If you consider yourself in a hopeless situation and are considering filing bankruptcy then it is incumbent upon you to familiarize yourself with the bankruptcy laws as they apply in your state. Although you will be filing in a federal court, each state has different definitions of what is and is not exempt assets, especially equity assets.
While bankruptcy cases are always filed in United States bankruptcy court (which are units of the United States district courts), many rules that apply to bankruptcy cases, such as rules governing the validity of claims, or rules protecting certain property from creditors (known as exemptions), derive from state law. State law therefore plays a major role in many bankruptcy cases and it is often unwise to generalize some bankruptcy issues across state lines.