Opening a No-Asset Chapter 7 BK to add a creditor

[MsNeLaw]

I've had my discharge since 3/3/10. I recently received a letter from a "law firm" in Florida (debt was incurred in Nebraska) saying that I wasn't discharged because I failed to list them on my schedules.

There is a ton of case law out there and it goes both ways - you do have to reopen and amend your schedules to get a discharge on the debt OR any debt which was incurred prior to the discharge in a no-asset Chapter 7 is discharged whether it is listed or not.

I see this advocated both ways on so many sites. But I've also read case law (particularly in Illinois and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals) that says that reopening a no-asset Chapter 7 case is pointless because it doesn't address anything valid - the debt is either discharged or its not. Nothing you can do after the order is entered changes that.

I think what they're trying to do is relieve some of the BK courts from the burden of opening a case with no assets just to get some creditor off the debtor's back.

Any thoughts on this?

[wnguyen]

To the best of my knowledge, I think you may re-open your case (of course you will have to pay for filing fee and attorney fee AGAIN) to add this creditor for discharge of the debt. It's almost like filing for a new case, the only difference is that there would be no 341 hearing. Of course, this is only what I know and I'm not a lawyer. You should always consult with your attorney to explore your options. Best of luck.

[mekia2001]

I asked my atty about this as a 'just in case' type thing. He said if its a no asset ch7 then there's no need to do anything. If the debt was established before you filed then it would have been discharged anyway so re opening the case wouldn't change anything. But if the creditor is going to pursue this matter then you may have to take it a step further but hopefully you won't have to.

[MsNeLaw]

Thanks

Thanks for the responses. I think this is a junk debt collection agency trying to see if they can shake things up and get some money out of me. The letters I get are all from different attorney names, same addresses. When I Google the names, they're attorneys in Florida but none of the websites indicate that they're collection attorneys. I think it's some shady group pretending to be attorneys. The attorneys probably don't even know their names are being used!

This whole issue came up when I pulled my credit report and they had dinged me for this debt. I asked the credit reporting agency to remove it and this started the whole thing. They refused to pull the report and sent me a letter saying they were reviewing the case for pending litigation.

I sent them a letter with a copy of my discharge and told them I would sue. Let's hope this ends this whole thing!