 - 2% above the base rate. For somebody owing over £40,000 bankruptcy would probably be the best option, unless you had considerable assets to protect. Criminal law is not concerned with bankruptcy unless fraud is suspected, even then less than 1% of bankrupts a year are prosecuted. These are usually gambling related.