Did anyone's name make it in the paper?

[Dennis1971]

I was just curious if my name would make it in the local newspaper or not. Our local newspaper used to print out everyone's name who filed bankruptcy. I called them and asked if this still was their normal procedure and they said they stopped doing this a couple months ago. They still print a list of all people in our county who has a lawsuit filed against them. My biggest fear is my name ending up in the paper. My dad and I have the same name (besides middle initial of course) and I know he would take this really hard. He is definitely old school, he calls it pride, he has never even collected unemployment in his life when he should have. One time one of our children forgot to pay for their school books, instead of them contacting us, they printed our name in the local newspaper, he about had a cow. Of course our newspaper jumps on the bandwagon and prints out everyone's name who is not current on their school books.
We had our first consultation last week and the attorney wants us to wait until the end of July to file. We paid the $100 fee to get this started and are going to stop paying all our CC's.
Our attorney gave us a case number and told us to refer all CC's to him.
So should we try to not let the CC's know what we are planning? I'm thinking about begging for mercy from them, we have never been late before. When they start calling I'm planning on begging for more time, hopefully they will let me wait until next month with no problem. That will put us into the month of June/July. Then when the calls get to bad - spring on them the bankruptcy. Hopefully by then they will not have enough time to hit us with a lawsuit and keep our name out of the newspaper. Does this sound crazy?
Thanks

[keepmine]

It'll take alot longer than acouple of months to get sued.
Refer the calls to your lawyer. You are taking this personally. Your creditors will see it as a business decision. Why waste resources on someone who isn't going to pay? They'll leave you along for a long enough time to file.

[Phillymanhere]

Hey Dennis, there have been earlier threads on this subject. The bottom line is I urge you to not worry about having your name appear. I hear you, though, on having the same name as your dad.
But it sounds like you're in the clear: the local paper no longer prints names rights? .... But sounds like you're just worried about it getting out. Basically, you have nothing to be ashamed about is how I see it--even if your dad doesn't understand.
Good luck.

[Dennis1971]

They no longer print names in the paper for BK. They still do for people who have lawsuits filed against them, or people who have been turned over to collection agency's. Thats why I'm trying to put off the CC's finding out about our BK so they won't have time to file against us. Hopefully time we file in July they won't mess with a lawsuit against us and my name won't be in the paper. I don't give a hoot about myself, but I know this is going to be stressful between my dad and I.

[Flamingo]

They no longer print names in the paper for BK. They still do for people who have lawsuits filed against them, or people who have been turned over to collection agency's. Thats why I'm trying to put off the CC's finding out about our BK so they won't have time to file against us. Hopefully time we file in July they won't mess with a lawsuit against us and my name won't be in the paper. I don't give a hoot about myself, but I know this is going to be stressful between my dad and I.

Yes they do - each Monday in our Business Section (for years and years) of our daily paper are long lists of Chapter 7 and 13 filers. It all depends on the practice for your state/area. It is public information as are arrests, birth announcements, weddings, engagements, marriage licenses, etc. All those appear in our paper also on a weekly basis in one section or another. Our name did not make it in because since only confirmed cases are posted (along with listing of asset and debt amounts), our plan was revised at our 341 so it was not confirmed at that point and we lucked out. I was thankful cause I just started a new job the day after the hearing and was very concerned the rest of that summer watching for our name to appear - never did! But they are still published throughout the country....

[butterflywings]

My name made it to the paper as well, but it wasn't our local paper, it was the paper of the nearby major city where no one knew me. Of course anyone local to me could read that paper and know, but my name was one of many, many names so I was in good company.

[justplaintired]

This is one of my biggest worries too. But honestly, would it matter? Can you let the fact that someone might read your name in a paper keep you in this financial situation that drove you to BK? Sure it will be embarrassing, but we can survive that part, we can't survive with all this debt. So keeping the debt just to save face just doesn't make good business sense for our family.

Personally if getting out of this mess we are in means the embarrassment of having our name in a newspaper I can't let that stop us. We have to do something to make our lives better.

[butterflywings]

I also have to wonder what kind of person purposely reads the BK section anyway! Someone who is obviously extremely nosy, and gets some sort of sinister pleasure seeing everyone on the BK list.

