Whether you are filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy or a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, you will be required to attend a creditor’s meeting (also known as a 341 Meeting of Creditors). The Court schedules the date and time of your creditors meeting after your bankruptcy has been filed and a bankruptcy Trustee has been assigned to your case.
Generally speaking, no. However, there are always exceptions.
Most retirement plans are ERISA qualified, which stands for Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. This law was enacted to protect your retirement accounts from risky investments by your employer or plan administrator. If the plan is ERISA qualified, then your bankruptcy Trustee cannot seize your retirement money to pay your creditors.
Situations often arise where a potential bankruptcy client is hospitalized, out of town or out of the country, or otherwise unable to sign the necessary paperwork or appear at the necessary court dates for a bankruptcy filing. Often, these potential bankruptcy clients have a valid Power of Attorney document allowing a loved one to sign important papers on their behalf. The question is, can a loved one use a Power of Attorney to file a bankruptcy on behalf of another person?
A trustee is an individual appointed by the federal government in charge of overseeing bankruptcy proceedings. Chapter 7 bankruptcy and Chapter 13 bankruptcy trustees are usually bankruptcy attorneys or accountants.
How often you can file a bankruptcy depends on a few things: what type of bankruptcy you filed in the past, when you filed your previous bankruptcy, and were you discharged or dismissed from your previous bankruptcy.
The easy answer to the question of whether or not you can convert from one type of bankruptcy to another is: “Yes, most of the time.” Don’t you love those qualifiers? The best way to explain the “most of the time” is to provide examples of when you can and cannot convert a bankruptcy. However, … Read more
Knowing the difference between these two debts can be extremely useful in determining which type of bankruptcy will work best for you. In order to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you must be current on all house and car payments in order to keep them. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy will wipe out any unsecured debt. A Chapter 13 bankruptcy, on the other hand, is what’s known as a repayment plan.
The courts require that you take a credit counseling course from an approved agency prior to your bankruptcy being filed. This is not a requirement from just our law firm, this is a requirement by the Court. When the bankruptcy laws were changed in 2005, one of the changes included two course requirements. The first … Read more
These are common questions that many people have about bankruptcy. In an effort to provide you with information we have provided these frequent questions. However, it is important to realize that each state has different rules and these answers are not meant to be legal advice. Contact a bankruptcy attorney to learn more.
We strongly recommend you obtain a credit report to supplement what you already know about your creditors. It is easy to forget about a creditor you owed several years ago that is no longer sending bills to you. And from time to time, a creditor will erroneously apply a charge to your credit that you did not incur. This may happen if the person that made the charge has a similar name or even similar social security number. We have also seen clients be the victim of identity theft. It is extremely important to list all your debts, excluding your ongoing utility bills, on your bankruptcy. Recent laws entitle you to a free credit report annually. This site is listed on the Internal Revenue Service website and will not charge you a fee unless you have received a credit report from this site in the past year.
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