Antioch Bankruptcy Attorney Describes The Post-Filing Requirement

Antioch bankruptcy attorney states that each party must submit to a two-hour financial management class.  Most of my clients who are filing jointly watch a two-hour DVD and they can watch it together, provided they both watch it and they both write down the codes and they both sign a statement stating that they have watched the class.  In other situations, the Chapter 13 trustee will put on the two-hour financial management class and both parties can take it at typically the same time that they do their 341 meeting of creditors. 

Once again, both parties must submit to the financial management class in a joint case.  You cannot have one party taken for the other.  They both have to take it either together or separately, but they both must be issued a certificate stating that they have completed the two-hour financial management class.  Your attorney will then take that two-hour financial management class along with Form 23 and file it with the clerk of the United States Bankruptcy Court.  

Once your case has gone through to completion on either a Chapter 7 or a Chapter 13 and you have taken the two-hour financial management class, the clerk will issue a discharge order which is a one-page document stating that your case has gone through to completion.  If you fail to take the two-hour financial management class, then your case will close without a discharge.  Closing without a discharge means that you just wasted all of your time in a Chapter 7 because those debts have not been eliminated.  You will be required to either refile or bring a motion to reopen so that you are able to file the two-hour financial management class certificate. 

In a Chapter 13, you might not want to a discharge, depending on your particular case and what has happened post-petition.  However, if you have completed all of your plan payments and you are hoping that will be the end of your case, then you definitely want to take the two-hour financial management class and make sure that your attorney has that filed with the clerk of the court so that you are issued a discharge order in the ordinary course.