How Did It Go In Cali

[CANTDOIT]

Hello Just Wanted To Know About Peoples Cases In Southern California. (did Everything Go Smoothly,what Problems You Faced,how Was Your Trustee Etc Etc )

[PaKettle]

Here's a couple threads you can check out:

http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.php?t=19847

http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.php?t=19820

Basically our 341 was a bit "harrier" than most because our attorney screwed up and put down on our petition that our debt was over $100k even though it was under $100k. It seems to be somewhat standard practice for the US Trustee (not just the regular trustee) to get involved when the debt is over $100k.

By "get involved", I mean that they will question you, probably in search of hidden assets or just to figure out how you accumulated over $100k in debt (I'm talking no asset cases, here; obviously if you have a home they are going to expect the debt to be more than $100k).

So the UST got involved in our case, came up to our table during our 341 to ask questions. But when I - at the beginning of our meeting - said "Well, first of all I'd like to point out a mistake on our petition: Our attorney checked the box that says we owe over $100k but in fact we owe less than $100k...", I saw the UST give a look like "Oh! So I don't really need to look into this after all!", and so he asked a couple really simple questions and that was that. We were nervous they might pry into why we spent so much money which could be embarrassing to answer ("well, we just spent too much!") (though actually we did have dental and medical expenses to show)... But that was not to be the case.

After the 341 our substitute attorney (our's was sick and did not come to the 341) said that the UST was not going to investigate our case, after all!

Most people's cases went very easily and quickly that day EXCEPT for a few people who didn't even speak English and had obviously acquired credit through false applications, more than one social security number, etc... And one woman who had like half a million $ in assets but was claiming they were actually now in the name of her divorced husband but the trustee didn't seem to believe it, kept questioning her about stuff...

But most people were just up there for 3 minutes, answering standard questions only, and that was that.

Our attorney made about 5 mistakes on our petition and although I asked him to show me the 341 before he submitted it he encouraged me to sign the papers before they were filled out and then he submitted them without showing them to me, and I didn't find out they were wrong until I downloaded them from Pacer the day before the 341 and the attorney was incommunicado with a bad virus/cold. So I had to tell the Trustee about the mistakeks on the petition the next day and we had to amend the petition, which was no big deal really but I had to make an extra trip across town to my attorney's office to do so.

The only other bad thing - and this was a Big One - was that instead of our case being dismissed within 10 days after our last day for objections, it took an extra 30 days before we got Discharge notice on Pacer. This was just administrative slowness, not because we were being investigated or anything. I think most L.A. cases take that long to get discharged now.

Other than that, I'd say it's pretty easy here. I think there are so many cases that unless your's is VERY messy, they are likely not to question it much because they have plenty of messy-er cases to question!

Our case was very straightforward, no assets, no complications, so it went very smoothly except for the above b.s. caused by our sloppy attorney.

[CANTDOIT]

Thanks Good Explanations Really Appreciate Any Info

[qwertysue]

Quite honestly, you can ask 1000 people and get 1000 different answers. There is not going to be one answer and predicting YOUR outcome by someone else's experience is impossible. There are hundreds of filers, hundreds of unique circumstances, pro se filers who think it will be easy and don't prepare, pro se filers who have studied BK for ages and know the ins and outs, lawyers who are top notch, lawyers who are worthless, filers who aren't completely honest, filers who are diligent.

It'd be like asking a group of High School students how they did on a test to try to figure out how you're going to do. Ask a kid who never studied and didn't put much effort into it, he's gonna say the test was hard. Ask a kid who studied and paid attention, they are going to say it was easy. Ask a kid who kind of listened and studied, they will say it was okay.

[CANTDOIT]

Ok

[PaKettle]

If your case is pretty much cut and dry - no assets, no messy divorce, no recent purchases or cash transfers then you can bet it will go smooth as silk!

The only difference is if you are in a big city, then, in my opinion, you probably have less chance of close scrutiny by the Trustee because they are very busy and are going to pick the ones with likely hidden assets to investigate (over $100k debt, home owners or former home owners, large 401k, etc...)