Mr. Bitter

Here’s another update on my bankruptcy filings. Last Wednesday, I went to my creditor’s meeting. This is the main appearance you have to make when you file Chapter 7. It works a lot like a court appearance. You get sworn in and testify under penalty of perjury. Instead of a judge, you have to answer questions from a trustee assigned to the case. When you file, your creditors are notified and they can attend (or send a lawyer) and ask questions. Also, a representative of the U.S. Trustee’s Office also attends and can ask questions.

You are told to appear in a sort of mini courtroom at a certain time. They assign the same time to several filers and kind of run through them, spending about 5 minutes on each.

Corporate creditors almost never send a representative unless they feel they can prove fraud. None of my creditors sent anybody. As a result, I had a pretty easy time. The local trustee asked if I filled out my forms correctly, if I had any official help, if all the information was true and correct to the best of my knowledge and things of that nature. She then asked the U.S. Trustee if he had any questions, and he didn’t. It was pretty painless. I was out of there by 11:45.

It was interesting to hear some of the other stories - a guy who went on disability and racked up $200,000 worth of debt in a couple of years and that sort of thing. It’s tough out there these days no matter how high the stock market has gone.

Creditors and the local trustee have 30 days after the creditor’s meeting to file objections to the exemptions I filed. My sense is they won’t. I don’t have any secured property or or non-exempt property to deal with so the last two steps are that I have to take are complete a financial management course in the next month and a half and then a discharge hearing will be set in court. It’s not clear if I have to actually attend the discharge hearing (it varies from state to state and district to district). But it looks like I’m almost done.