Well, I need to share my 341 experience. For those who know my story a bit, my husband got a new job right after we filed for bk so we moved from Chicago to Denver last month.
We had to fly back yesterday for the 341. Our plane left Den at 9am set to arrive in Chicago at noon, giving us 3.5 hours before our 3:30 meeting. I thought everything was going smoothly until we heard the captain come on and say there was a "small visibility issue" so we would circle for about 15 minutes. That turned into 30, then finally they said they were running out of fuel and we would need to go to Milwaukee and refuel! When we landed at Milwaukee my husband called the trustee's secretary and let her know what was happening. She told him that he would probably be there until 4pm and that we would just need to explain what happened and hew would probably be understanding.
She said if his 341's got done early he would be gone early and that she had no way of getting in touch with him since it's a government building. I obviously did not want to be late, but at that point had resignmed myself to it. We did not arrive in Chicago until 3:30 and we literally ran as fast as we could through the airport to catch a cab!
We got to the building at 4:15, and of course it was a scyscraper that required us to use one elevator to the 30th floor and then transfer to another elevator! We ran into the room and it was deserted, so my heart sank. But then this trustee came around the corner and kept saying calm down, it's okay. If I wasn't so stressed it would have been so funny how he was talking to us like I talk to my 4 year old! He said "take a deep breath and come into my hearing room (a tiny little room with a desk). He said he was glad we called because he had been done since 3:50. He was SO nice. He put us under oath and asked if we had sold anything, given anyone anything, etc...
Then he asked about our address- we had our mailing at my parent's house in NM and our physical still at our old house in Chicago. We told him we had just moved and did not have permanent housing yet, that the new job was putting us up in a hotel until we found a place to live. He asked how long it had been since we lived in Illinois and we told him about 3 weeks.
At that point he said "okay that makes sense, did you get that Mr. SoandSo?" (can't remember his name). I turned around to see who he was talking to and saw some guy sitting in back of us. He said," I'm so and so, the US Trustee." I just about died right there! He said he got involved because of the address issue. I am so glad I didn't see him at first because I might not have been able to talk!
At that point he asked my husband who he was working for in Colorado (my husband is a basketball coach) and my husband told him, then he looked at our debt and said, it looks like you lived on your credit cards for a while right? I said yes, since my husband lost his job in July. He then asked who fired him and we told him the Bulls (our old team) and that got him very interested- He asked where he sat on the bench, why they were doing so bad this year, what was going on with certain players- he turned into a fan right during the meeting. I just kept thinking this is too weird!
He then looked at all our exemptions and asked me- "what on Earth does this stand for (it was one of the North Dakota exemption codes) I told him it was from North Dakota since we lived there before 2 years before filing. He looked at me and said "how on Earth did you figure that out as a lay person? That's amazing!" I told him about a thousand hours of research. Didn't mention bkforum was the source of 90% of my info on the chance he would come check it out
.
I made sure to tell him it was very difficult and if we weren't so broke I would have hired a lawyer because they are worth every penny!
We finished up in about 10 minutes and he said you guys better get going if you have a plane to catch, then gave us advice about which el train line to take!
Sooo... I hope that means everything is okay with the trustees on this one! I was in such a daze on the way home (by the way, got on that plane as they were boarding, so got lucky there too!)
If anyone is filing in Chicago feel free to ask any questions, I might be able to answer.
If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading!
We had to fly back yesterday for the 341. Our plane left Den at 9am set to arrive in Chicago at noon, giving us 3.5 hours before our 3:30 meeting. I thought everything was going smoothly until we heard the captain come on and say there was a "small visibility issue" so we would circle for about 15 minutes. That turned into 30, then finally they said they were running out of fuel and we would need to go to Milwaukee and refuel! When we landed at Milwaukee my husband called the trustee's secretary and let her know what was happening. She told him that he would probably be there until 4pm and that we would just need to explain what happened and hew would probably be understanding.
She said if his 341's got done early he would be gone early and that she had no way of getting in touch with him since it's a government building. I obviously did not want to be late, but at that point had resignmed myself to it. We did not arrive in Chicago until 3:30 and we literally ran as fast as we could through the airport to catch a cab!
We got to the building at 4:15, and of course it was a scyscraper that required us to use one elevator to the 30th floor and then transfer to another elevator! We ran into the room and it was deserted, so my heart sank. But then this trustee came around the corner and kept saying calm down, it's okay. If I wasn't so stressed it would have been so funny how he was talking to us like I talk to my 4 year old! He said "take a deep breath and come into my hearing room (a tiny little room with a desk). He said he was glad we called because he had been done since 3:50. He was SO nice. He put us under oath and asked if we had sold anything, given anyone anything, etc...
Then he asked about our address- we had our mailing at my parent's house in NM and our physical still at our old house in Chicago. We told him we had just moved and did not have permanent housing yet, that the new job was putting us up in a hotel until we found a place to live. He asked how long it had been since we lived in Illinois and we told him about 3 weeks.
At that point he said "okay that makes sense, did you get that Mr. SoandSo?" (can't remember his name). I turned around to see who he was talking to and saw some guy sitting in back of us. He said," I'm so and so, the US Trustee." I just about died right there! He said he got involved because of the address issue. I am so glad I didn't see him at first because I might not have been able to talk!
At that point he asked my husband who he was working for in Colorado (my husband is a basketball coach) and my husband told him, then he looked at our debt and said, it looks like you lived on your credit cards for a while right? I said yes, since my husband lost his job in July. He then asked who fired him and we told him the Bulls (our old team) and that got him very interested- He asked where he sat on the bench, why they were doing so bad this year, what was going on with certain players- he turned into a fan right during the meeting. I just kept thinking this is too weird!
He then looked at all our exemptions and asked me- "what on Earth does this stand for (it was one of the North Dakota exemption codes) I told him it was from North Dakota since we lived there before 2 years before filing. He looked at me and said "how on Earth did you figure that out as a lay person? That's amazing!" I told him about a thousand hours of research. Didn't mention bkforum was the source of 90% of my info on the chance he would come check it out
. I made sure to tell him it was very difficult and if we weren't so broke I would have hired a lawyer because they are worth every penny!
We finished up in about 10 minutes and he said you guys better get going if you have a plane to catch, then gave us advice about which el train line to take!
Sooo... I hope that means everything is okay with the trustees on this one! I was in such a daze on the way home (by the way, got on that plane as they were boarding, so got lucky there too!)
If anyone is filing in Chicago feel free to ask any questions, I might be able to answer.
If you've gotten this far, thanks for reading!
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