Des Plaines Bankruptcy Attorney On Joint Filings & Signatures

Des Plaines bankruptcy attorney states that if you are filing a joint bankruptcy case which means you and your spouse are each a petitioner in the case, then each of you must sign all of the documents under oath and abide by the information that is contained in those documents.  Each of you will also have to take a credit counseling session and each of you will also have to take a two-hour financial management class prior to receiving a discharge.  Simply because you are married doesn’t mean that one spouse can sign for the other.  In fact, you can’t even necessarily give a power of attorney in a bankruptcy case because many judges will insist on guardianship instead of power of attorney. 

So, you also want to make sure that the information that you and your spouse are providing is true and accurate because that information is going to form the basis of your bankruptcy petition.  Your attorney will take the information that you have provided and prepare a bankruptcy petition which can be anywhere from 30 to 60 pages long depending on the number of creditors you have and the type of assets you have.  Your attorney will then send you these documents for your signature and review and you must make sure that it’s accurate. 

You can be denied a discharge or face other penalties if the information in your petition that you signed under all penalties of perjury is in accurate.  For example, you do not want to leave out any personal property.  You do not want to leave out any real estate.  You do not want to fail to disclose any other item that could be an asset of your bankruptcy estate.  You also want to list all of the people that you owe money to, not leaving any single creditor out. 

When you appear at your bankruptcy meeting, the trustee who is appointed by the US government to look over your case is going to ask you under oath, under penalty of perjury whether or not you signed the documents and whether the information contained within those documents are true and accurate.  You want to be able to answer honestly that you provided all the information to your attorney and the information that you provided has been put into your bankruptcy petition and that it is accurate and it actually lists your current financial affairs as well as your liabilities.