Extra Questioning at Hearing?

[cashforever]

I've been lurking here for a while now and have found this sight quite comforting and informative. Despite all of the wonderful information and experiences that have been posted I am still quite nervous and stressed out about the whole thing. This week we will be signing all of the paperwork at our attorney's office and filing our bankruptcy which brings me to my question about the hearing.

My attorney told me that the whole process usually only goes a few minutes, is extremely routine in nature, and that we have nothing to worry about. All of this is supported by what I have read here. Despite this I am still just stressing out that for some unknown reason my case will be the one singled out by the trustee and examined under a microscope. So to hopefully help put my mind at ease I am asking, "Has anyone ever seen or heard of the questioning going above and beyond what would be considered normal at the 341 hearings and if so what were the questions and circumstances?"

[yang0837]

Yes, I heard extra questioning at my hearing, not about myself though. There was a complicated case going on before we started. The trustee was grilling the gentleman about his failed software company. It appeared that he personally took on the debt load while his two partners managed the finances and ended up liquidating assets and bank accounts before running off. The insane thing was that he had his main company, and two shell companies, all interrelated with assets and debt. The trustee was getting extremely frustrated because he had a hard time differentiating between the three. What amazed me the most about his interview was that he received a $35,000 federal refund and $17,000 state refund. I would have never even imagined the possibility of that, but he told the trustee that the federal refund was being held and 2/3 of it had already been seized for back taxes owed. Same thing with the state refund and he still owed roughly $30,000 in back state taxes. 0_0 Aside from the business, just about all of the personal holdings of the gentleman were also questioned. It sounded like he and his family lived a lavish lifestyle (900K house, 4 luxury cars, 2 boats) before filing for bk, but everything had been either abandoned or repossessed.

I was quite dazed listening to his interview. The only thing a little more outrageous than that was his attorney. Who was dressed as if he was going fishing and had sunglasses on the entire time.

[ForumReader]

I was quite dazed listening to his interview. The only thing a little more outrageous than that was his attorney. Who was dressed as if he was going fishing and had sunglasses on the entire time.


That's funny! Well in a way Some people will dress strange, but this lawyer dressing up as if he is going fishing and sporting sunglasses. I would have been dazed if I saw an attorney dressed like that at my 341.

[cashforever]

Fortunately my case should be rather simple. No business dealings or failed companies, just a matter of a family that got in over its head through a combination of bad decisions and some unfortunate circumstances.

[brokejoker]

We had to answer a few extra questions that the trustee asked about our amount of unsecured debt. We just told him the truth and he said he understood the situation and moved on.

Some others were asked about alimony payments and child support payments. One family was questioned as to why they had 6 vehicles, but they had a home tiling business that they had purchased 2 vans and a trailer for.

I wouldn't be too worried if you've just got the normal stuff going on. Even if they do ask you extra stuff just be honest.

[drowningNIL]

I am dreading this extra questioning too. We are over median and have all unsecured lot of amt of CC debt so i guess it should almost be expected.

We were able to support that debt prior to a huge loss in income - economy related. yeah, we screwed up basically. maybe a little depression related spending, too. i don't know how i would excuse it or explain it.

good luck, all.

[Silver26]

We had no extra questions at all at our 341 about 2 weeks ago. The trustee did ask some extra questions to a few people but they were very basic questions. One couple would rent a tow truck from a large company and do tow service. The trustee asked if they had any money outstanding when they filed. The other person was paid for an injury they incurred at Walmart. The trustee just wanted to know that the money was spent. I freaked out too before ours but I realized the trustee has 50+ other cases to worry about and in the grand scheme yours is probably not that important.