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The meeting of creditors in your bankruptcy case is nothing to be scared of – so long as you know what’s coming.
In every bankruptcy case – be it a Chapter 7 or a Chapter 13 – requires a meeting of creditors. This meeting, required by Section 341 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, is also sometimes called a 341 meeting.
Though a necessary part of your bankruptcy case, the meeting of creditors is a simple and straightforward thing that you don’t need to worry about.
Here’s what you need to know.
You’ll Have Plenty Of Advance Notice
The date and time of the meeting of creditors is usually set within a few days of the filing of your bankruptcy case. My office gets notice electronically, and we’ll let you know as soon as we find out.
The meeting of creditors is usually scheduled for 4-6 weeks after the case is filed, so you’ll have plenty of advance notice. This way, you’ll be able to arrange for time off from work or other personal obligations.
The Meeting Of Creditors Isn’t In Front Of A Judge
The meeting of creditors is held by your trustee, whose job is to:
- sell nonexempt property to repay creditors;
- verify that you’ve disclosed all of your assets and liabilities; and
- ensure that you haven’t committed fraud or lied on your bankruptcy papers.
The judge will not be there, and it’s not held in a courtroom. This is nothing like Law & Order.
What to Bring to the Meeting of Creditors
You must bring photo identification and your Social Security card. If you don’t have your original Social Security card or a driver license, you need to order replacements immediately.
The trustee won’t conduct the meeting unless you have both of these documents. You’ll have to come back another time, which will waste more of your time as well as your money in the form of additional legal fees for a needless appearance.
Some trustees have other requirements, but we’ll cover that well in advance of your meeting.
Most Creditors Don’t Show Up
Your creditors will be notified of the date and time of the meeting of creditors, but most times none will show up.
Think about it – every year, well over 1 million bankruptcy cases are filed in the United States. If the credit card companies sent someone to every meeting of creditors then they’d be filing for bankruptcy due to the expense.
From time to time, a creditor will show up to ask you questions. This is usually an ex-spouse, a disgruntled former business associate, or a creditor who thinks there’s a problem with your case.
If that happens, don’t panic – chances are pretty good that we’ll know there’s a problem before the meeting of creditors.
You Will Not Be Alone
If we’re working together on your bankruptcy case, either I’ll be at the meeting of creditors with you or one of the lawyers from my office will be there.
The only reason I won’t be there with you is if I’ve got to be in two places at the same time. If that happens, I flip a coin to see where I’m going to be.
If one of the other lawyers from my office is with you, that lawyer will be prepared with full knowledge of your case. I would never send a newbie lawyer or someone who’s flying blind.
The Meeting Of Creditors Is Over Before You Know It
Once you’re called by the trustee, the entire meeting takes about 4 minutes to complete. You’ll be sworn in, show your photo identification and Social Security card, and answer a few standard questions.
Once that’s done, you’ll be sent home.
The Wait Can Be Annoying
Each month, thousands of people file for bankruptcy. Each one of those people needs to be seen by the trustee for a meeting of creditors.
That means there will be dozens of other people called for their meeting at the same time as you’re there.
At 5 minutes each, the wait adds up. That’s why I tell my clients to bring some reading material and to clear their schedule for the day.
Don’t Lose Sleep Over It
The meeting of creditors is simple and quick. So long as you’re prepared, it will be relatively painless.
My job is to make sure your meeting goes smoothly, so breathe easy.
Image credit: Dougtone
What You Need To Know About the Bankruptcy Meeting of Creditors was originally published on Consumer Help Central. If you're seeing this message on another site, it has been stolen and is being used without permission. That's illegal, a violation of copyright, and just plain awful.
One of the most serious concerns that many debtors have before filing is what in the world is going to happen to their retirement accounts. Fortunately there are pretty strong protections in place that allow most consumers to protect the contents of these accounts.
The federal exemptions, which are available to most Oregon and Washington bankruptcy filers, exempt most retirement accounts, including IRAs, 401ks, PERS and even many stock bonus plans. What this means is that these assets are not available for distribution to your creditors in a bankruptcy.
If you are going to file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy protection and you have a 401(k) account that you are regularly contributing to, it is essential that you discuss with us what effect your filing might have on your ongoing ability to contribute to that account. It is also imperative that you contact us if you are considering borrowing money from your 401(k) to pay your debts. This is almost always a terrible option that we cannot undo after you have taken the money out.
