Is there a way to find out of a trustee is "good" or more scrutinizing?

[twuoo]

I got the name of my trustee off of pacer. But I was just wonder if he was easy going or not and how I would find out, aside from my attorney.

[HHM]

Nope

Unless you want a $500+ PACER bill

[FreshLikeADaisy]

Heh, HHM is right.

I don't know what district you live in or what your courts are like, but in Florida both Orlando and Jacksonville have free PACER access at the courthouse. The downside is you have to pay parking and spend some time there, but the upside is that you can look at anything you like and click any page of any case without worrying about page charges. (Don't get prints; they're 50 cents a pop.)

The setup in Jacksonville is geared toward the Middle District of Florida, and I don't even know if I can look at other districts or states, but fortunately what I have is exactly what I need. You can call the bankruptcy clerk's office where you are and ask them if they have a place where you can look at case filings (that's PACER) and they'll tell you what you need to know.

If your courthouse has free PACER access, go down there and do a PACER search on your trustee name (I think you can; I remember seeing it but not in the main search page) and just start looking through the cases -- especially on the docket where it says anything about trustee comments or trustee decisions -- you'll get a good picture, I think.

(If you've never used PACER, take a few minutes to run through the tutorial links they have on the first page; it will save you time and make the clerks happy because they don't have to train you.)

But what will end up being far more valuable to you as you look through case after case is: how they are all filed, exactly what people are including in their schedules -- assets, exemptions, debts -- what cases are getting dismissed and why, which attorneys are better than others (good ones tend to have incredibly complete filings and very few dismissals or conversions compared to "bankruptcy mill" lawyers) and what attorney and debtor mistakes actually kill the most cases that are dismissed in your area. If you get all that understanding and tailor your filing accordingly, it will be hard to displease the trustee. Good luck!

[HHM]

In the end, you could look at 1000 cases and you could not figure out if your trustee is harder or easier. And frankly, the question is based on a false assumption that the outcome of a BK is based on the trustee's temperament. In the end, the court controls how cases turn out. Although trustees may push the limits in some areas where the "law" is uncertain, for the average BK case, who you get as a trustee hardly matters.

[FreshLikeADaisy]

...for the average BK case, who you get as a trustee hardly matters.

True enough, but when you have looked through twenty different trustees comments and trustee this and trustee that, plus the judge's decisions for your district (which are largely based on the trustee's findings) you definitely do get a sense of what your guy is looking for and what he doesn't like. For instance, I looked up several pro se cases just to see what the deal was, and while most had obvious defects, on some the trustee was generating deficiency notice after deficiency notice (not just about missing forms, but about the format of some of what had been filed), while on others more slack was definitely being given by other trustees.

So I don't know if that's "harder" or "easier", but you definitely do get a sense of their style when you go look at the cases, look at the dockets, and read the judge's opinions for that district.