Letter to the Judge?

[welovedis]

We had our 341 hearing for our CH 13 yesterday, easy since we'd been thru it before for the CH 7 we originally filed. BKT seemed super nice and very easy to work with as long as you were honest with him.

He said due to the amt of unsecured we are attempting to discharge (83K) that we need to write a letter to judge explaining how we got in these circumstances. Is this common? Just curious.

DH & I started on it last night and will finish over the weekend so we can get out to the attorney by Monday. The judge needs it at least a week before our confirmation hearing on 4/27.

[wonkettegirl]

Oh man. If my bf had to write that letter, it would be the shortest letter in the world: Dear Judge: I am a dumbass. Signed, wonkettegirl's bf.

[StartingOver08]

Oh man. If my bf had to write that letter, it would be the shortest letter in the world: Dear Judge: I am a dumbass. Signed, wonkettegirl's bf.

Love it!

[AngelinaCatHub]

This is a rare incident. I have never heard nor do I think it allowed for you to talk to the Judge or write to him for any reason. You should communicate by legal motion or informational documents. It must be posted in your docket. It could be construed as attempted wrong doing. Are you represented by a lawyer? He should be the one who writes to the Court as he does not talk directly (officially) to the Judge. Better check into this real close. ‘Hub

[welovedis]

The CH13 BKT actually told every single person there who was attempting to discharge more than 75K in unsecured debt that they needed to prepare a letter to be given to the judge before the confirmation hearing.

It was on the record (taped) and the attorney said we just need to basically state how the debt was incurred--was it because of medical reasons, divorce, living about our means, business failure, etc... He said it can be as long or as short as we want, but if we don't write it the judge will grill us at the confirmation hearing. If he has the letter we will basically show up, the judge will talk to the BKT and ask him a couple of questions, ask us if we agree with the plan and can support it and we're finished.

I called the attorney again after I saw your post and he said this particular judge has been requesting these letters for the past 3 years or so on cases with more than 75K unsecured.

[welovedis]

Oh man. If my bf had to write that letter, it would be the shortest letter in the world: Dear Judge: I am a dumbass. Signed, wonkettegirl's bf.

LMAO--yeah that's what I was thinking at first, lol!

[justbroke]

This is why I love how all the rules in the different Bankruptcy Divisions... are so messed up. There is nothing in the Bankruptcy Code about writing a letter to the Judge, Trustee, Creditors or even your lawyer if a debtor wa "attempting to discharge more than 75K in unsecured debt".

Absolutely incredible.

Personally, if your District does in fact require it by local rule, I would be as short and concise as possible. If it gets posted to the docket, then it becomes part of the record, and someone could challenge you on the admission.

Weird, weird, weird.

BTW, I'm discharging over $360K in unsecured debt (0% to unsecured creditors). I wasn't even asked why I was there. I think it's obvious.

[EricaCallaha]

That is very strange. It almost sounds like the trustee wants it to show to the judge to help you save face? It doesn't really make any sense.

I love the "real" letter that we would all write.

Good luck...

[woeisme]

So what is the judge going to do, deny the confirmation because your debt is due to reasons like gambling problems or trying to keep up with the Jones, and only confirm those who are there due to job loss, medical reasons, etc? Nothing in the law allows him to decide who gets confirmed and who doesn't, unless it's a case of abuse, so I don't see what these letters can possibly mean to him, unless he's doing some kind of statistical survey or something for a journal article he's writing! Totally oddball to me!

[justbroke]

Nothing in the law allows him to decide who gets confirmed and who doesn't, unless it's a case of abuse, so I don't see what these letters can possibly mean to him, unless he's doing some kind of statistical survey or something for a journal article he's writing! Totally oddball to me!

I agree.

I think it's a matter of publicly shaming someone... as if the public Bankruptcy record isn't enough.

[BigJohn]

We had to fill out paper work stating why we had to file BK13. There were other questions also. This paperwork came from the Trustee and was to be returned to the Trustee.

[EricaCallaha]

We did no such thing. We just filed and went to the hearing. All done. This is a really odd request.

[justbroke]

We had to fill out paper work stating why we had to file BK13. There were other questions also. This paperwork came from the Trustee and was to be returned to the Trustee.

I don't think it is so bad to submit it to the Trustee. Even though, it's not a requirement of any underlying law... making a statement to the Trustee is different than submitting it to the court, IMHO.

[EricaCallaha]

Unless you are this repeat filer who never follows through....why do they care? I mean, I hope this is the only time we have to file in our lives, but I also realize that something could happen to us in 20 years that may make us have to file again. No one has ever asked us why we had or choose to file. There is no law stating that you can only file bankruptcy for A, B or C reasons. We all have our own reasons and it is kind of personal. Leave it at that and tell nosy judge and trustee to let it lie. It is not their job to police our reasoning.

[lrprn]

Judges in our country, including bk judges, set the culture and tone of their individual courts, hopefully within the law. This particular local bk judge has made writing this letter a part of what he wants his local bk court to do for Ch 13 cases over a particular debt level.

Justbroke is right - there's nothing in the current bk law that requires this. It's just a quirk of this particular judge. A local lawyer could challenge it, but they all have likely decided it's not a hill they are willing to die on. It would be like doing something deliberately to anger your boss who decides if you're going to get a raise or not right before he decides it

To Welovedis, sorry to hear you ended up in a court that practices so oddly. Write the letter then it's over. Box checked -you can move on.