The original post is titled Protecting Retirement Accounts in Bankruptcy , and it came from Oregon Bankruptcy Lawyer | Portland, Salem, and Vancouver, Wa .
History of Bankruptcy, Anyone? Adam Brown is a bankruptcy attorney for Dexter & Dexter, a debt relief agency helping people file for bankruptcy.
In the case of In re Bast, ___ BR ___, 2007 WL 1429481 (Bkrtcy.S.D. Fla.)(Friedman, J.) where the court found that the requirements for a technical abandonment of certain non-exempt real property were met and that it was therefore abandoned from the estate to the debtor at the close of the case. The trustee's subsequent efforts to administer the non-exempt real property for the benefit of the creditors were denied by the Court.
On August 8, 2007, the case of In re O'Neal, ___ B.R. ___, 2007 WL 2296450 (Bkrtcy.S.D.Fla.)(Friedman,J.) was issued. In this case a successor Chapter 7 trustee attempted to vitiate an abandonment by his predecessor of an interest in certain stock. The successor trustee's Motion to Reopen the Case was granted and the trustee filed a Motion to Revoke Technical Abandonment. The court denied the Motion to Revoke Technical Abandonment as it held that a reopening of the case does not automatically revoke a technical abandonment and that there were otherwise no equitable circumstances for a revocation.
The Debtor's chapter 7 case was filed and discharged as a "no asset" case. The Debtor had scheduled the stock in his schedule B with a value of $1. Apparently the stock was worth considerably more. The trustee claimed that the Debtor intentionally mislead him as to the value of the stock.
The court denied the trustee's motion to revoke technical abandonment. The court noted that property which is not sold or otherwise administered during the bankruptcy case is deemed abandoned upon the closingn of the case. 11 USC 554(c). The court noted that the courts have disagreed about the effect of reopening a case when property was previously technically abandoned pursuant to Section 554(c). The court held that it disagreed with the cases that held that a reopening, if not limited, automatically revokes technical abandonment as this would eliminate the finality that Section 554(c) was intended to provide and would eliminate the incentive for the trustee to investigage estate assets carefully before closing a case.
The court held that although reopening does not automatically revoke the technical abandonment, that the court may order that property not be considered abandoned after a reopening based upon equitable circumstances, such as when misleading information was given to the trustee. The court held that this position is in accordance with the language in section 554(c) which provides "unless the court order otherwise..." which requires some cause for such an order which deviates from the norm of technical abandonment under section 554(c). The court noted that its view is essentially the same as that in In re Woods, 173 F.3d 770 (10th Cir.1999) which held that the reopening of a case does not automatically vitiate the abandonment of property under section 554(c), but that a court may under FRBP 9024 vacate the abandonment if the standards of that rule which are the equivalent of FRCP 60 are met.Jordan E. Bublick is a Miami Personal Bankruptcy Lawyer with over 25 years of experience in filing chapter 13 and chapter 7 bankruptcies. Miami Personal Bankruptcy Lawyer Jordan E. Bublick has filed over 8,000 chapter 13 and chapter 7 cases.
Miami Personal Bankruptcy Lawyer Jordan E. Bublick has over 25 years of experience in filing Chapter 13 and Chapter 7 bankruptcy cases. His office is centrally located in Miami at 1221 Brickell Avenue, 9th Fl., Miami and may be reached at (305) 891-4055. www.bublicklaw.com
The Bankruptcy Court in Miami previously issued its decision in the case of In re Maria D. Lopez, Case No. 08-18101-BKC-LMI (Bankr. S.D.Fla. April 17, 2009)(Isicoff, J.), the Bankruptcy Court held that the involved attorney fees were not entitled to priority status as a "domestic support obligation".
The debtor's ex-husband was awarded his attorney fees in their dissolution of marriage proceeding and sought priority status for the claim in the debtor's chapter 13 case. Priority status would require full payment and the lack thereof would subject to claim to status as a general unsecured creditor and typically only a small dividend.
The Court explained that the Bankruptcy Code provides that a domestic support obligation ("DSO") owed to a former spouse is entitled to priority status and that while an award of attorney fees in some instances may be considered a DSO, not every award of attorney fees in a dissolution of marriage case are entitled to DSO status.
