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Do I Need to Know All of My Creditors when I meet with an attorney about the bankruptcy for the first time?No. While policies may vary firm to firm, most offices will have you complete some sort of intake sheet upon arrival. This intake sheet will give the attorney some insight into your situation and potential issues in your case. Income information and possible equity issues should be looked at closely upon intake to determine potential issues, creditors amounts and information is not needed for the initial.                                   So what questions is the intake going to ask me?Again, this may vary office by office so keep in mind that this is only what our office asks and another office may ask different information. We ask the following:

• First Name, Middle Initial if applicable, and Last Name
• Address including City, State, Zip Code
• Email address if applicable
• Contact phone numbers including home, cell, work, etc.
• Marital Status: Single, Married, Divorced, Widowed, Separated
• Household Size and ages of any dependents
• Information on any prior bankruptcies including when they were filed and what chapters were filed
• The reason(s) you are considering filing bankruptcy and rough estimates of the amounts owed. Common reasons include:
  • Credit Cards
  • Medical bills
  • Late on house payments with possible foreclosure scheduled
  • Late on car payments with possible repossession
  • Deficiency on repossessed vehicles or foreclosed homes
  • Lawsuits pending
  • Garnishments and/or bank levies
• Whether debt is primarily consumer debt or debt from running a business
• Bank taxes owed if applicable
• Recently received or expected tax refunds
• Back child support or any support or maintenance owed if applicable
• Real Estate Information
  • If purchasing or own real estate outright:
    • Amount owed
    • Value of house
• Insider Payments: Whether you have made payments to family members or friends in the past year
• Vehicle information: For each vehicle that has your name on the title(even if you are not the one that drives or pays for the car), we need the year, make, model, estimate of the miles, approximate value of the vehicle, loan amount and whether you intend to keep each vehicle. This includes motorcycles, RV’s, ATV’s, etc.
• Possible Claims you may have against anyone for any reason including personal injury, workers comp, wrongful death, etc.
• Business Information if you own a business: Value of business and its assets, etc.
• Estimate of your gross monthly income from ALL sources of income including food stamps, social security, child support, etc.

 After a prison sentence 4 years ago Michael Vick appears to be making an effort to change for the better. Since being released from prison he’s been working on getting his finances back in order, and thanks to bankruptcy he will soon be out of debt while satisfying outstanding amounts with dozens of creditors to [...]

If you’re filing a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, know the trustee to maximize your chances of success.
Your Chapter 13 bankruptcy case is going to take 3-5 years to come to completion. I often tell my clients that we’ll be close friends the whole time, working together to smooth out rough spots and keep things rolls. It’s my job to take your financial situation seriously, after all.
The judge assigned to your Chapter 13 case plays a far smaller role, getting involved only if there’s a major dispute or issue that can’t otherwise be resolved.
Lurking in the shadows is the Chapter 13 bankruptcy trustee.  Who is this person, and what’s their purpose?

Who Is The Chapter 13 Trustee?
The Executive Office of the United States Trustee appoints and supervises standing trustees and monitors and supervises cases under chapter 13 of title 11 of the United States Code.
The Bankruptcy Reform Act of 1978 removed the bankruptcy judge from the responsibilities for day-to-day administration of cases because the judge also appointed and supervised the trustee.
It was a conflict of interest, or so it seemed.
In response, most of the administrative functions in the bankruptcy system were placed within the U.S. Department of Justice by the creation of the United States Trustee Program.
Duties Of A Chapter 13 Trustee
The Chapter 13 trustee is responsible for the estate, and does not represent either the creditor or the person filing for bankruptcy. The primary duties of the Chapter 13 bankruptcy trustee are:

1. Be accountable for all property received during the Chapter 13 bankruptcy case;
2. Ensure the debtor performs the debtor’s intention;
3. Investigate the financial affairs of the debtor;
4. Examine proofs of claims and object if necessary;
5. Oppose the discharge of the debtor when necessary;
6. Provide information concerning the estate and the estate’s administration as is requested by a party in interest;
7. Make a final report and file a final account of the administration of the estate with the United States Trustee and the court;
8. Appear at all hearings concerning the value of property subject to a lien, confirmation of a plan, or modification of the plan after confirmation.
9. Help the debtor to perform under the Plan (though the trustee isn’t allowed to provide you with legal advice);
10. If there is a claim for domestic support obligation (DSO), provide the applicable notice to the holder of the claim and appropriate State child support enforcement agency; and
11. If the debtor is engaged in business:
    1. investigate the acts, conduct, assets, liabilities, and financial condition of the debtor, the operation of the debtor’s business and the desirability of the continuance of such business, and any other matter relevant to the case or to the formulation of a plan; and
    2. once the investigation is completed, file a statement of the investigation.

