My 341 Yesterday (LONG)
Hello Everyone,
As I promised yesterday, here is an account of my 341 experience yesterday. In short, it was much easier than I expected.
GETTING THERE:
Our meeting was at 11:30am. We brought our 1yr old to my parents to babysit, and left extra early. We wanted to listen in on it for a while. We got lost (I hate driving in Providence), and eventually we found some parking. We made it up to the room around 10am. The lesson: leave early. Maybe even make a run there the day before just to be sure.
THE WAIT:
We were up on the ninth floor. There was a small waiting room with about 8 chairs. We were the only ones in that room, along with another attorney who was waiting for someone. The next room over (with the door open) was the hearing room. The room had about 20 chairs and the trustee desk at the front.
We hung out in the waiting room for a while, just listening. The trustee spoke very fast, and the first few people did seem to take a while. Around 10:30am, I got back from the restroom to find a blonde woman talking to my wife. The woman seemed like she was on substantial quantities of drugs (and not the good-for-you kind). She was going on and on about how she and a friend did the paper work themselves and that they saved tons of money (more on this later). She was quite loud. Then she started popping some pills in the waiting room. To save ourselves from her, I suggested to my wife that we go into the hearing room.
ONE HOUR TO GO:
We sat in the back row, and listened in. At the beginning of every half-hour, she would say who she was, what she does, and do a roll-call for the filers for the next half hour. Most people were in and out very quickly (maybe three minutes). The above-mentioned blonde woman was continued because she left half of the paper work blank (including her exemptions!).
Surprisingly, a good 60% of the people there had filed for bankruptcy previously. Many of them just six/seven years ago.
One young woman started to cry a bit even before the questions were asked. The trustee (Stacy Ferrarra, RI) was very nice (to everybody) and said that she didn't do too well when people started crying and offered her a few minutes.
There was a wealthy couple in there (who happened to be represented by our attorney) who were barely asked much more than a few questions, despite the house, Lexus, and (I kid you not) she was wearing what appeared to be a fur coat.
In the half hour before us, there was one older couple whose attorney did not show up. Both seemed to be disabled, and the woman started to cry as they left the desk (the trustee stated that they cannot waive their right to counsel unless their counsel withdraws). She told them to have a seat while she called their attorney (right in front of us). In the end, the attorney's office flat out stated that he wasn't coming.
At this point, the couple left the room in tears, and our Attorney (who also is a C13 trustee) went out after them. He worked it out with the trustee to get a few minutes to look over their paper work, and assisted them for free. It was a very nice thing for him to do.
HERE IT GOES:
So, we are next to be called up. Here is what we got (along with most people):
1. Asked for phone number
2. Asked for DL and SS cards.
3. Did we review the statement outside
4. Is this our signature
5. Did we both review everything that we signed.
6. Briefly read off an abbreviated schedB. Asked if that was everything
7. Asked if we had filed previously (no)
8. Did we ever own property (no)
9. Are we related to the owner of the property we live in (yes, aunt)
10. Confirmed our rent payment
11. Asked if anyone owes us money (yes, my old boss owes 11k, which is uncollectable) and some details.
12. Asked about any personal injury claims (yes, under 1k for a car accident)
13. Asked about the number of children (just 1)
14. Asked if we had any other sources of income (no)
15. Asked about any inheritances that may be coming up. (no)
16. Did you make any payments or transfer assets to relatives in the last four years. (no)
17. Told us we were free to go
Took about four minutes at best.
Nobody was told at the conclusion of their meeting whether or not it was a no-asset case. I'm still waiting on pacer, but I will probably have to wait until Monday.
WHAT WASN'T ASKED:
There was a lot of stuff that I was almost certain was going to be asked, but wasn't.
1. I'm self employed as a software developer. No questions whatsoever about this.
2. I had to guestimate my yearly tax debt (my income varies greatly month to month). No questions of current or back taxes.
3. No metion of our car, or the reaffirmation agreement (which our attorney doesn't think is in our best interest)
4. No questions about almost 5k we had in our bank accounts.
5. No questions about why we filed, or how we got there. For some people that did have very large amounts of cc debt, this question was asked, but not for us.
6. No questions about the nature of our employment, if anything had changed, if we were expecting raises, etc.
7. No questions about our assets and how we valued them
8. No questions about our expenses (other than rent). Even though we felt our expenses were high (though justifiable).
SURPRISES:
1. Most of the people there had filed more than once.
2. In 1.5 hours of questioning, across a variety of cirumstances, the questioning did not change much.
3. Trustee was very interested in if relatives owned the property in which they live, and if you were ever on the title.
4. Trustee did very little digging, and was very polite, and even cracked a few jokes.
5. No questions about upcoming tax returns/refunds.
CONCERNS:
1. At one point, the trustee did seem to make a few funny faces when reviewing our paperwork. Did not say anything though. Our attorney seems to think it went well.
2. No update on pacer yet.
THE END
Well, that is it. I guess it is now just sixty days of waiting. I hope this will help some of you that might be wondering what is coming up (particulary those of you here in RI).