The Court states that for a claim to be considered as a DSO, it must meet all the requirements of section 101(14A) of the Bankruptcy Code. Generally, the claim must be
- owed to a spouse, former spouse, or child of the debtor, or such child's parent or guardian
- be in the nature of alimony, maintenance or support
- established or subject to establishment by reason of a separation agreement, divorce decree, or property settlement agreement or by court order
- not assigned to a nongovernmental entity unless voluntarily assigned for purposes of collection
At issue in this case was whether the attorney fees are "in the nature of alimony, maintenance, or support." The Court noted that the 2005 BAPCPA amendments to the Bankruptcy Code amended certain provisions relating to claims arising from "alimony, maintenance, or support" and renamed these obligations "domestic support obligations," but that the pre-BAPCPA case law does to a certain extent continue to have applicability post-BAPCPA.
The Court rejected the claimant's argument that the attorney fees met the requirement of being "in the nature of alimony, maintenance or support" as they related to custody, parentage, or visitation. The Court noted that the determination of what constitutes "support" is a matter of federal law. The Court further noted that in determining whether an award of state court attorneys' fees constitutes "support", the Bankruptcy Court may "only undertake a simple inquiry as to whether the debt can be characterized as 'support'" and that it may look to state law for guidance on whether the obligation should be considered in the nature of "support". The Court noted that the state court judgment awarded claimant attorney fees based on the debtor's litigation misconduct and not based on their respective wages or ability to pay.Jordan E. Bublick is a Miami Personal Bankruptcy Lawyer with over 25 years of experience in filing chapter 13 and chapter 7 bankruptcies. Miami Personal Bankruptcy Lawyer Jordan E. Bublick has filed over 8,000 chapter 13 and chapter 7 cases.
If you file Chapter 7 bankruptcy too soon after you get a previous bankruptcy discharge, you cannot receive another discharge.
If you filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the past, you may not be able to file a new Chapter 7 case and get a discharge of your debts.
Time your new Chapter 7 bankruptcy case properly and you’ll get the benefits you’re looking for.
Do it wrong and you’ll end up in a bad situation.
Filing Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Again
If you received your first discharge under a Chapter 7, you are eligible to get a discharge in a new Chapter 7 bankruptcy that is filed more than eight years from the date that the first case was filed.
If you file a new Chapter 7 bankruptcy case within eight years then you will not qualify for a discharge in the new case.
Is The Discharge Important In The New Chapter 7 Case?
As I discuss in the article, How To File Bankruptcy Again When You’re Back In Debt, you need to think about why you’re filing a new Chapter 7 bankruptcy case. In some situations, the discharge may not be important to you.
You may have enough money to repay your debts in full but simply don’t want to deal with numerous creditors.
Or you may have a piece of property that could be sold to pay your debts, but don’t want the hassle of selling it and dividing up the proceeds.
In those situations, a new Chapter 7 bankruptcy may be a good idea in spite of the fact that you won’t get a discharge.
Discharged v. Dismissed v. Denied
If you file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you don’t qualify for a discharge if the prior case was filed within the past eight years and resulted in a discharge.
However, if the case was dismissed then you may not face such a limitation. We’re going to need to look into the reasons for the dismissal before making a decision about that.
If your discharge was denied in your first case then you may be able to file again. Any discharge you receive, however, may not include the debts you listed in the original Chapter 7 bankruptcy case. Again, we’re going to need to look into things before deciding how the new Chapter 7 case is going to play out.
Consider Chapter 13
Even if you do not qualify for a discharge in a second Chapter 7 bankruptcy case, you may be eligible to file for Chapter 13 bankruptcy and get a discharge of your debts.
For more information on that, read my article, Why Your Debt Relief Options Should Include Your Future Plans. You may find that filing a new case under Chapter 13 gets you the results you’re looking for.
Either way, remember that filing for bankruptcy again isn’t impossible. It all depends on your goals, your timing, and your willingness to be flexible to get the relief you need.
Here’s When You Can File For Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Again was originally published on Consumer Help Central. If you're seeing this message on another site, it has been stolen and is being used without permission. That's illegal, a violation of copyright, and just plain awful.
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