341 hearing is this tuesday and i have so many ??'s

[blaze]

My attny has turned out to be a real jerk and takes very little time to answer questions and acts like we are idoits every time we ask - I think he knows what he is doing but he has terrible people skills - doesn't matter now - but I still am so scared and feel so unprepared. He has filed our pay advices and our '06 taxes - other than that he says we do not need to bring ANYTHING to the meeting on Tuesday - that they may or may bot ask for bank statements etc. -if they ask we dont have to have them then. This does not sound right to me - but maybe. I think I will bring all the stuff I have anyway b/c if they ask for something I don't want to slow this down any by not having somehting. Another thing I am freaking out over is this - After we filed I got a part time job b/c we quickly realized the budget/expense list we filed left out unexpected expenses like insurance deductibles for surgery that my son will have next month - yearly car tax etc. - I am making maybe 70$ a week - I had not idea when we filed that I would do this (so I cn say I didn't anticipate any increase in income) - I will make maybe 5K in a whole year - I did not think this would be a problem - We were below the median income for our state with my husbands income - Anyway - my attny acts like I am a dumbass for doing this and says IF they ask questions (like am I employed) I will have to say yes and this could cause problems. Should I be worried? Any income I make will be so small and cover unexpected expenses - Do you think they wil ask if anything has changed since we filed - I thought with a BK they were looking at the 6 mo. leading up to filing and wha tyou did after really did not matter unless it was a major change. And now the attny says he may not be there but he'll have another anny there if he is not. I am so mad and so scared!

[HHM]

Its normal for you to feel this anxiety and no matter how many people tell you the 341 is normally breeze, until you go through it, you will continue to fret. Your attorney does these meetings multiple times a week, I don't care how empathetic a person is, it is hard for the attorney to relate because 341's really are not that big a deal.

Having said that, most 341's are very fast (at least the actual time you spend talking with the trustee), about 5 minutes. Everything your attorney has told you is basically accurate. And based on what you have shared, I doubt you have anything to worry about. As for having documents etc, your attorney is correct, if you don't happen to have a copy of requested documets, you will be given some time to get them (usually 2 weeks). If your worried, just bring COPIES of 6 months worth of bank statements with you.

Generally, a person should be prepared with 6 months worth of bank statements (including the month that you filed BK), the most recent 2 years of tax returns, 2 months of pay stubs (up to the date you filed), your drivers license, and social security card.

There really is not much you can do to prepare for a 341...at the very least, I would look over your petition before you attend the 341 to re-familiarize yourself with what is in there. Other than that, if you know your name, your address and SS# and can pronounce the word 'yes' and 'no', you are ready for your 341 meeting

[rfassett]

There really is not much you can do to prepare for a 341...at the very least, I would look over your petition before you attend the 341 to re-familiarize yourself with what is in there. Other than that, if you know your name, your address and SS# and can pronounce the word 'yes' and 'no', you are ready for your 341 meeting

Ha ha ha, HHM! You make it sound so simple! Come to think about it, though, you are absolutely right - again!!!!

[MajorMike]

341 is the easiest part of the WHOLE ENTIRE process, if you ask me. It was our favorite part. It took 5 mins. All they asked us for was driver's license and Soc Sec card....and 2 questions...done.

[PaKettle]

Sorry to hear your attorney is being a jerk. Many are like this - very open and friendly until you pay them and then they don't want have anything to do with you.

Your attorney is right, though, that there is nothing to "prepare for" at the 341, you just have to verify your identification and verify that what it says on your petition is accurate (i.e. that you looked over it and are sure it's the Truth), and they will ask if you own any property or have transferred any property recently, etc.. That's about it. Nothing to worry about unless you have some kind of "issues", something out of the ordinary.

Do check your petition before you go to your 341, look it over closely. I found 5 mistakes on our's. It didn't kill us but DID cause the US Trustee to sit in on our case, which was stressful to us.

As to the part time job, does it put you over the median? If so, it could screw up your Ch. 7... I hope that the trustee does not ask. If he doesn't specifically ask, do not specifically answer. There is a good chance the trustee will not ask that question. Good luck!

[blaze]

thanks - i feel a little more calm - no my income would not put us over the median - hopefully they will not ask. my other big issue i am worried about is reaffirming our car - i do not think we should but our attny told us "if you want to keep the car you reaffirm no matter what it is that simple" we have negative 4K equity - but he says even if we are current if we file bk and do not reaffirm they can come take the car at any time. my husband uses his car to travel out of town every week for work - he HAS to do that - and I have kids to take to school etc. and cant be without a car - so if the car got repo'd we'd only have our van (which is paid for and we are keeping with exemptions) - we could not go out and buy a car immediatly esp. right after filing - so if there is a risk of them repoing them we will have to try to reaffirm I guess and hope we don't wreck the car and get left with a gap in the loan and insurance money we'd get. i really appreciate you all letting me know that what my attny has said is in line - i will stop worrying so much i guess. he says our case is pretty straightforward - even though we are listing creditors from my husbands company (an LLC but people are now trying to sue him in civil suits so the attny jsut said list them all) and we have an issue with property that my mom in law bought and put my DH name on the deed to it so techincally he owns one third of it - But we have records showing that SHE paid cash in full for it and it is undevelped property that would be hard to sell - his 1/3 is worth mayeb 20K which is a lot - our attny says it's a gamble but most liekly the trustee willleave it alone. anyway - thanks for your help everyone

[HHM]

Uggg, you have some issues..

