Necessary to keep old collections letters, litigation materials after bankruptcy?

[bcohen]

I have several shoe boxes full of old collections letters, credit card statements, and materials from my lawsuit by Gurstel Chargo, which ended with a judgment against me for $8500+. I filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in April of this year, and was discharged at the end of August. Is there any reason why I should keep all these documents, or can I safely toss them now? Of course, I will keep the bankruptcy papers, as well as the discharge letter which I received.

I live in a small apartment, so if I can get rid of this clutter, that would be great, but if I need to keep this stuff to prevent future collection efforts on the discharged debts, then I will keep it.

What did everyone else here do, keep the old collections letters, etc, or toss them?

[TXskyblue]

I kept my old collection notices, credit card bills with 20K balances, and various nastygrams from creditors. I put them all in a box and I labelled it "Box O' Shame" with a sharpie. When I think about spending money frivolously, I look at the box and think about what's inside.

It works for me.

[keepmine]

I'd keep all of the bk papers and junk the rest.

[AngelinaCat]

When we started planning on filing, we kept everything pertinent--including all of the mistakes we made. There were two lawsuits against us. One for the car that 'Hub co-signed for, and one from American General. We filed before the two culminated in judgments. I organized everything into a notebook by month and year. We don't really need to keep it, but I just do.

To try to answer your question directly: if there is any chance that something from those judgments *may* rear their ugly heads, I think I would keep the pertinent paperwork for the time being. After say five years, revisit the question. JMHO.

[professorkev]

I keep all my BK papers and paperwork prepping for it, the court summons and my responses and old paperwork on the CC in a box in the basement. Told my wife to burn it when I die. I'm keeping it just in case something tries to come back an haunt me.

[bcohen]

My main concern is if Discover tries to sell the discharged debt (which is apparently legal) to some other entity, which then tries to enforce the judgment, which I realize is not legal, but some companies will do unscrupulous stuff to make money. The other debts never resulted in judgments, so it's not clear that the other creditors or JDB's could do anything other than send dunning letters, which would be promptly protested.

[df04527]

I would scan them all and then shred.

[HHM]

Obviously, keep your BK paperwork. As df04527 suggests, scan an shred is a good idea.

As for non-bankruptcy related, probably keep a copy of the judgment, and maybe ONE letter from the various collection agencies so you have a record of the chain of who had the debt. But you don't need to keep everything. At least that way you have the information in case you ever need to refer back, but honestly, you will probably never look at it again. The main reason you want the history is to assist in cleaning up your credit report. To make sure everyone is reporting the BK properly and can see if something new pops up.

[Mayo]

You can print any form from your case on Pacer at any time. I shredded 100% of mine. I don't want anyone including my children digging through closets and running into old cc bills and judgements.