Evanston Bankruptcy Attorney Describes When The Filing Is Official

According to Evanston bankruptcy attorney, you have not filed for bankruptcy officially until your case is filed electronically with the clerk of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court and a case number is issued on the spot.  You can hire my law firm or other law firms by making a minimum down payment and you can refer creditors to me.  However, you do not actually have the bankruptcy protection until such time that your bankruptcy case is filed with the court. 

I typically will not file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case for a client until all of my attorney’s fees are paid in full.  In addition, you must complete a credit counseling session; provide your most recent federal tax return as well as two months of paycheck stubs prior to your case being filed. 

Once you have all those things in order, I will file your case electronically through the Internet and the clerk of the US Bankruptcy Court will issue a case number, court date information and judge and trustee assignments.  If a creditor wants to pursue you, they can still pursue legal action up until the time you have actually filed with the court.  However, creditors cannot contact you by phone or by mail after you advise them that you have hired an attorney and the attorney is representing you. 

So your actual filing with the court is when the case number is issued and that is when you have actually filed for bankruptcy.  Anytime up to that, you are simply on a payment plan with your attorney, you have retained the services of an attorney and you can notify creditors about that attorney but you have not officially filed a bankruptcy case.  Don’t listen to creditors who tell you until you actually file, they can continue to contact you.  That is a clear violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and that creditor can be sued for up to $1000 per violation plus attorney’s fees.