1. Your husband is self employed?...that means not only will you need personal records, he needs to be prepared with business records (the US trustee is likely going to want them), (business tax returns for at least 2 years, business bank statements for at least 2 years).

2. This deed issue with the mother-in-law is a potential disaster in the making. Is there any equity in the property? If the property is fully encumbered, you are probably ok, but if there is any equity in the property, you need an exemption cover that equity.

3.

he says even if we are current if we file bk and do not reaffirm they can come take the car at any time.

That statement bothers me because generally that is not the case. If I were you, I would actually drill your attorney a little to explain his comment. Unless there has actually been an attempted repo based on failure to reaffirm that got up held by a court, lenders still need an actual default in payment to go forward with a repo. When the new law passed, everyone feared that lenders would be repo'ing left and right because reaffirmations were supposed to be harder to do...the practical reality is, the lenders want your payment, not your car.

Notwithstanding those issues, the 341, itself, will probably go smoothly, but with the issues you have shared, I am little concerned that your BK won't go very smoothly. You'll get your discharge, but it may take a little longer than usual and you may hve to jump through some hoops with the US trustee.

[blaze]

1-He was self emplyed for about 2 years - Since october of last year he has been emplyed at a regular salaried job. We have our tax returns for the last 3 years ready to hand over if they ask and it includes the business and everything - so I am not too worried about that - Ijust hope they don't have a probelm discharging debt related to the business - the business is not longer operating but our attny aadvised us not to dissolve it right before we filed so we have left it. No income has been generated by it in over a year.
2-The property (undeveloped lot in a neighborhood) is paid in full - she paid 50K in cash when she bought it. It is worth about that now with the real estate market being what it is. Then she later put his and his brothers name on it. We know it could go either way but we and our attny are hoping that the trustee will not pursue it due to the fact that to get any money out of it it it would have to be put on the market with an agent - who'd then have to be paid commision and then the profit would be split 3 ways - it would be a drop in the bucket as the debt we are discharging (wehope) is around 150K. My mom in law wishes she had not put his nam eon there obviously but she says she'll get her own attny and fight it like crazy if they try to make her sell it - could get messy. We don't have the exemptions to cover all of it b/c we are using them to cover our van we own. Our attny says the trustees have the discretion or power to not pursue it if they feel any money gotten out of making us sell it owuld be very little and not worth the fight with the primary owner. We'll see - We are all very worried but nothing we can do.
3-I am not going to win this fight with my husband - we are going to reaffirm the car depsite my objections. DH feels it is too big a risk.
I have gone over all our schedules on PACER with a fine tooth comb and it all looks in order except for a couple of little things that I will call attny about Monday - The house is listed in assets as H's property even though my name is on the deed - I don't know that that matters - the date on everthing has the right filed date - but not the date we actually signed all the paper work - not sure what that means or if it matters - the date we signed it all is about a month after the date he has - but that is when we started talking to him ....I'll just ask - and he did not list as reaffirming a loan - it is a business loan we secured with our house (dumb we know) - he says it will automaticlly be reaffirmed with the house reaffirmation? It is like a 2nd loan on the house I guess. I am a little worried that the bank will cancel that loan agreement at some point when they see the BK and that the business is no longer operating - it is techinically a business loan but acts as a home equity loan - but I'll just have to wait and see what happens - I know this go t long - thanks for the input

[HHM]

That is good news. Sounds like your attorney has prepared you for the potential pit falls.

1. That is no problem then.

2. At least your attorney prepared you for this eventuality. I am guessing this deed issue will get messy. If the trustee does not let the issue go, you will have 2 choices, (a) allow the trustee to sell the property (b) or somehow enter into a payment agreement with the trustee whereby you make payments in an amount equity to your husbands share.

3. Oh well. The only downside to a reaffirmation is if your finances continue to go south after BK. You are now on the hook for any deficiency balance in the event the car is repo'd.

[blaze]

yes our attny said they might try to make us pay the trustee our share of the equity and let us (her) keep the land - we could do that - she would pay it (we don't have it now) and eventually we'd pay her back off the record I guess.
I think we'll be OK with the car payments as long as he doesn't lose his job - he gets paid mileage which covers the payments and expenses.
this site and others like it are so great - instead of stressing and going nuts all weekend I am able to get feedback which at least makes me feel better.
I think you are right - given all our "stuff" I am prepared that this might be longer than usual and somewhat messy but eventually I think we'll be OK. W e may not get our discharge in 60 days and we may have to cough up more paper work but that's OK - we'll make it. Thanks again!

[stephanie4686]

As to bring the paperwork with you to the 341, I would def. do it as it can't hurt anything. My trustee could not find my paperwork and if I had my tax returns with me it sure would have helped.