What to Expect at the Meeting of Creditors
Bankruptcy is a nerve racking process to begin with and when you tell people that they have to go to a court hearing, they tend to freak out and not know what to do. When you explain to them that there is nothing to worry about and it is simply them asking you questions about why did you file, did you give your attorney the paperwork to prepare your schedules, did you review and sign the schedules? Those are pretty much the basic line of questioning that they have. They will verify you by you social security card and your photo ID. They will give you some information about if you were to come into a windfall to let your attorney know before you spend any of the money you received. This meeting takes about 5-10 minutes. The downfall for a Chapter 13 is that you have to be there at 7:45 a.m. for a morning seminar that you are required to attend and they will break for lunch and let you know when to come back for the meeting in the afternoon. Depending on where you are on the list will depend on when you will get out of there. Once your name is called, you can now start counting down the minutes of how soon this will be over and you can start moving towards a new life. In a chapter 7 you don’t have an all day event, you will be given a time and depending on where you are at on the docket call will depend on when you will be called. Once you are called then it will be about 5-10 minutes and you will be asked the same questions as stated above and then you will be done. At anytime you feel like you don’t understand, let them know and they can put the question in a form that you can understand to answer. Don’t feel intimidated, be calm and you will be just fine.
Please fill out our free evaluation form to determine if bankruptcy is right for you.
