Just filed today (whew)

[ProSefromCA]

Hey everyone, I missed my goal of filing by June 20, but successfully filled pro se today!

Thanks so much to everyone for all the help!!! I would not have had the confidence to file with no lawyer without this forum and the Nolo.com book. I only had 1 paperwork deficiency - Notice of Available Chapters signature page which I need to bring in or just mail within 15 days. I downloaded all the forms direct from the court's website so I need to go back and check how I missed it!

341 meeting set for 8/2/07. I just have one more question now about the post filing education class. Do I need to take that before the meeting? Also, since my debts were primarily business and not consumer I didn't need to do the extra consumer financial forms B22A. Does anyone know if the last debtor education class is required for both consumer AND business debtors? I forgot to ask the court clerk when I was there, but he made everything seem so easy, like saying I didn't need my tax transcripts and bank statment copies which I had...

[SinkingFast]

The Clerk didn't need your taxes, bank statements, and pay advices, but the Trustee is gonna want them. When you check PACER about your case, be sure to note who your Trustee is. Then forward copies of all that stuff to the Trustee's office.

You can take all that stuff on the day of your 341, but it might cause your case to be continued. If you file the paperwork in advance with the Trustee, he/she'll have time to review it prior to the actual 341 Meeting Date.

The "Notice of Available Chapters" pages were referred to as the "Trustee's Information Sheet" in our Court here. And that was one of the Trustee's questions at our 341. Did we read "Trustee's Information Sheet"? Did we understand the various Chapters of BK available? And did we indeed sign the appropriate Signature page. Might be the same in your Court.

The "Post BK Debtor Ed" course is supposed to be taken within 45 days after your 341 Meeting. Some Courts, they don't care when you do it. Before or after the 341. Mainly, they're just interested in getting that Cert on file.

[ProSefromCA]

Thanks SinkingFast.

It's weird about the tax and bank paperwork because the clerk specifically said he didn't know why the trustee would request it. He told me I could just take it to the meeting, which I will definitely have it for that. He might have been a new clerk but didn't seem like it.

[SinkingFast]

Everyone at our 341 were represented by attnys. We were one of the last to go up to testify. The Trustee had like 2-3" thick "files" on everyone. There was a blank top sheet the Trustee had jotted notes on. Things he questioned each Filer about specific to their case.

Several people were surrendering their homes. A few surrendered cars. One guy had his own business. The Trustee had some questions for him about that.

When we got up to the desk, I saw the file was our taxes, bank statements, etc. The Trustee had a copy of our HUD1 statement from the sale of our house. When we chatted about our selling our truck to pay our taxes, our attny referred him to the copy of the "Bill of Sale" on the truck. Our attny had even included a copy of the receipt from when I sold my diamond jewelry.

EVERYTHING we'd given the attny was there. And it had all been submitted to the Trustee some time in advance of our 341.

[familyof7]

Same here the clerk did not want it but if you read the chapter 7 rules maybe different for your state it says to have the returns no less than 7 days befroe 341

[ProSefromCA]

Wow, that's quite a scary experience

I'm going to try and dig into my specific court's practices. I'll probably call the court clerk directly to ask. My case is really a simple no asset, broke income case. It should be a simple discharge, but I guess you never know. Maybe it's because I'm near such a big city being in Southern California and they get too many filings to focus on each or something. Even when I previously went to the court as the book suggested to get information on local filing format, the clerk showed me, from a distance, one a person had just left. It seemed so thin. I asked about things like hole punching and the petition "blue backing" that I read was needed, but none of that was necessary he said.

[familyof7]

Just call the trustee that was assigned to you once youknow who that is and ask what they require if they need the tax return or not even if they say no I would bring it to the 341 just in case

[JRScott]

Congrats on getting it filed

I'm sure things will work out you've been on top of it

It is likely the trustee's office will contact you wanting the additional info, you could just go ahead and contact them first. (The more info he has before the 341 the less likely he is to continue it )