Chapter 13 Process Depicted By Palatine Bankruptcy Attorney

The prefiling requirements for Chapter 13 are much like Chapter 7 in that you must submit to a credit counseling session prior to filing states Palatine bankruptcy attorney.  You must provide four years of federal tax returns and you must provide two months’ worth of pay advices prior to filing.  

After your Chapter 13 bankruptcy case is filed, there is a meeting of creditors approximately 4 weeks after filing in front of a Chapter 13 panel trustee.  The Chapter 13 panel trustee wants to make sure that you are putting all of your disposable income disposable income towards your Chapter 13 payment plan.  The Chapter 13 trustee is going to examine your income and your expenses.  He is going to ask you a series of yes/no questions under oath and he is going to make sure that all of the information in your schedules is true and accurate to the best of your ability. 

Creditors will have an opportunity to object to your plan and seek a greater amount through the plan or a greater treatment of their claim through the plan.  Your Chapter 13 attorney will help amend the plan when necessary to either address creditors’ concerns or address the trustee’s concerns.  In many cases, the trustee wants minor amendments to the document such as additional information about an asset or additional clarification about a creditor.  This can be done simply by your Chapter 13 attorney and you do not have to worry about making those amendments on your own. 

If everything goes smoothly on your case, at the end of 3 to 5 years, you will receive a Discharge in Bankruptcy.  A Discharge is a final document that is sent by the clerk of the US Bankruptcy Court to you, your attorney and to all of your creditors.  You want to make sure that you hang on to that document just in case any creditor tries to collect on a discharged debt in the future.  If this were to happen, you can notify your attorney or you can simply photocopy your discharge letter and send it to that creditor.  

Believe me; a creditor does not want to be collecting on a discharged debt once you have been through a bankruptcy.  In my experience, once the creditor becomes aware of your bankruptcy, they will cease all collection efforts.  If they do not cease collection efforts, you can contact your attorney who knows the proper remedy to either notify them or seek a sanctioned back in the bankruptcy court or bring a separate lawsuit under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the bankruptcy injunction laws.