Well, we had our pre-trial hearing in the judge's chambers this morning. We were there with the judge, our lawyer, and our Ch 13 trustee to try and reach a compromise on the trustee's two objections to our plan. One objection is about whether repaying my husband's retirement loans can be added to our current monthly retirement contributions (paying the loans back puts us over the 5% each allowed by our bk district); and the other is the mismatch between Schedule I and J which appears to show our monthly payment should be about $300/month higher than it currently is.
Meeting went very cordially - we were all gathered around a conference table in a small conference room, not in the courtroom itself. Our lawyer had prepared a brief and submitted it to the judge and our trustee earlier this week explaining our positions on both objections and citing case law to back everything up. Judge asked the trustee some questions, the trustee answered with his position, then our lawyer rebutted with our position. Lots of lawyer-ese and would have been impossible to follow if I hadn't been doing so much research for months about bankruptcy.
When all the legal discussions were over, the trustee has agreed that until further notice we will continue to pay our current monthly payment. Also we will become the test case in our bk district for the mismatch between Schedule I and J. The trustee wants to file a brief promoting their position that we should owe more - the judge gave them 20 days to do that, then our lawyer will have 10 days to respond. Our lawyer said not to hold our breath - this next phase is likely to take several more months at least before we get a court date. My husband and I did not have to say one word during the entire 15 minute meeting.
The one surprise of the meeting - as we were leaving, I said thank you to the trustee and the judge. The judge then said "Hope you have a good day" and "You have a very good lawyer." Wow....it was amazing to hear my own impression of our lawyer matched by the judge who will be hearing our case at some point in the future. Gives me confidence that our interests will be represented well in court no matter which way things go in the future.
For now we're still hanging out in limbo making our same monthly payments to the trustee....case still not confirmed but one step closer.
Meeting went very cordially - we were all gathered around a conference table in a small conference room, not in the courtroom itself. Our lawyer had prepared a brief and submitted it to the judge and our trustee earlier this week explaining our positions on both objections and citing case law to back everything up. Judge asked the trustee some questions, the trustee answered with his position, then our lawyer rebutted with our position. Lots of lawyer-ese and would have been impossible to follow if I hadn't been doing so much research for months about bankruptcy.
When all the legal discussions were over, the trustee has agreed that until further notice we will continue to pay our current monthly payment. Also we will become the test case in our bk district for the mismatch between Schedule I and J. The trustee wants to file a brief promoting their position that we should owe more - the judge gave them 20 days to do that, then our lawyer will have 10 days to respond. Our lawyer said not to hold our breath - this next phase is likely to take several more months at least before we get a court date. My husband and I did not have to say one word during the entire 15 minute meeting.
The one surprise of the meeting - as we were leaving, I said thank you to the trustee and the judge. The judge then said "Hope you have a good day" and "You have a very good lawyer." Wow....it was amazing to hear my own impression of our lawyer matched by the judge who will be hearing our case at some point in the future. Gives me confidence that our interests will be represented well in court no matter which way things go in the future.
For now we're still hanging out in limbo making our same monthly payments to the trustee....case still not confirmed but one step closer.
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