Gurnee Bankruptcy Attorney Often Hears, “What If I Don’t Have All My...

The truth is most debtors have all the information that they need to provide to their attorney or they can readily ascertain that information. For example, a lot of creditors throw out bills from creditors, and they throw out the collection activity and the donning letters; however, that information is accessible if they take the time to run their credit report.  

A debtor can receive all three of their credit reports for free, once per year, at www.annualcreditreport.com.  It’s amazing how many debtors do not take the time to pull each of their three credit bureaus for free, every year, especially in anticipation of filing a bankruptcy.  Provided you can provide all of your information regarding your debts to your attorney, then you have provided just about 95 percent of all the information that you need to provide.  The other information that you need to provide is your most recent Federal tax return for a Chapter 7 case, the most recent four years of tax returns if it’s a Chapter 13 case, and two months’ worth of pay check stubs; whether it be a 7 or a Chapter 13 case. 

So the information is readily ascertainable.  And often cases we’ll have a client who sought medical treatment from a certain facility, and will state that they don’t have a bill from that facility.  There’s no excuse these days for not being able to go onto the internet and look up the name and address of the medical provider.  Once you have the name and the address, all you really need is an estimate as to the dollar amount; you don’t need the exact amount for Chapter 7 or for Chapter 13. 

So, with a little research and a little homework and a little effort, you as a client can provide all the information that your attorney is requesting without much work on your part.