Lawyer botched our 341 meeting. :(

[mslaw]

We got there. We were an hour early. We had asked our attorney several times if we had everything. Sat through 6 other cases that went off without a hitch we were the last case before lunch. Got up there, sworn in and the trustee didn't have our mortgage. Our attorney had not sent it and didn't hv it. So we were sent home to come back and do it all over again in a month.

I've had nausea. Haven't slept. And was so looking forward to that weight off our shoulders.

So depressing.

[pamkev]

I'm so sorry that happen to you. I would be very disappointed and stressed out also

[justbroke]

This is precisely why many on this forum will tell you to bring a copy of everything with you to the 341 Meeting. It is counter-intuitive that you should do so when you have an attorney, but they are people and forget too. You probably won't need to come back to the meeting. Most Trustees will allow the attorney to send the paperwork in, and then the Trustee informs you if you need to attend the meeting or not.

In other news, your discharge STILL comes at 60 days after that FIRST scheduled 341 Meeting. So, while it will probably affect closing and may affect a specific exemption related to your homestead -- since the Trustee needs to review the documents -- it really isn't a show stopper.

Let me be the first to say... the weight should be off your shoulders. Ut should have started the day you filed as the clock already started counting down to discharge.

[Pjmax]

Mslaw, I'm so sorry that happened.

I haven't turned over my papers to the atty. yet, but I have 2 large folders. The contents are identical. One for the lawyer, 1 for me. Everything I copy, I make two and one goes in one file and one in the other. I also have two other large folders with my originals and anything else I want to have on hand just in case. All 4 folders go to my appts., I take the first two in with me and leave the other 2 in the car. I plan on using the same procedure for the 341. It's not that I don't trust my atty., but things happen.

I hope the rest goes easy for you.

[mslaw]

He wouldn't finish the 341. He dismissed us and said we'd need to come back in a month. Our atty asked if we could finish the meeting and she would fax him the documents and he said no.

I guess I unfortunately never read here to being another copy of everything. Wish I had.

[justbroke]

Well, it is the Trustee's choice, but this may be the first where I've read that the Trustee wanted to actually see the debtor again at a new 341 Meeting. The Trustee must have been upset for some reason... maybe just a bad day/week for them.

The whole thing with bringing copies of everything to every "meeting" really comes from what I tell would-be job seekers. Never show up to a meeting without a copy of everything you already sent. I don't know how many times this has worked in my favor. Even when the interviewer "misplaced" their copy and were fumbling through folders to find it... nothing works better than "I have another copy right here for you".

I'm sorry that your Trustee wasn't being too nice that day, but at least you will still be dischargeable in the 60-days from that first meeting.

[Pjmax]

The whole thing with bringing copies of everything to every "meeting" really comes from what I tell would-be job seekers. Never show up to a meeting without a copy of everything you already sent. I don't know how many times this has worked in my favor. Even when the interviewer "misplaced" their copy and were fumbling through folders to find it... nothing works better than "I have another copy right here.

I think I learned this sort of the same way, through attending business meetings. Someone always forgets something. I'm also kind of an emotional ditz about paperwork, so I tend to go overboard about organizing it and keeping multiple copies at hand. Helps keep my stress level down.

[mslaw]

Well, it is the Trustee's choice, but this may be the first where I've read that the Trustee wanted to actually see the debtor again at a new 341 Meeting. The Trustee must have been upset for some reason... maybe just a bad day/week for them.

The whole thing with bringing copies of everything to every "meeting" really comes from what I tell would-be job seekers. Never show up to a meeting without a copy of everything you already sent. I don't know how many times this has worked in my favor. Even when the interviewer "misplaced" their copy and were fumbling through folders to find it... nothing works better than "I have another copy right here for you".

I'm sorry that your Trustee wasn't being too nice that day, but at least you will still be dischargeable in the 60-days from that first meeting.

Well of course we would be a first. But yes we have to go back for a new meeting. I am devastated.

[pamkev]

Note to self make copies of everything to attend 341 thanks for the advice

Pam

[justbroke]

Don't be devastated at all! There is no reason to be such! Unless the Trustee motions to move your discharge date, your discharge will come! This adjourned, but not completed, meeting is nothing but a formality anyhow. The discharge is the prize and I think we too often concentrate on closing and other things (asset determination, dischargeability complaints by a lender), over the REAL PRIZE.

[basketsbears]

Mslaw - so sorry this happened to you. (((hugs)))

Thank you for sharing this experience, as it is teaching us all to bring documents with us to 341 meeting. I would be feeling just like you. I know JB states the 60 days counts from today, but I would still be upset that this meeting has to be done over.

Take care.

Lynn

[GAWildcat]

My wife and I just had our 341 meeting this past Thursday and had an issue with our attorney as well. Aside from our attorney putting down there are only two in our household (there are three of us), listing the start date for all four of our LLCs as 2012 (they are all different going back to 2008) and the LLCs not being listed as assets on the correct schedule, our meeting went relatively smoothly. Also, the Trustee did not receive a copy of our 2011 tax return, but fortunately our attorney brought a copy.

Here is where it got weird. We filed on 6/27 of this year. On 7/2 we received our 341 date and saw that it was scheduled on 7/26, right in the middle of the first vacation our family had planned in over a year (this past December my wife's mother gave us her week at a timeshare in Florida). We asked our attorney if the 341 date could be changed to the following week after our vacation. He checked and said the earliest it could be changed to was 8/23. We told him not to change it and we would just cut our vacation short by a few days and be there on 7/26.

Fast forward to our 341 this past Thursday at 8:30 am in downtown Atlanta. One lady is called up before us. She is done in 90 seconds. The Trustee calls my wife and me next. When we start to stand up she looks shocked. She says that our date had been moved to 8/23 upon our request. We freeze in our chairs and the attorney behind us (not ours) whispers to us "go go go". The Trustee is still flustered, but has us come up to the table. Since we have 4 LLCs, $27k in IRS debt, $100k in CC debt and several car and boat repos, our attorney prepared us for the worst. The Trustee asked us a few simple questions about our real estate LLC and that was it. We could see her scanning over our paperwork, trying to see if she could come up with anything else, but she couldn't. She said as long as our attorney sent in the corrected schedules, we wouldn't have to come back and we should be fine.

Long story short (I say this at the end of my long story of course), our attorney's poor communication with the Trustee gave us a very easy 341. The Trustee was totally unprepared for our case and obviously had not reviewed our paperwork - because she thought she had an extra month to do so. Our attorney said that it went very very well. I checked Pacer today and still no reports, but I am sure it is coming.

I assume our sixty days has started...am I correct??? Will the Trustee wait until she receives the corrected schedules to make her report of no distribution or is there a chance she will just do it early next week? Just curious...thanks everyone!

Sorry for your trouble with your attorney mslaw...hopefully your next one will be better.

[kawh]

It sounds like you were lucky the trustee worked you into the schedule, cause you were actually scheduled for a different day, congratulations! imo, the trustee will not make any report until she has the correct schedules.

[GAWildcat]

It sounds like you were lucky the trustee worked you into the schedule, cause you were actually scheduled for a different day, congratulations! imo, the trustee will not make any report until she has the correct schedules.

I am sure you are correct...still no report from the trustee as of today (7/31/12). My attorney did file the corrected schedules yesterday (7/30/12), so we will see how long it takes to get the report.

[Tater]

mslaw,

I'm sorry you had to go through that but there is no reason to lose sleep over it. Our 341 was essentially painless and we were asked the routine questions. I was prepared with copies of everything though. I just needed to hand over a document from my previous job and that was it. Next time, take the documents with you to be on the safe side. It's not as bad as you think!