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What is a 341 Bankruptcy Hearing? (Creditor's Meeting) - YouTube
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- So today we're gonna go
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over what is a 341 hearing in bankruptcy?
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People often hear
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about this when they're
thinking about filing bankruptcy
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they hear about a creditors
meeting or a 341 hearing.
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So those are held in every
bankruptcy case for individuals.
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So I'm gonna go over just
some of the basics of them,
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how to prepare for it,
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and some of the common questions
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or things that are gonna happen.
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Now, this is informational only
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it might not apply to your case
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and this is based on where I practice
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in the central district of California.
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So each district,
federal district could be
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a little different in
exactly how they do this
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but it is based on federal law,
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so it should be pretty uniform depending
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on where you're located.
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What is a 341 hearing?
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341 hearing it's not actually
technically a hearing
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in front of a judge in court.
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It's more of an informal
creditors meeting.
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And it's meeting with
a bankruptcy trustee,
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who is someone who is
appointed to oversee your case.
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It's required in every
single case that you file
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whether it's chapter seven
or a 13 or even an 11.
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And it's an informal creditors meeting.
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Technically it serves a couple purposes.
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It's to give creditors an opportunity
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to ask you questions about
your assets and your debts
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and also for the trustee
who's assigned to your case
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to ask you questions as well.
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Now the trustee is typically
a private attorney,
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a local attorney that's
experienced in bankruptcy
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that's assigned by the
court to oversee your case.
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Usually they will appoint them
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immediately after the case is filed.
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And so you'll know who
the trustee is gonna be.
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How do you prepare for a 341 meeting?
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Well, you're gonna get
notice of the 341 meeting
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as soon as you file your bankruptcy case,
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they typically schedule
about 30 to 45 days out
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from the date that you file
for your 341 to take place.
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They'll give you the location,
the date and the time.
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And that's gonna be provided in writing
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by a notice from the court
to you also to your attorney,
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if you have an attorney in your case.
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And it also goes out to all
creditors to give them notice
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of the creditors meeting.
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During the pandemic the
creditors meetings have been held
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by zoom video conference or by phone,
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although in the past and
probably in the future,
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they are held in-person
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at the local bankruptcy courts
and usually in a meeting room
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and you're gathered there with,
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it could be 10 to 50 other people
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all scheduled around the same timeframe
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and like a one-hour block.
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So there's gonna be a lot of other people
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either on the zoom
conference call or in person.
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And when you're getting
ready for the 341 meeting
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it's a pretty informal meeting.
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So it's nothing get too stressed about,
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however, you should have a copy
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of your petition and schedules.
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And those are the documents that you filed
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when you filed your case.
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So you have those reviewed
and with you for the hearing.
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Now, if you're doing the 341 meeting
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by phone or by video, be sure, very sure
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to have it somewhere where
there's no background noise
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and you have a copy of your petition
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and schedules with you
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and you're not driving or
doing anything else at the time
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because the trustee may not hear your case
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if there's distractions like that
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because there's so many other
cases that need to take place.
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Having the schedules and
petition with you is gonna help
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to make sure you can
answer their questions.
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They might ask you specific
questions about something
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how you listed an assets
in your schedules.
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So you wanna be able to refer
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to whatever page they're talking about.
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Prior to the 341
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they're going to ask for
a number of documents
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that either you or your attorney
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if you have one needs to provide to them
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prior to the hearing,
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and it's important that you get
it in plenty of time to them
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because they could continue your case
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to a different hearing date,
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or they could potentially ask
the court to dismiss your case
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if you're not complying
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because you're obligated to comply
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with requests of the trustee
assigned to your case.
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They're gonna ask for things
like your driver's license,
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social security card, or
other proof of your identity
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and social security number,
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which can be provided in other forms
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if you don't have those documents
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but those have to be
provided ahead of time.
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They'll usually wanna see your last couple
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of years tax returns and
possibly bank statements,
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statements regarding
real estate or insurance
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just depends on the type of case,
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but they will provide a list of documents
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that they wanna see.
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Make sure you get all those ahead of time
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and make sure you obviously
calendar the date and time
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and you show up ahead of time
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because they have so many
cases they have to deal with
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that they're not gonna
wait around if you're late.
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And if that happens,
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they might continue the
meeting to another date
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or they could ask the
court to dismiss your case.
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So it's very important that you're there
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and you're there ahead of time.
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And that you've provided all the documents
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that they request.
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Some of the standard
questions that are asked
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and I'll put up a list of
sort of the standard questions
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in the central districts
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that are asked by most trustees
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that are assigned to your case.
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When they call your case,
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then they're gonna ask
you to state your name
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and put you under oath
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so you're gonna swear under
the penalty of perjury
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that everything you're saying is truthful.
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Now this is an informal meeting
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usually taking place in more
of an office type setting,
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however, the trustee assigned
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to your case does represent the government
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and if you're caught lying about something
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you forget to list
something and you avoid it,
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be thinking that you don't have to list it
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you have to be completely
truthful in that 341 meeting
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because they can refer
this case to the FBI
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because lying or falsifying
information in a bankruptcy case
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is a federal crime
investigated by the FBI.
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So it's very important that
you provide all information,
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answer everything as truly
incorrectly as you can.
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Generally, the 341 meeting
is gonna be pretty quick
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in most cases.
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As long as everything looks normal
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in your petition and schedules
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they're just gonna ask you some basics
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about is this your current
address that you listed?
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Did you read and sign the petition
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and everything that you
filed with the court?
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Are you familiar
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with the information
contained in the documents?
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Is the information true and correct?
