What Happens After You File Your Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Case
You have finally come into your law firm and signed the documents for your Chapter 7 bankruptcy, as most borrowers can ask: "What happens next?"
The first thing that happens, your lawyer files the case electronically (or if you are filing pro himself, without a lawyer, then close the case in person at the courthouse), and you get a case number. As part of your registration fee, e-mail from the court a noticeTheir application to you and all the creditors that you included on the creditor matrix. Thus, located within a few days of registration, each is connected with the case also suggested signed.
How To File Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
Although the period of notice, if the creditors will receive official notification of your presentation and then if you must stop all collection activities against you because of the automatic stay provided by the debtor, the automatic stay kicks really is filed when the case does not when the creditor receivesCommunication on the application. So once you file, creditors may not: garnish your wages, take your car, foreclose on your house, send letters, call, etc.. They should try to do this, even for a second after recording should tell you immediately that you have submitted and give them the file number.
The message contains several important things. It contains your personal information so that creditors can identify you. It also tells you that yourBankruptcy trustee and the meeting time allotted for the "meeting of creditors."
The creditors 'meeting', otherwise the debtor examination, hearing or 341 well known, an opportunity for the trustee and all creditors to your question. It's not a particularly long question, usually about 5 minutes in a Chapter 7 and not in front of a judge. The debtor is put under oath and the trustee is the question that relate largely to the responseQuestion of the debtor in the petition said.
341 The hearing is usually set for about 4-6 weeks after the deposit of the debtor. The time and date is assigned by the court was the debtor and may not require a specific date or time. If the debtor fails to make the position that the date and time, the trustee, on a "reset", the debtor must be set to appear. If the debtor loses the original date and the date of reset, the debtor may file the case very well.
The only thing that the debtormust be made between the deposit and the 341 is listening to the tax return most recently filed to the trustee one week before the date of submission for an audition. The debtor must have photo identification and proof of Social Security number (Social Security card or W-2) during the meeting. If the debtor does not carry these items, you may not know, after the security check (remember, you are probably entering a building of the court), and although administrators are ready to conduct the hearing, the debtor would be aminimum have to reappear to prove social security identity.
Immediately after filing, the debtor should continue to pay on the debts it wishes to keep. That means for the items the debtor might be reaffirming (car and house payments), or the ongoing living expenses (utilities), the debtor should be paying on these items even though he/she is in the middle of a bankruptcy case.
After the 341 hearing, the trustee might request the debtor follow up with additional documents or creditors could attempt to depose a debtor through a 2004 examination; however, typically those things do not happen. The only thing the debtor has to do after the 341 hearing (assuming the debtor has not already done so), is to complete the court required financial management course and submit a certificate of completion within 45 days of the originally scheduled hearing date, regardless of when the hearing was actually held.
The debtor might also have some housekeeping matters to take care of after the hearing. The debtor might want to redeem or reaffirm a debt, in which case it must submit paper work to the court. The debtor might also wish to avoid a lien, which requires the debtor to file a motion. Other things could be required or recommended that the debtor do, but they are case specific, which is why it is not recommended to file without an attorney.
For instance, at any point in the case the debtor could face a "lift stay" motion from a creditor who wishes to repossess its collateral from the debtor, should the debtor not be current on the payments. Frankly, any assortment of fact patterns could emerge during the bankruptcy. Some are likely to occur, others come out of nowhere.
If no issues do emerge, the debtor could receive an Order from the court within a couple months of the debtor's court hearing date that the case has been "discharged" and "closed." However, there is no guarantee that the case will not go on for many months, particularly if there are assets for the trustee to administer, so the debtor can never know for sure when that Order might come down.
What Happens After You File Your Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Case