Now That I've Filed a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, What Should I Expect to Happen?
September 16, 2009,
Well, the first thing you should expect is some small amount of peace and quiet. Prior to the filing, you may have been getting a few love notes from creditors in the mail, or by way of their process servers, and phone calls telling you that your creditors miss their payments, deeply.
That will stop rather abruptly, because when you file your creditors will get notification of the filing and the effect of the automatic stay of 11 USC 362, and they will stop. Automatically.
Note that if you get a call or two from a creditor after you file, it's no biggie.
The peace and tranquility you experience just after you file will be a lovely backdrop to the post-petition credit counseling course that you MUST and WILL be taking the day or two after the filing date.
You will also get a love letter from a new source. That's the trustee appointed to your case. It will ask for COPIES of a bunch of documents.
In the quiet after the filing, you will mail the trustee everything he asked for, and you will do it without whining, because that's my job. Just goshdarn do it. And keep two copies; one you'll bring to the First Meeting in case the post office lost your first package to the trustee, and one you keep in your records. Forever.
You will also receive a love letter from the Bankruptcy Court itself. That will be the same notification that your creditors received, and it will tell your creditors that the First Meeting of Creditors will be held about 40 days after the case was filed. It will also point out that if they want to avoid being discharged, in MOST cases they'll need to file a complaint against the debtor soon after the first date scheduled for the First Meeting of Creditors.
Make SURE you sent the trustee the copies of documents he or she requested. If you don't, bad things will happen in your case.
Your First Meeting of Creditors is not the end of your bankruptcy case. Frankly, it's not really very important in your case, unless you goof it up by not appearing, lying at the first meeting, lying on your schedules, failing to send the docs the trustee asked for, or failing to bring your social security card or your driver's license.
So show up at the hearing, and your lawyer will meet you there. Surprisingly, your lawyer will say about eight words, total, at the first meeting: "Good Morning. I'm Joseph McDaniel for the debtor."
See, back in the good old days (formerly known as "these trying times"), the bankruptcy lawyer in your Chapter 7 case would ask all the questions at the First Meeting. Some years ago that changed, and now they're asked by the bankruptcy trustee instead.
I'm not sure that it makes a very large amount of difference.
To get a fuller vision of what happens in an ordinary case, of course, you should look at the timeline of a bankruptcy case.
Note that about sixty days or so after your First Meeting, the Court will probably enter the discharge order in your case, but you won't see if for another sixty or ninety days. And even when you and your creditors get your discharge order, the case isn't over yet!
And as you contemplate your life, and rebuild your credit, and plan for retirement, recall that many, many folks have filed bankruptcy of various sorts through the years, and that most of them lived through the process, and lived on to become famous, rich, or at least happy.
Some died in debtor's prisons, of course.
But we don't have those!
So celebrate!
And anticipate that you'll get unsolicited credit cards in the mail during the year after you file, because credit card companies know you can't file again for eight years! Makes you a darn good credit risk.
p.s. REMEMBER TO TELL ME AND HEIDI IF YOU MOVE AFTER YOUR BANKRUPTCY, UNTIL YOUR CASE IS CLOSED IN A YEAR OR FOUR. THE COURT MUST KNOW HOW TO FIND YOU SO THE TRUSTEE CAN ASK YOU QUESTIONS, AND IF THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN YOUR CASE CAN BE DISMISSED, OR WORSE.
That will stop rather abruptly, because when you file your creditors will get notification of the filing and the effect of the automatic stay of 11 USC 362, and they will stop. Automatically.
Note that if you get a call or two from a creditor after you file, it's no biggie.
The peace and tranquility you experience just after you file will be a lovely backdrop to the post-petition credit counseling course that you MUST and WILL be taking the day or two after the filing date.
You will also get a love letter from a new source. That's the trustee appointed to your case. It will ask for COPIES of a bunch of documents.
In the quiet after the filing, you will mail the trustee everything he asked for, and you will do it without whining, because that's my job. Just goshdarn do it. And keep two copies; one you'll bring to the First Meeting in case the post office lost your first package to the trustee, and one you keep in your records. Forever.
You will also receive a love letter from the Bankruptcy Court itself. That will be the same notification that your creditors received, and it will tell your creditors that the First Meeting of Creditors will be held about 40 days after the case was filed. It will also point out that if they want to avoid being discharged, in MOST cases they'll need to file a complaint against the debtor soon after the first date scheduled for the First Meeting of Creditors.
Make SURE you sent the trustee the copies of documents he or she requested. If you don't, bad things will happen in your case.
Your First Meeting of Creditors is not the end of your bankruptcy case. Frankly, it's not really very important in your case, unless you goof it up by not appearing, lying at the first meeting, lying on your schedules, failing to send the docs the trustee asked for, or failing to bring your social security card or your driver's license.
So show up at the hearing, and your lawyer will meet you there. Surprisingly, your lawyer will say about eight words, total, at the first meeting: "Good Morning. I'm Joseph McDaniel for the debtor."
See, back in the good old days (formerly known as "these trying times"), the bankruptcy lawyer in your Chapter 7 case would ask all the questions at the First Meeting. Some years ago that changed, and now they're asked by the bankruptcy trustee instead.
I'm not sure that it makes a very large amount of difference.
To get a fuller vision of what happens in an ordinary case, of course, you should look at the timeline of a bankruptcy case.
Note that about sixty days or so after your First Meeting, the Court will probably enter the discharge order in your case, but you won't see if for another sixty or ninety days. And even when you and your creditors get your discharge order, the case isn't over yet!
And as you contemplate your life, and rebuild your credit, and plan for retirement, recall that many, many folks have filed bankruptcy of various sorts through the years, and that most of them lived through the process, and lived on to become famous, rich, or at least happy.
Some died in debtor's prisons, of course.
But we don't have those!
So celebrate!
And anticipate that you'll get unsolicited credit cards in the mail during the year after you file, because credit card companies know you can't file again for eight years! Makes you a darn good credit risk.
p.s. REMEMBER TO TELL ME AND HEIDI IF YOU MOVE AFTER YOUR BANKRUPTCY, UNTIL YOUR CASE IS CLOSED IN A YEAR OR FOUR. THE COURT MUST KNOW HOW TO FIND YOU SO THE TRUSTEE CAN ASK YOU QUESTIONS, AND IF THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN YOUR CASE CAN BE DISMISSED, OR WORSE.