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Are there any errors or omissions?
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Do you need to make any
changes to anything?
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One thing to note that I get
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a lot of common questions on
is, well, we filed on June 1st
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but I got a new job in July
before the creditor's meeting,
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do I need to update the schedules
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or tell him we need to change something?
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Most of the time no, you do
not need to make changes.
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Your bankruptcy is based
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upon the date that you file your petition.
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And so when they're asking
about, is everything correct?
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They're asking when you filed
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the documents was everything correct?
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So generally there's no
obligation to go back in
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and keep updating them as things change
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if your expenses or income changes.
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There can be some exceptions to that
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if you get, for example,
if you receive a tax refund
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that you should have listed
as a potential asset coming in
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and you get that after you filed
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you need to make sure that's disclosed.
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Or if you obtain, you inherit something
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within several months
after filing bankruptcy
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that is something you
may need to disclose.
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So you need to take a look at that
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or talk to an attorney if you have one
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to see if that's something
you might need to disclose.
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They're gonna ask you if you've
listed everything you own
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and if you're married, but only
one of you filed bankruptcy
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you still have to list
assets of both spouses.
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So they're gonna ask to make
sure you listed everything.
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Did you list all of your creditors,
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everyone that you owe money to?
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Have you ever filed bankruptcy before?
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Because there are limits
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on how often you can file bankruptcy.
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Are the tax returns that you
provided true and correct?
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Do you have domestic support obligations?
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So do you owe money for
child or spousal support?
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If so, most trustees have a separate form.
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They're gonna want you to fill
out and sign ahead of time
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to provide to them to disclose
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if you have a domestic support obligation
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and if you're current or if
you have back owed amounts.
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And if the address of your employer
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if any is on there is correct.
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And most trustees will ask you
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if you've read the
bankruptcy information sheet.
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Which is a sheet that is provided
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either electronically ahead of time,
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or if your meeting is in person.
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Here in the central district
it's called a green sheet
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because it's printed on green paper
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and it's in the meeting room
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that you can take and
look at and read through.
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Here's a copy a sample.
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It's basically just an
informational brochure
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about bankruptcy.
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And a lot of this stuff is
supposed to have been disclosed
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if you had an attorney
prior to filing talking
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about what is bankruptcy?
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What are the different
types of bankruptcy?
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What's a discharge?
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And just general information.
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This one's only two pages.
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So it's quick to read through
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and they'll usually have it in versions
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in English and Spanish and
sometimes other languages.
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But they'll ask you to make sure
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that you've read through it.
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So you understand the
requirements of bankruptcy.
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And generally unless the
trustee sees something
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that stands out,
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that might request more information.
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So if there's an asset that they think
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maybe the value isn't right,
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you listed a car and you said
it has, it's only worth $5
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but most cars unless they're
junk they have some value.
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So they might ask you
about the type of car
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if they think there's a bank
account that you didn't list
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any kind of asset they think
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might not properly be represented
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they're gonna ask more information about
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but if you've disclosed everything
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and being been completely forthcoming
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it generally takes a few minutes
for the creditor's meeting
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once your name is called
and then you're done.
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If there's information that
they ask that you don't have
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they may ask for additional documents.
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So they might want some bank statements
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or some other kind of document
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and they will continue your
341 meeting to a new date
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sometimes 30 days out just
depends on their schedule.
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And they'll ask you to
provide those documents
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prior to the new hearing date.
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And then if you provide
them a lot of times,
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they will say you don't have
to appear at the next meeting
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because they have what they need to decide
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what to do with your case.
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Once they've received everything
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then basically the case is going to go
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to them to make a decision
on what needs to take place
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whether it's chapter
seven, chapter 13 case.
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If it's a chapter seven and
there's no assets there,
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there's nothing there for them to sell off
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to liquidate and pay your creditors.
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They'll issue a report of no assets.
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And that's something electronically filed
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usually within days
after the meeting is done
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and they file that with the court
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so the court knows the
341 meeting is concluded
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and that starts a 60 day waiting period
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before your discharge in a chapter seven.
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After the 341 you wanna make sure
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you've taken the second
course in bankruptcy,
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which is the personal
financial management.
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That can be done anytime
after you file your case
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but you wanna make sure
it's taken care of,
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shortly after the 341 if
you haven't already done it.
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In a chapter seven once you
do that, then you're done.
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You have to wait for your
discharge to take place.
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And an order will be issued
by the court of your discharge
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that you'll get in the mail.
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If it's a chapter 13, you have to attend
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unless your attorney or someone tells you
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you don't have to attend,
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a confirmation hearing before a judge
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to see if your chapter
13 plan will be confirmed
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and provide any kind of documents
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or possibly the first
payments out of the 13 plan.
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So that's something that
takes place after the 341
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and the confirmation
hearing will be scheduled
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after the 341 and it's
usually scheduled right
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when you file your case.
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So that's the basics of the 341.
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It's a pretty informal process,
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but you do need to still take it seriously
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and make sure you comply.
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If you don't show up,
they might continue it
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at least once to make sure you show up.
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If you don't show up,
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or you don't comply with what
the trustee is asking you
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because you have to as
they represent the court,
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then they could request that
the court dismiss your case
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possibly with a bar on refiling,
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which means depending
on what they ask for,
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if you didn't comply then
they could dismiss your case
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and say that you can not file
again for example six months
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or some period of time.
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And so if you made a mistake
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and forgot to show up and
your case gets dismissed
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you may not be able to
just refile it right away
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you might have to wait.
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So that's something to be concerned about
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and, but that's about
it for the 341 meeting.
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