What to expect today at court?

[James H]

I had my 341 meeting last month and Have court today at 2pm

The Trustee did not confirm my plan but the lawyer does not seem too worried about it, (not sure if that is good or bad) I think they are just going to figure it out today if they have not already.

anyways, can you give me an idea of what court is like? Is it similar to a 341 meeting with everybody else that is filing? Do you have to get up in front of everybody and testify like you would in regular court?

sorry for the dumb question, I'm just really really nervous because I don't know what is going to happen and i'm not going in with a confirmed plan?

also, what happens if the judge says no to this plan? Do my lawyer and I go back and try to fix it or am I completely done and not able to file again?

[lrprn]

anyways, can you give me an idea of what court is like? Is it similar to a 341 meeting with everybody else that is filing? Do you have to get up in front of everybody and testify like you would in regular court?

I'm probably the poster girl here in the forum for what happens when your Ch 13 is not confirmed

Have you already had your confirmation meeting and that's when your plan was not confirmed?

If you've already had your confirmation meeting, then this court hearing is to thrash out what the objections are to your plan. Typically your trustee and lawyer have already been talking behind the scenes.

This meeting may be done in open court or behind the scenes in your judge's office or in a small meeting room. Your lawyer, your trustee, and the judge will be present. If your hearing takes place in open court, then there could be others there. Our hearing was done in a small meeting room at the courthouse - no others were there.

We were asked to give our names at the start and verify who we were. Then the lawyers and the judge did all the talking after that. We weren't even asked a question. We said thanks at the end and that was it.

Because we were such a good test case for two thorny Ch 13 issues, our trustee's two objections to our plan were not resolved at our initial hearing. Our lawyer and our trustee both filed briefs with the court to substantiate why each side interpreted the law the way they did. Then we waited....and waited....and waited some more making our payments the entire time.

Finally ten months later our judge decided our case was again not confirmed and set a second confirmation hearing three months later. We worked with our lawyer to submit a revised Ch 13 plan and this time we were confirmed!

Don't want to scare you.....our case is definitely *NOT* the norm! Yours will probably be resolved much more quickly. Hang in there, keep asking questions and keep touching base with your lawyer. He/she is the best resource for exactly what to expect in your case. If your lawyer isn't worried, then that's a good sign!

also, what happens if the judge says no to this plan? Do my lawyer and I go back and try to fix it or am I completely done and not able to file again?

Your lawyer will work with you to revise your plan and resubmit it to the court within the time frame given by the judge.

Your case is NOT dismissed - you are just caught temporarily in a stall point while the lawyer-to-lawyer negotiations grind slowly forward Hang in there - you'll do just fine! Just keep making your payments on time and realize that you have almost no control yourselves over this process. Might as well go with the flow, keep appraised of what your lawyer is doing, and let him/her do what you paid him/her for - we learned it's much less stressful that way. Keep us posted about what happens at your hearing, ok?

[James H]

Ok, well that is over (I think)

Went to court yesterday and I was the first person called up. My lawyer spoke with the trustee for about 30 seconds before everything started, then he came back to me and said "you can still pay $240 a month right?"

So when I got called up, my attorney said that we had agreed on the new figure. The judge asked the trustee if that was ok and if he had any other concerns. The trustee said that was fine and he had no other concerns. The judge then told my lawyer to have this written up in 10 days and then he wished me good luck.

It took all of about 60 seconds


I really really hope this is it, I just want to get on with making my payments and be done with this thing.


A few questions,

I put 5% of my payment into my 401K, it's not going to be a big deal if i stop that right? I may need this money to help make the payment. I'm also going to claim one on my taxes to reduce my refund and give me a little more money each week, that should not be a problem either right?


also, I had it written that I wanted to make payments on my own because of risk of job loss, this was never brought up.... Should I assume that i'm just going to continue to make the payments on my own?

one more thing, I own a boat and only owe $500 left on it. My lawyer said I needed to at least tell the court I was going to surrender it and to stop making payments but once I go to court I could work something out with the bank. Has anybody ever heard of something like this before? Do you think I should just catch up on my payments now? ($200)

I know the easy answer is "ask your lawyer" but trust me, it's not easy to get a hold of him.