Perhaps the most important characteristic of a bankruptcy is that is brings all of the debtor’s assets and all of their debts into the same arena so the court may weigh one against the other. When it comes time for creditors to get paid, the court will use claim priority to determine who gets what. The tricky thing about priority is that typically higher priority claims will be paid in full before lower priority claims see a dime. For more information on priority and the order of payment used by the bankruptcy court, check out our page on creditors’ rights in bankruptcy.