First, you have to sort of understand the process, and fill out the forms, and go over the forms to make sure they're complete and correct and accurate, because you'll be stating under penalty of perjury in a very serious environment that they're true and correct and complete.
Now, some folks hire me, and then take a year to fill out their forms online, and then press send, and expect to be filed immediately thereafter, and that doesn't happen.
Because after you fill out the forms online, and make really, really sure that they're correct, you will then and only then hit "send", and then they go to Heidi, the Bankruptcy Angel.
Then she has to review them, and then I have to review them and okay them, and then you have to spend down to get ready to file. Figure two to three weeks for that process, because you're in line with people in front of you, right?
And you WILL, not may, be delayed if we figure out when you send us your data that you don't pass the means test, which we won't know for sure until we have your forms filled out. Sorry, guys, we can't crunch numbers we don't have yet.
But if you press send, after you filled out the forms completely and accurately with all your creditors and all your assets, and you pass the means test, and Heidi reviews and approves, and I review and approve, THEN you get filed.
Then you get a trustee letter, which I've blogged about previously. And as soon as I figure out how to make a link to those past blogs, I'll do that.
And then you show up at your first meeting of creditors (341 hearing) to be asked a bunch of questions, and in the District of Arizona, and specifically in Phoenix, your attorney will mostly be taking notes during that process. Since the Rules of Evidence don't apply at the first meeting, the lawyer doesn't get to say, "Objection! The Trustee is badgering my client! and that question about the massage parlor is irrelevant!" Besides, the Trustee doesn't much badger clients.
And as soon as I'm technologically capable of doing it, I'll also build a link back to my long blogs about the first meeting of creditors, or 341 meeting. Because debtors are typically pretty anxious about those.
And there's no Bankruptcy Judge present at the first meeting; in fact, he or she is specifically not supposed to be there, so he or she doesn't hear information outside of the Rules of Evidence.
Then creditors have a few months to file Complaints saying that for whatever reason, the debt should not be discharged under relevant bankruptcy law; or even that the debtor shouldn't receive a discharge!
The latter is fairly uncommon, because a smart creditor WANTS the debtor to get a discharge. Of all the debtor's OTHER debts!
Then the trustee looks at the case and decides whether it's a "no-asset case" or an "asset case", and in either case, it'll be a while until the case is closed for administrative purposes.
How long? Well, it's not uncommon for a "no-asset" case to stay open for a year or more. And if there are assets to administer for the benefit of creditors, the case may be open for two or three years, or even more, while the trustee "works the case"; that is, while the trustee and his or her lawyer review the proofs of claim to determine if they require objections or look okay, and to determine how much should go to creditors in the administrative category, the priority category, the general unsecured category, and so on.
AND YOU MUST MUST MUST let your lawyer know if you move after you get your discharge, but before the case is closed, because a change of address form has to be filed with the Court, and the trustee must know about the change of address.
Otherwise, the trustee may make a request, the debtor may not get it, and then the trustee moves to revoke the discharge or dismiss the case; and that's an untidy mess to clean up.
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