Are all 341 meetings held in public?

[lalap123]

My 341 is on the 15th of this month. I'm of course worried about having some weird issue singled out by the trustee or being blindsided by some question that I can't answer, but for some reason the one thing I'm most worried about is just being in front of a courtroom full of other people. I know - these people are all in the same boat as I am - but I know I'll feel like an idiot when my name is called and I have to walk up to the trustee who will then potentially spill out the details of my financial life to all in attendance. Maybe my fears are a result of the shame that I allowed myself to get in this situation in the first place...

Please tell me it won't be as bad as I'm picturing!!

[NoMoreCards]

I was terrified of the same thing. What made it easier to deal with was arriving real early and watching. It isn't nearly as bad as what you are making it out to be in your mind.

Once you sit and watch a few others go before you, and if you were completely honest...you have absolutely nothing to worry about. They typically only have a few questions and will not bow-beat you.

[lalap123]

Thanks for answering! Is there a way to find out what number you are in the process? If I had a choice I would prefer to be last so that everyone else would be gone by the time I had to walk up!

Also, I'm sure it varies by district, but how long does the typical 341 take? If I am at the end should I expect to be there for several hours or do they only schedule enough people to take up an hour at a time?

[NoMoreCards]

Each district is a bit different. I can only share my experience.

My scheduled time was 10AM. I arrived early at 9:30 to see how it went and to get the feel for it. What happens is they call in groups at a time from the waiting room. So all the 9 AM people go in, the Trustee makes a speech for about 5 minutes about the seriousness of this. And then he called each case up one at a time. When he finished that group, he called the 10 AM group and repeated the same thing. I did not see any particular order they were using to call people up. It wasn't alphabetical or numerical based on case number.

The meetings were mostly done in under 5 minutes each.