Illinois Bankruptcy Attorney On When And How To Contact Your Chapter...

The answer is you typically will not have to contact the Chapter 13, expect on rare occasions.  For example, all the correspondence that we have with the Chapter 13 trustee is going to come through our office.  We are going to file the petition.  The notice will go to you and to the Chapter 13 trustee directly from the Clerk of the Court, and we will send you a second notice.  You will get several letters from the Chapter 13 trustee that pertain to policies concerning where to make payments, how to contact their office and such.  However, most correspondence that you have during your Chapter 13 case is going to be made through my law office and not directly with the Chapter 13 trustee.  That’s why you hired us to represent you.  We will communicate directly with the Chapter 13 trustee on your behalf and advise you every step of the way as to what’s happening with your case. 

Oftentimes you’ll appear before the Chapter 13 trustee only once, and that’s at your meeting of creditors under Section 341 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.  Provided the trustee is not seeking additional information to back up anything in your petition and schedules, then you likely will not have any further communication with the trustee until your case is either dismissed or discharged.  What I mean by that is if you fall behind while your Chapter 13 is pending then you will be responsible for making the payment to get caught up.  Otherwise, your case may be dismissed.  If you are perfect with your payments and you don’t miss throughout your case, then the only correspondence you’re typically going to get from your Chapter 13 trustee is that of a final discharge, which means your case is over. 

If you need to contact the Chapter 13 trustee for any reason, it might be to determine whether or not you are current on your plan payments, how much your creditors have been paid, how much is left to go on your plan payment, and if in fact a creditor has filed a claim.  These are questions that a Chapter 13 trustee can answer, but typically we would prefer that you go through our law office and we will contact the trustee on your behalf.  There are certain things that we know in terms of terminology that will help to determine the answer to your question.  You may not be able to communicate that directly with the trustee as well as we can.  So let us represent you.  Let us communicate with the Chapter 13 trustee.  You just concentrate on making your Chapter 13 trustee payments, and if you’re on payroll control maintain that job because the key to a Chapter 13 case is timely payments over a long period of time.  The only way to do that is to have consistent income, whether it is from a job, Social Security, rental income, operation of a business.  Whatever your source of income is at the time your bankruptcy starts, you’ll want to maintain that income or increase it to ensure that you’re going to be able to make your Chapter 13 plan payments for the next 36 to 60 months. 

Chapter 13 is not a sprint.  It’s a marathon.  Three to five years is a long time period in which to pay back creditors.  You want to make sure that you’re doing the best you can to stay current so that the trustee doesn’t bring a trustee’s motion to dismiss. 

If the trustee is successful on a trustee’s motion to dismiss, creditors will be free to contact you again.  They will have to credit you the amount that you paid them while you were in the 13.  However, they can pick up right where they left off with either a foreclosure case or a repossession case or a garnishment or a lawsuit or a bank seizure.  So be very careful when you’re in a Chapter 13 to maintain your current trustee payments.  That’s probably the most important thing you can do in a Chapter 13.

 Now if you know you’re going to be falling behind on your Chapter 13 payments, I as your attorney may be able to do certain things for you.  For example, I may be able to bring a motion to suspend trustee payments or abate the trustee payments while you’re going through some sort of issue.  It could be a job loss.  It could be an illness.  It could be a number of reasons why you were not able to make your trustee payment, and if we can catch it in time we can bring a motion to abate or suspend those payments. 

Another important thing that we can do for you as your attorney is we can bring a motion to defer the default.  By that I mean if you fell behind two to three months with your Chapter 13 trustee payments and the trustee brings a trustee motion to dismiss, we can bring a similar motion whereby we ask that the part that you fell behind gets put at the end of the plan, which is the arrearage, deferring the default to the back.  If we’re successful in doing that, you will not have your case dismissed.  The part that you fell behind will be paid off at the end of your case and you’ll have an opportunity to basically start fresh even though you have fallen behind for several payments.  So definitely communicate directly with the law firm on important things affecting your case.  Do not attempt to communicate directly with the Chapter 13 trustee.  You’re going to find a lot more favor with our office, and you’re going to find a lot more compassion with our office than you will with the Chapter 13 trustee.
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