Hello all; this board was of some help to me in answering a couple of questions I had recently, so I thought the least I could do is to let you know how my "Meeting of Creditors" went last week. First of all, mine was a very simple Chapter 7 no asset case, and with resources like the Nolo book and others I felt confident enough to file pro se, as I didn't think I'd run into any difficulties that I wouldn't be able to handle if they came up.
The meeting was not held at the courthouse, but in a smaller building across the street, and I suppose that there were about 50-60 people there, not including lawyers. I thought I'd get there early to get a feel for the kinds of questions that would be asked (though I had a pretty good idea already, just based on other's experiences). As each individual or couple were called to the front of the room before the trustee, they were asked to swear or affirm that everything was true in their petition, then asked if they wanted to make any changes to it, and finally, if any creditor present had an objection to a particular debt. No creditors at all showed up during the entire session.
Sometimes the trustee questioned the person and/or their lawyer about some particular item or other, but I don't think anyone's particular case took more than 5-7 minutes at the most. Finally, after more than an hour and a half, there were only a few of us left in the room and my name was called. I came prepared with all the documents I thought I needed, but he didn't ask to see any of them, not even a driver's license, SS card or any other form of I.D. , which, quite frankly, surprised me. He just went through those few questions, asked me if I was still unemployed, and that was it. I don't think that the entire process for me took more than 45 seconds.
Though as I've said, my case was pretty simple, just based on what I saw that day overall, I'm wondering if the case load of the average trustee is becoming so heavy these days that they really don't have the time to spend on each one as they might have previously- or did we just happen to get the right fellow who gave most of us a fairly easy going-over? Opinions?
The meeting was not held at the courthouse, but in a smaller building across the street, and I suppose that there were about 50-60 people there, not including lawyers. I thought I'd get there early to get a feel for the kinds of questions that would be asked (though I had a pretty good idea already, just based on other's experiences). As each individual or couple were called to the front of the room before the trustee, they were asked to swear or affirm that everything was true in their petition, then asked if they wanted to make any changes to it, and finally, if any creditor present had an objection to a particular debt. No creditors at all showed up during the entire session.
Sometimes the trustee questioned the person and/or their lawyer about some particular item or other, but I don't think anyone's particular case took more than 5-7 minutes at the most. Finally, after more than an hour and a half, there were only a few of us left in the room and my name was called. I came prepared with all the documents I thought I needed, but he didn't ask to see any of them, not even a driver's license, SS card or any other form of I.D. , which, quite frankly, surprised me. He just went through those few questions, asked me if I was still unemployed, and that was it. I don't think that the entire process for me took more than 45 seconds.
Though as I've said, my case was pretty simple, just based on what I saw that day overall, I'm wondering if the case load of the average trustee is becoming so heavy these days that they really don't have the time to spend on each one as they might have previously- or did we just happen to get the right fellow who gave most of us a fairly easy going-over? Opinions?
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