Just as with everything involving the Government, there is the Bankruptcy Trustee and there is the Interim Bankruptcy Trustee. The U.S. Trustee is a full-time employee of the U.S. Department of Justice, which is the same federal department in charge of the FBI. The Interim Trustee is the person assigned to your case. He or [...]
June 2007
In my bankruptcy practice, I always recommend that my clients obtain copies of their credit reports. Why? After 20 years of representing debtors in my consumer bankruptcy practice I know that there is a good chance that my clients have one or more creditors they have forgotten about or quite possibly that they have never [...]
Probably not. Bankruptcy law allows you to discharge a student loan only if having to pay it will create an “undue hardship.” Unfortunately, that’s a pretty tough standard to overcome. Andy Miofsky wrote an excellent comment about student loans in Illinois and what “undue burden” means. As Andy noted, Illinois, like most of the country, [...]
A common request in most bankruptcy lawyer’s offices are for copies of the bankruptcy papers. There are several papers that are important to keep. The first of these is the actual bankruptcy petition. This document runs anywhere from 40 to 80 pages long depending on the number of your creditors and other details. The bankruptcy [...]
In Chapter 7 cases, getting the discharge is sometimes only part of the work that is done. In the rare “asset” cases there is another part, and it sometimes requires some assistance from you. The trustee who hears your case is obligated to collect any unprotected assets for liquidation (or recover any transfers) which might [...]
If you do not have enough money to pay all the bills, what do you make your priority? Before filing bankruptcy, it is usually a waste of money to pay unsecured debts like credit cards. Unsecured means no collateral, no property of yours pledged to insure that you will pay the debt. If your car [...]
