Bankruptcy: 6th Appointment
The last step we talked about was the 341 hearing. It is dreaded for the debtors to go through. If you have done everything back here, and you qualify, and you have listed everything, and in the process your petition is clean and straight, and everything correctly noted and signed, the 341 hearing shouldn’t be a big deal. Be honest and tell the truth. Walk through those steps make sure you are working with an attorney who will actually go to the hearing themselves.
Work with somebody that’s credible and has done a good job for other people. Get a referral. The reason I say that is because lot of attorneys will do petitions in their office or have para-legal do the petition in their office. Then the reality is that they don’t even go to the hearing themselves. They simple pay a sort of traveling attorney a 100 bucks and have them show up to do the meeting of creditors. I would suggest that you want to clarify that the attorney is actually going to be there and that they are going do this for you. You don’t want to pay them at the initial consultation or along the way and then find out later on that they are going to head off to very inexperienced lawyer or somebody whom just don’t know to handle the process at the actual court house.
We are gonna just finish this up with this step here. The 341 hearing culminates after you know you have your filling date. Usually after the filling date means once that occurs 30 to 40 days, may be a little longer before between the filling date and the hearing. After the hearing, as long as everything goes right, usually within 2 to 4 months, you will get your letter of discharge. And you will be done.
Your letter of discharge is a little different than the case closed. Sometimes the case will be left open and but at some point the case will be closed and the process will be complete. I would say once you get your letter of discharge hang on to that don’t get rid of it. Obviously then your process completed. There are some steps as far as accountability and making sure that if things change drastically the court can obviously reach back into your life but your letter of discharge is a pretty significant step. It essentially notes that you are through the bankruptcy process. At that point, your case will be closed and you will be done with the process. Once in a while the case will remain an open they are thinking an assets will come.