Bankruptcy answer to your statement

Your rights and what you can expect to collect pursuant to a bankruptcy depends on whether the debtor files a Chapter 7 or a Chapter 13.

Under a Chapter 7 the debtor retains exempt assets and all non-exempt assets are surrendered for liquidation and distribution.  Proceeds from the liquidation are divided among the creditors according to priority as established by the the bankruptcycode.  Typically, there are few if any assets of value and creditors receive a fraction of what they are owed.

Under a Chapter 13, a payment plan is filed with court.  The plan provides for payments to creditors over a period of 3-5 years.  Payments are made from disposable income (ie what ever is left over after necessities are paid for), while the debtor retains his/her assets.  This means that the creditor will most likely get some but not all that they are owed. 

For obvious reasons, debtors prefer the Chapter 13;  it gives them the best chance of receiving the most money.  At the end successful completion of either proceeding, the debtors liability on any and all outstanding debt is discharged. 

If the bankrupt person owed you money on a personal loan, and listed the debt, then you would get official notices of the different stages of the proceedings from the bankruptcy court, and you would probably have to file a proof of claim at some point.  Then, you'd have to wait until the distribution was worked out.  You would have the right to be represented by an attorney, as a creditor in the bankruptcy case, and one place to find a lawyer to handle this would be our website:  http://attorneypages.com

What, if anything, you got from the bankruptcy would depend on the other debts and the assets.  If there were assets left after all the taxes and secured debts (mortgages, car loans, etc.) were paid, you'd get a fraction (probably) of what you were owed, in a check from the bankruptcy trustee.