HUGE problem...

[Pennywise]

Everything was going great in my BK, 341 went smoothly, trustee reported no assets. Before I left to go out of town for the holidays I mailed my 3rd installment payment for the court fees. Because of the holidays it apparently did NOT get there by the due date, it got there the day after. I thought I had mailed it in enough time. Well I just got back home last night and checked PACER. It says my case has been dismissed! I am awaiting for the BK office to open today so I can call them and see what can be done. Anyone know what I can do from here? Do I have to pay another court fee to have it reopened? And then does it pick up where I left off or do I have to do everything over, ie. the 341 meeting ect.? Help!!

[Princesskina]

Sorry about your issue. That really sucks hopefully there understanding but if not yes u will have to pay the fee to re-open case.

[HHM]

Ahh crap. Sorry to hear that.

Before we offer any wild suggestions, let's wait and see what happens after you make some basic inquiries.

The people you probably want to speak to is the Clerk of Court as it sounds like this was an automated dismissal.

[Pennywise]

I talked to someone at the court this morning. I believe it was an automated dismissal. He told me that I can send a letter to the judge for a motion to reopen the case. He said that in this type of situation the judge always reopens IF if also send in another $220 filing fee! He did not offer any other choices. I thought about calling back this afternoon and talking to someone else. But I doubt that they will do anything. I mailed the fee several days before the due date. My guess is that there were several people already taking time off in the office and my payment didn't get posted, but what can I do??

[Princesskina]

I talked to someone at the court this morning. I believe it was an automated dismissal. He told me that I can send a letter to the judge for a motion to reopen the case. He said that in this type of situation the judge always reopens IF if also send in another $220 filing fee! He did not offer any other choices. I thought about calling back this afternoon and talking to someone else. But I doubt that they will do anything. I mailed the fee several days before the due date. My guess is that there were several people already taking time off in the office and my payment didn't get posted, but what can I do??

DONT GIVE UP!

Ask to speak someone else... Can u prove u sent it before hand?

U need to argue that I dont know what ur financial situation is but hello $220 is not like asking for a $50 fee its clothing money its a month worth of groceries money and CAR NOTE money.

[Pennywise]

If I do have to come up with the additional filing fee, I will have to wait a couple of weeks to reopen. Problem I am scared up by waiting is that CACV has suing me at the time I filed Ch. 7. A few days after I filed they got a judgement -which was illegal. But they took care of it right away after a nasty phone call from me. I am afraid they will motion for another judgement in the meantime. Hopefully they won't since it will only be 2 weeks until I reopen BK.

[HHM]

I would just try writing the letter (Motion to Reopen) to the judge anyway, even without payment. It probably won't be scheduled for a hearing for a few weeks anyway, giving you some time to scrape more money together. The longer you wait to file the Motion, the greater the chance they will require you to simply refile the entire case.

How many more payments did you have?

On a side note, isn't the filing fee for a Chapter 7, $299, (not $220).

[Pennywise]

Yes it is. But they told me to reopen would be $220 PLUS whatever I had left on the installment plan. I only have/had 1 more payment of $83 to make.