[JRScott]

It depends on your area. In my area they don't print the names, in others they do.

Don't worry about it though, bk does not have the same stigma it did 30 years ago.

[Flamingo]

I also have to wonder what kind of person purposely reads the BK section anyway! Someone who is obviously extremely nosy, and gets some sort of sinister pleasure seeing everyone on the BK list.

You can't help but notice it in our newspaper - they put it right in the Business Section which lists all the stock market information, financial articles, etc., etc. and it is quite prominent. Also, it keeps getting bigger and bigger as there are more and more folks starting to file.

There are people who read everything in the newspaper, engagements and births included, arrests and name changes - anything that is public information.

[Flamingo]

This is one of my biggest worries too. But honestly, would it matter? Can you let the fact that someone might read your name in a paper keep you in this financial situation that drove you to BK? Sure it will be embarrassing, but we can survive that part, we can't survive with all this debt. So keeping the debt just to save face just doesn't make good business sense for our family.

Personally if getting out of this mess we are in means the embarrassment of having our name in a newspaper I can't let that stop us. We have to do something to make our lives better.

I certainly would not lose any sleep over the possibility of having your name in the newspaper for filing BK. With all the names now being listed (if yours, in fact, does show up - our's didn't) you will probably get lost in the volume. There are so many folks losing their homes and filing, everyone is affected by this economy in some way and filing BK is not that big of a deal anymore and does not carry the stigma it once did.

[mikep]

Bk's don't show up in the local paper here.You have to purchase a business only paper that includes the bk's.I looked online and mine didn't make it in the paper that day.There are so many people filing in my area that the paper can't keep up.

[Cali]

How did you get a case number without actually filing?

a
We had our first consultation last week and the attorney wants us to wait until the end of July to file. We paid the $100 fee to get this started and are going to stop paying all our CC's.
Our attorney gave us a case number and told us to refer all CC's to him.

[Runnin on empty]

Our local paper prints them every Monday, but only shows the ones of people who have businesses, so we didn't show up on the list.

[epiphany]

I was just curious if my name would make it in the local newspaper or not. Our local newspaper used to print out everyone's name who filed bankruptcy. I called them and asked if this still was their normal procedure and they said they stopped doing this a couple months ago. They still print a list of all people in our county who has a lawsuit filed against them. My biggest fear is my name ending up in the paper. My dad and I have the same name (besides middle initial of course) and I know he would take this really hard. He is definitely old school, he calls it pride, he has never even collected unemployment in his life when he should have. One time one of our children forgot to pay for their school books, instead of them contacting us, they printed our name in the local newspaper, he about had a cow. Of course our newspaper jumps on the bandwagon and prints out everyone's name who is not current on their school books.
We had our first consultation last week and the attorney wants us to wait until the end of July to file. We paid the $100 fee to get this started and are going to stop paying all our CC's.
Our attorney gave us a case number and told us to refer all CC's to him.
So should we try to not let the CC's know what we are planning? I'm thinking about begging for mercy from them, we have never been late before. When they start calling I'm planning on begging for more time, hopefully they will let me wait until next month with no problem. That will put us into the month of June/July. Then when the calls get to bad - spring on them the bankruptcy. Hopefully by then they will not have enough time to hit us with a lawsuit and keep our name out of the newspaper. Does this sound crazy?
Thanks

In my experience, if you are planning on filing that soon, it is much more effective to let your creditors know you are filing BK and give them the name and number of your attorney. (though I wonder also how you got a case number before you have filed..perhaps it just refers to your attorney's personal case number files?) I tried to work things out at first with my creditors and that truly was going nowhere...they said no and just keep calling and calling. Spare yourself some grief. You have been lucky enough to find a lawyer who will field those phone calls for 100 down. Take advantage of it.

Your paper prints the names of people who don't pay for their school books? Criminy, where the heck do you live that they have nothing better to publish?

I understand your concern about not wanting your name published but the further you delve into this, the more the embarassment consideration will wane. Though I have not told anyone, I am nearing the point where I feel I can actually talk about it matter a factly if I need to.

Good luck to you,

ep