discharge

One hard and fast rule in Bankruptcy is that debts and claims are “set in stone” as of the petition date, or perhaps post-petition if added to the Chapter 13 plan.  Bankruptcy Courts and Trustees do not normally police potential debts that may come up later.  There are some exceptions to the general rule, and a Texas Bankruptcy Court addressed one of them recently.

In In re Lawson, Ch. 13 Case No.

Last week I was at a final hearing on fee applications on behalf of a Chapter 7 Trustee, in a case in which the debtor had failed to disclose a pre-petition personal injury case  pending in another state.  The defendants in that case ultimately founds out about the Bankruptcy case about a year after it was closed and the debtor received her discharge.  They contacted the Trustee and the case was reopened more than a year after debtor’s discharge to administer the asset (the proceeds of the personal injury case settled by the Trustee).  The Judge questioned why we had not pursued revoc

Bankruptcy lawyers regularly caution debtors to avoid unusual financial transactions, including credit card charges, cash withdrawals, and the like, prior to filing their case.  This is a case in which a pro se debtor withdrew several thousand dollars in the week before filing and got caught.  In addition, Debtor also requested, and initially received, approval for a waiver of her filing fee because she appeared destitute.  In re Ricks, Ch. 7 Case No. 13-60100, 2013 Bankr. LEXIS 3355 (Bankr. S.D. Ga.

In Mele v. Bank of America, et al., Adv. Proc. No. 12-5031, 486 B.R. 546, 2013 Bankr. LEXIS 455 (Bankr. N.D. Ga. January 8, 2013)(J.