Hi, my name’s Mike Greiner. I’m a bankruptcy attorney here at the Financial Law Group located in Warren, Michigan. Our website is financiallawgroup.com and my phone number is 586-693-2000. We do offer free consultations for people who are interested in this process. I’m here to talk to you today, though, about the process of Chapter 7 bankruptcy a little bit. Now something that a lot of people are concerned about is what’s going to happen as they go through this process. Let me just tell you a little bit about the basic steps you’re, that’s going to happen. The first thing is you’ll meet with me or another bankruptcy attorney and it’s a matter of filling out the forms and getting them ready to be filed with the bankruptcy court. That’s usually the type of thing you will do with a bankruptcy attorney. Now before the case can actually be filed, your required to do a certain credit counseling. The credit counseling can usually be done over the phone or over the internet and in our case at least, we’ll set you up with a credit counseling company that will take care of that for you. The cost of that often times if 40 to 50 dollars and in our case, we actually include that in the cost we quote you.

Once you’ve completed the first credit counseling, we file the case. After the case has been filed, you have a couple of things you need to do. The first one is, you need to do a second set of credit counseling. That is a requirement, and if you do not do that, your case will be dismissed and you will not receive your discharge. It can be very expensive to re-open your case and to get your case started back up again to get your discharge. So I definitely suggest that people do that second set of credit counseling relatively soon after they file their case. You have a little bit of time, but don’t let time pass. That’s the first thing. The second thing is there’s a hearing. It’s called the first meeting of creditors. Typically, that hearing is held about six weeks after you filed your case. Usually you will not see a judge. Usually, you will just see someone called a trustee. The trustee is an attorney appointed by the court to represent your creditors. That attorney gets to ask you questions, really to verify the information your bankruptcy petition. If your petition’s properly prepared by a bankruptcy attorney usually it will go pretty smoothly.

Before the meeting, there is a requirement that certain documents will have been sent to the trustee. Typically, in a bankruptcy case that we’re handling, we will take care of sending those documents ahead of time. And they include things like tax returns, pay stubs and real estate documents and titles to vehicles you have a loan on. Those things are usually sent to the trustee ahead of the hearing. So when we get to the hearing, usually, the trustee has already reviewed documents and is familiar with your case if everything’s been handled appropriately. And the typical hearing, you’re really talking lasting 5 minutes or so.

If you have a bankruptcy attorney representing you like in our case we will actually sit with you during the hearing, and we’ll help you through it. And make sure that everything gets covered appropriately. And that your interests get looked out for. Once the hearing has been held in most districts across the country there you don’t need to go to a second hearing unless some issue comes up in your case. There’s a two month waiting period to see if any issues come up. If your case has been properly handled, usually the bankruptcy attorney will be able to tell you if you have any issues to be concerned about as you’re going through your case. But if any issues do come up, they can be addressed. Just because someone objects to your case for one reason or another doesn’t mean your case is over. It can be resolved so that needs to be kind of worked through with the assistance of your bankruptcy attorney. But 90% of the cases or so, even more actually than that at the end of the two month period, no issues have come up and the court will simply move forward and send you a discharge. That discharge is kind of anticlimactic. It’s a one page document with one line written on it, typically saying it appearing to the court that you are entitled to a discharge. A discharge is hearby granted and it’s not even signed any more by the bankruptcy judge. It just has a slash s slash and the judge’s name uh, signifying the judge’s signature.

That document, even though it seems very insignificant, is a very significant document. Because that’s essentially your proof for the rest of your life that any debts that were incurred before you filed bankruptcy are there, that they’re not allowed to collect from you.

It’s a court order, and an injunction stopping any creditors from trying to collect, any of these debts or anything. Now one last thing I wanna raise here.

Is just because you’ve received your discharge does not necessarily mean you’re case is over. Your case has to be closed. If there are any assets that remain that the trustee is reviewing those  assets may still be administered, may still try to be sold or get some kind of value out of them to benefit the creditors even after your, after you received your discharge. So really, the key you need to be looking for is to make sure that your case has been closed cause that’s when really your case is over for all intensive purposes.

So again these are the types of things that your bankruptcy attorney can help you through. If you live in Southeastern Michigan  feel free to give my office a call. I offer free consultations. My office number is (586) 693-2000. And our website is financiallawgroup.com