Had my 341 yesterday :-)
Greenbelt, MD.
Planned on leaving the house at 9:45, didn't hear the alarm, woke up at 9:53. Good thing I did, too, I would would have gotten there way too early - my docket was at 11:30 and getting there an hour ahead of time was more than enough.
The trustee was a very pleasant, smiley lady. And not the fake happy-smiley, genuinely pleasant demeanor.
Heard about 10 or so cases, she asked same questions of everyone, then called names for 11:30 docket, told me and another pro se person to fill out a form, a few more cases and then me. She 'explained' the official stuff (court can't provide me with an attorney, I'm expected to know ins and outs as an attorney would, 'I didn't know' is not acceptable, do I wish to postpone so I can get an attorney or do I wish to proceed?'). Got sworn in, identity verified and then same questions as everyone.
When she got to the car, it was a little sad/funny. Everyone before me had a 'nice' car - there was a 2005 Mercedes, a 2008 Lexus etc etc. I drive a 95 Honda. The way she said it was... you know, with a pause, like she couldn't believe her eyes - 'as for the vehicles, you own a.... 95 Honda?!'
(hey, it's paid for, it runs like a Honda, it's cheap to run and maintain and very forgiving when you flake out on maintenance :-)
She then asked for tax returns, I handed them to her, she handed them back. Didn't even look at them, said 'ok, I'll mark you've provided them'. I asked her if she wanted to keep them, adding I had copies (duh!), and she said no, she didn't want them.
Never asked for any bank accounts/statements (now I feel bad for all the trees I killed printing a year worth of empty account statements!).
Saw I was a teacher and asked me if I thought Maryland would be better than CA as far as finding a job... and before I could answer, she smiled and said 'It will be'. Reminded me to file my debtor education cert, and that was that.
All in all, a breeze. Too easy. I left there stressing that it had been way too easy, and why she didn't even look at my tax reports, or asked for my statements or anything... Then I laughed at myself - I had really tried not to stress too much about 341 (having read everyone's 341 posts here), and then when it was over, I started stressing.
Obsessive checking of Pacer followed, of course (managed to get about $5 of charges in the last 36 hours - only $1.8 from filing to 341, and $5 since. Must stop that!)
However, $5 in charges was worth it - just saw trustee report was filed, no distribution, and all the lovely asking to be discharged from case, no assets, etc.
From what I understand, this is very good news :-)
Must have been my fancy car that tipped the scales in my favor!
Thank you all for sharing your experiences - I haven't been posting almost at all, but have spent nights and nights reading just about every post on this forum - it's kept my sanity through this process
Planned on leaving the house at 9:45, didn't hear the alarm, woke up at 9:53. Good thing I did, too, I would would have gotten there way too early - my docket was at 11:30 and getting there an hour ahead of time was more than enough.
The trustee was a very pleasant, smiley lady. And not the fake happy-smiley, genuinely pleasant demeanor.
Heard about 10 or so cases, she asked same questions of everyone, then called names for 11:30 docket, told me and another pro se person to fill out a form, a few more cases and then me. She 'explained' the official stuff (court can't provide me with an attorney, I'm expected to know ins and outs as an attorney would, 'I didn't know' is not acceptable, do I wish to postpone so I can get an attorney or do I wish to proceed?'). Got sworn in, identity verified and then same questions as everyone.
When she got to the car, it was a little sad/funny. Everyone before me had a 'nice' car - there was a 2005 Mercedes, a 2008 Lexus etc etc. I drive a 95 Honda. The way she said it was... you know, with a pause, like she couldn't believe her eyes - 'as for the vehicles, you own a.... 95 Honda?!'
(hey, it's paid for, it runs like a Honda, it's cheap to run and maintain and very forgiving when you flake out on maintenance :-)
She then asked for tax returns, I handed them to her, she handed them back. Didn't even look at them, said 'ok, I'll mark you've provided them'. I asked her if she wanted to keep them, adding I had copies (duh!), and she said no, she didn't want them.
Never asked for any bank accounts/statements (now I feel bad for all the trees I killed printing a year worth of empty account statements!).
Saw I was a teacher and asked me if I thought Maryland would be better than CA as far as finding a job... and before I could answer, she smiled and said 'It will be'. Reminded me to file my debtor education cert, and that was that.
All in all, a breeze. Too easy. I left there stressing that it had been way too easy, and why she didn't even look at my tax reports, or asked for my statements or anything... Then I laughed at myself - I had really tried not to stress too much about 341 (having read everyone's 341 posts here), and then when it was over, I started stressing.
Obsessive checking of Pacer followed, of course (managed to get about $5 of charges in the last 36 hours - only $1.8 from filing to 341, and $5 since. Must stop that!)
However, $5 in charges was worth it - just saw trustee report was filed, no distribution, and all the lovely asking to be discharged from case, no assets, etc.
From what I understand, this is very good news :-)
Must have been my fancy car that tipped the scales in my favor!
Thank you all for sharing your experiences - I haven't been posting almost at all, but have spent nights and nights reading just about every post on this forum - it's kept my sanity through this process
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