Conciliatory meeting

[rfassett]

Has anyone here been to one? What does it entail?

[justbroke]

Never heard of this meeting.

[lrprn]

Did a quick online search - other countries (Mexico and Venezuela, for example) have a conciliatory stage as a part of their bankruptcy processes to "...expedite the handling of the mechanical aspects of insolvency." It's to be completed in 185 days. (http://books.google.com/books?id=rtb...iatory&f=false).

However, like JB, I've never heard of anything remotely similar in the American bankruptcy process. Here in the States, for Ch 13 we have confirmation meetings. Could you have accidentally misunderstood your lawyer?

[rfassett]

As stated on Pacer, "Conciliation Conference to be held on 9/1/2009 at 09:30 AM at Bankruptcy Courtroom, U.S. Courthouse, ................ Confirmation hearing to be held on 9/25/2009 at 09:00 AM at Bankruptcy Courtroom........................ (Entered: 05/28/2009)"

This conference was scheduled by the trustee at the 341 meeting.

[justbroke]

Are you in Alabama or North Carolina? We've just never heard of this particular meeting before, in the Bankruptcy context.

[rfassett]

According to my attorney (responding to my email late, late last night) "the court/trustee will decide whether the plan can be confirmed on at least an interim basis or whether the remaining issues will require further review".

I will post what it was all about later today or tomorrow. We did have some issues at the time of the 341 that I will explain then.

[lifelesson]

Good luck with that meeting.

[rfassett]

OK - so the meeting went off as planned. I get a sense that it is District specific meeting. The trustee has a table set up in the court room and calls each party up in turn. I guess the meeting is just what the attorney said. It gives the trustee an opportunity to see how the case is progressing. I sense that this saves the trustee from having to object to the plan in alot of cases. As for my specific case, it is not a "run of the mill" case nor is it overly complex. Some of you will remember me from the Chapter 7 forum. I filed a 7 pro se in late 2007. I followed that with a Chapter 11 for my wholly owned corporation in the spring of 2008. To complete the project, I filed a Chapter 13 in the spring of 2009. The 7 had its own issues and I was taken through the wringer by the DOJ UST. Eventually was discharged. Part of that discharge involved surrendering a piece of property that had more sentimental value (came from a departed parent) than monetary value. The property was very upside down on the mortgage. Other than giving this property up, the seven worked just like I wanted it to. The 11 was done to protect some real estate that houses my business and it too, came off nicely. In March of this year, the aforementioned sentimental real estate was about to go to sherrifs sale. I took another look at some things that had changed. Since the 7, the real estate values had collapsed and I had incurred medical bills sufficient enough that put me back to feeling how I felt before the 7. So I hired an attorney and discussed the issues surrounding a 13 filing so soon after the 7. Filing is not an issue, but discharge of debt is. Debts can not be discharged until after the requisite amount of time has expired after the 7 discharge. In order to save the real estate, I could not wait for that time to elapse. So we filed with a number of issues to be resolved. I have two vehicles that have loans, both exceeding the 910 days but only one of which is upside down. We wrote in the plan to write that loan down to FMV of the car. We had a second mortgage on our primary residence that had been discharged in the 7, but the lien still hung on. We wanted to strip that lien against the advice of a whole bunch of nay-sayers including a few attornies that I did not hire. The other real estate (sentimental) we requested a cram down of the note to FMV of the real estate which was about a third of the outstanding balance of the note. I, my wife, and our attorney were all on the same page, that for this plan to work, we needed all of the above things to happen. Well, wonder of wonders, the only issues remaining to be dealt with today is filing a petition to cram down the car note. And we have a claim that was filed after the bar date that is not my debt anyway that we have filed an objection for. Both of these issues should be resolved to our satisfaction. The second because of the bar date issue, if for no other reason. The first because the plan had the cram down amount listed and the lender did not object to the plan but filed a claim for the total amount due on the loan. This is a 100% payback with the medical bills being the only unsecured debt. Incredible as it seems, none of the medical folks filed claims. All of the issues except the two that are hanging have been resolved to our satisfaction and the trustee was going to recommend confirmation of the plan pending the two issues. So it was a GREAT DAY! I thought it was interesting that when our name was called at the meeting today, we got up and walked up to the conference table with our attorney and as we started to sit down, the trustee asked our attorney why we (my wife and I) were there? I guess he prefers to deal just with the attornies. But alas, it was good that we were there, a creditor telephoned into the meeting with a question that the attorney did not know the answer. I was able to answer the question on the spot and the trustee did not have any reason to withhold his approval. Well, now it is sit and wait for the other two issues to resolve and the formal confirmation of the plan. Sorry to be so verbose, but this would be hard to understand without some background. Thanks for the replies.

[catleg]

Good information. Thanks for sharing.