Thanks to all who answered my questions in the last two months or so.
As I promised yesterday, here is an account of my 341 experience yesterday. In short, it was much easier than I expected.
GETTING THERE:
Our meeting was at 11:30am. We brought our 1yr old to my parents to babysit, and left extra early. We wanted to listen in on it for a while. We got lost (I hate driving in Providence), and eventually we found some parking. We made it up to the room around 10am. The lesson: leave early. Maybe even make a run there the day before just to be sure.
THE WAIT:
We were up on the ninth floor. There was a small waiting room with about 8 chairs. We were the only ones in that room, along with another attorney who was waiting for someone. The next room over (with the door open) was the hearing room. The room had about 20 chairs and the trustee desk at the front.
We hung out in the waiting room for a while, just listening. The trustee spoke very fast, and the first few people did seem to take a while. Around 10:30am, I got back from the restroom to find a blonde woman talking to my wife. The woman seemed like she was on substantial quantities of drugs (and not the good-for-you kind). She was going on and on about how she and a friend did the paper work themselves and that they saved tons of money (more on this later). She was quite loud. Then she started popping some pills in the waiting room. To save ourselves from her, I suggested to my wife that we go into the hearing room.
ONE HOUR TO GO:
We sat in the back row, and listened in. At the beginning of every half-hour, she would say who she was, what she does, and do a roll-call for the filers for the next half hour. Most people were in and out very quickly (maybe three minutes). The above-mentioned blonde woman was continued because she left half of the paper work blank (including her exemptions!).
Surprisingly, a good 60% of the people there had filed for bankruptcy previously. Many of them just six/seven years ago.
One young woman started to cry a bit even before the questions were asked. The trustee (Stacy Ferrarra, RI) was very nice (to everybody) and said that she didn't do too well when people started crying and offered her a few minutes.
There was a wealthy couple in there (who happened to be represented by our attorney) who were barely asked much more than a few questions, despite the house, Lexus, and (I kid you not) she was wearing what appeared to be a fur coat.
In the half hour before us, there was one older couple whose attorney did not show up. Both seemed to be disabled, and the woman started to cry as they left the desk (the trustee stated that they cannot waive their right to counsel unless their counsel withdraws). She told them to have a seat while she called their attorney (right in front of us). In the end, the attorney's office flat out stated that he wasn't coming.
At this point, the couple left the room in tears, and our Attorney (who also is a C13 trustee) went out after them. He worked it out with the trustee to get a few minutes to look over their paper work, and assisted them for free. It was a very nice thing for him to do.
HERE IT GOES:
So, we are next to be called up. Here is what we got (along with most people):
1. Asked for phone number
2. Asked for DL and SS cards.
3. Did we review the statement outside
4. Is this our signature
5. Did we both review everything that we signed.
6. Briefly read off an abbreviated schedB. Asked if that was everything
7. Asked if we had filed previously (no)
8. Did we ever own property (no)
9. Are we related to the owner of the property we live in (yes, aunt)
10. Confirmed our rent payment
11. Asked if anyone owes us money (yes, my old boss owes 11k, which is uncollectable) and some details.
12. Asked about any personal injury claims (yes, under 1k for a car accident)
13. Asked about the number of children (just 1)
14. Asked if we had any other sources of income (no)
15. Asked about any inheritances that may be coming up. (no)
16. Did you make any payments or transfer assets to relatives in the last four years. (no)
17. Told us we were free to go
Took about four minutes at best.
Nobody was told at the conclusion of their meeting whether or not it was a no-asset case. I'm still waiting on pacer, but I will probably have to wait until Monday.
WHAT WASN'T ASKED:
There was a lot of stuff that I was almost certain was going to be asked, but wasn't.
1. I'm self employed as a software developer. No questions whatsoever about this.
2. I had to guestimate my yearly tax debt (my income varies greatly month to month). No questions of current or back taxes.
3. No metion of our car, or the reaffirmation agreement (which our attorney doesn't think is in our best interest)
4. No questions about almost 5k we had in our bank accounts.
5. No questions about why we filed, or how we got there. For some people that did have very large amounts of cc debt, this question was asked, but not for us.
6. No questions about the nature of our employment, if anything had changed, if we were expecting raises, etc.
7. No questions about our assets and how we valued them
8. No questions about our expenses (other than rent). Even though we felt our expenses were high (though justifiable).
SURPRISES:
1. Most of the people there had filed more than once.
2. In 1.5 hours of questioning, across a variety of cirumstances, the questioning did not change much.
3. Trustee was very interested in if relatives owned the property in which they live, and if you were ever on the title.
4. Trustee did very little digging, and was very polite, and even cracked a few jokes.
5. No questions about upcoming tax returns/refunds.
CONCERNS:
1. At one point, the trustee did seem to make a few funny faces when reviewing our paperwork. Did not say anything though. Our attorney seems to think it went well.
2. No update on pacer yet.
THE END
Well, that is it. I guess it is now just sixty days of waiting. I hope this will help some of you that might be wondering what is coming up (particulary those of you here in RI).
Thanks to all who answered my questions in the last two months or so.
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