What The Chapter 13 Trustee Will Not Do
The Chapter 13 bankruptcy trustee isn’t your lawyer. He or she won’t give you legal advice, won’t tell you what to do, and cannot answer legal questions for you.
This is largely an administrative position, though a critical one that someone’s got to do in order to keep your case rolling along.
Always Remember The Human Element
My first Chapter 13 bankruptcy case was simple, but I was young and inexperienced.
My papers weren’t sent to the Chapter 13 trustee in the proper order. In response he made things difficult for my clients.
I hadn’t contacted his office to find out their procedures in advance, which he took as a personal affront.
It was a mistake I never made again.
It serves to illustrate the point that the trustee’s role and duties are at once clear and nebulous.
Each Chapter 13 trustee does things in their own way.  If your lawyer doesn’t take the time to gain the knowledge necessary, your case may suffer.
And when it comes to something as important as a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you want to be sure that things are a smooth as possible.
The Role And Duties Of The Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Trustee 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.

My Bankruptcy Law Network colleague Andy Miofsky, who practices in southern Illinois, referenced a very cogent “open letter to debtors and their counsel” that was issued in 1997 by a Bankruptcy Judge who sits in a California bankruptcy court.Judge Jaroslovsky’s open letter points out that every schedule you file is issued under penalty of perjury.  Amending schedules to update information does not change the fact that the original filings were somehow false.  “I have no idea where anyone got the idea that amendments can cure false schedules,” writes the judge.  The debtor has an obligation to correct schedules he or she knows are false, but amendment in no way cures a false filing. Any court may properly disregard subsequent sworn statement at odds with previous sworn statements.Specifically the judge references emergency, “two page” filings where the debtor lists one or two creditors (such as a mortgage or a vehicle lender) and swears under penalty of perjury that his schedules are accurate.  In truth, the debtor (and his counsel) know that other creditors exist.  The emergency filing, therefore constitutes perjury.I think that Judge Jaroslovsky makes a valid point that most debtors and their attorneys readily use the amendment process to “fix” schedules that were knowingly inaccurate when filed.  I think it is incumbent upon debtors and their counsel to work with updated and accurate information. Perhaps it would be wise for debtors to indicate “more to come” on their emergency or initial filings.  However, I respectfully disagree with the judge that these amendments ought to be disallowed.Filing bankruptcy in 2013 is much different than filing bankruptcy in 1997.  The breadth of information required by the means test alone, and the documentation necessary to verify this information can take weeks to gather.  Emergency or semi-emergency petitions, whether the result of dithering or truly unexpected developments are sometimes necessary.Given that the bankruptcy court is an “honest but unfortunate” debtor’s last refuge from catastrophic and sometimes irreversible occurrences such as foreclosure or asset seizure, I think that bankruptcy judges ought to be prepared to show some patience with frazzled and confused debtors who are entering a confusing legal system.Unless bankruptcy judges wish to spend the time to evaluate the back story behind every amendment to uncover the debtor’s and debtor’s counsel’s state of mind, I think that the harm to the system caused by extensive amendments is far outweighed by the benefit to debtors who may need an extra few days to make the process work as intended.Congress has added a number of Code provisions intended to deter and punish serial or non-serious filers, and the means test and expanded document production requirements have made bankruptcy more difficult in general.  While I understand the judge’s concerns about sloppy lawyering and subjective truth, I conclude that additional procedural hurdles to filing and amending would be counterproductive.The post Are Amendments to Bankruptcy Schedules Proof of Perjury? appeared first on theBKBlog.