Well, we had our 341 meeting on January 15. I have to say it was quite an experience. I would describe our case trustee as having a Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde type of personality.
We arrived about 15 minutes early, only to find out that there was a posting on the door of our meeting room saying our trustee is attending a hearing with the judge upstairs and he will be back shortly. About half an hour later, we finally were able to get into the room and sit down. There were only about six cases total. I thought we would be out within an hour or less. I was wrong.
The first case involved a couple that were converting their case from a Chapter 13 to a Chapter 7. The next case involved a man who was told promptly that he couldn't proceed with the meeting because his wife wasn't there. The reason? She was currently in jail. The next case lasted a little over 30 minutes and was both a personal case followed immediately by their corporate bankruptcy case. The trustee was really grilling these people. Apparently their attorney told them to abandon all their business assets inside their building for their business. The trustee asks them why they abandoned their business assets, and they said their attorney advised them to. The trustee turns to the attorney and asks him, "Did you advise them to do that?" Their attorney said, "Yes, I did." The trustee then responds with, "I can't believe it." Frankly, neither can I.
One of the attorneys representing the first case was also an attorney for one of their creditors as well. I bet he got paid handsomely for the day.
Finally our case got called and the first thing our trustee tells us is that he needs to recall our case. Great, my heart is pounding in my chest now. It turns out that we forgot to sign the declaration of schedules form. I honestly don't know how we missed it, but we did. Anyway, he tells us to go upstairs to the clerk's office and have it file stamped and then come back down. My husband responds with, "I'm surprised. We really tried to be careful with everything." Then the trustee responds with, "I'm not surprised. You don't have a lawyer." He says this like he clearly is irritated with us for filing pro se. I didn't know it was going to be taken against us.
We go upstairs to get our form stamped, come back down and wait for him to finish the case he is on. Then he calls us up to the table again. He tells us that he needed us to file the signed form or it wouldn't be legal. He says this very politely. Then abruptly he says, "You're going to answer my questions succinctly and we're not going to get into a conversation" and then turns on the recorder. He asks us the basic questions and a few more other questions. The questions themselves weren't that bad at all. Everything is starting to go smoothly.
Then the fun part starts. His assistant scribbles something down on a piece of paper and gives it to the trustee. His assistant then asks us how many bank accounts we have. We answer that we have five, four checking and one savings. His assistant then tells us that we have seven accounts. My husband says, "No, sir, we have five, four checking and one savings." Then his assistant says something about having a couple of transfers. My husband responds, "The transfers could have only been between our own accounts, which are electronically linked." Then his assistant says that we only gave him the statements for two of our accounts.
At this point we are totally befuddled why they are insisting we have two other accounts that we DON'T have. Basically we got accused of lying on the record. Finally, the trustee's assistant wrote down which account numbers he has statements for and which accounts he still needs statements for. The two extra account numbers do not ring a bell to us at all. The trustee says if we provide the documentation to him, then he can "conclude" the meeting. He does reset the meeting to January 29th if we don't provide the documentation.
So we get home and look over the email we originally sent his office. They did receive the statements for all five accounts back in December. They must have lost them along the way. We look at one statement in the credit transactions section and there are two transfers that occurred for that statement. The last four digits of the transaction numbers for those two transfers match the two "phantom" account numbers they accused us of having. Those transfers did, indeed, come from one of our other checking accounts that we disclosed on our Schedules B and C.
I am totally baffled how they leaped to the conclusion we had two other accounts, when, in fact, those were only transfer transaction numbers between our own checking accounts. They clearly did not do their homework. I think they lost the statements for three of our accounts and so couldn't readily match up the transfers. Instead of simply saying, "We need the statements for your other three accounts," I guess they decided it would be easier to outright accuse of us having two accounts that we didn't have. I really didn't appreciate them accusing of us lying.
We resent the statements for all of the accounts and mentioned the reference numbers and which account the transfers came from. I sure hope this is cleared up soon. By the way, the transfers totaled only a little over $200. Talking about trying to find blood! I guess if they even think for one minute something might be going on, they pounce on you.
Anyway, other than a couple of issues that we didn't expect and the trustee being rude, the bulk of the meeting wasn't that bad.
Now, where can I find on PACER if he has filed a no-asset case report? I really want to keep an eye on our case now because I have a feeling the trustee is not going to let us know everything is cleared up. All in all, a very strange meeting.
Hoping to officially be in the 60-day club soon!
We arrived about 15 minutes early, only to find out that there was a posting on the door of our meeting room saying our trustee is attending a hearing with the judge upstairs and he will be back shortly. About half an hour later, we finally were able to get into the room and sit down. There were only about six cases total. I thought we would be out within an hour or less. I was wrong.
The first case involved a couple that were converting their case from a Chapter 13 to a Chapter 7. The next case involved a man who was told promptly that he couldn't proceed with the meeting because his wife wasn't there. The reason? She was currently in jail. The next case lasted a little over 30 minutes and was both a personal case followed immediately by their corporate bankruptcy case. The trustee was really grilling these people. Apparently their attorney told them to abandon all their business assets inside their building for their business. The trustee asks them why they abandoned their business assets, and they said their attorney advised them to. The trustee turns to the attorney and asks him, "Did you advise them to do that?" Their attorney said, "Yes, I did." The trustee then responds with, "I can't believe it." Frankly, neither can I.
One of the attorneys representing the first case was also an attorney for one of their creditors as well. I bet he got paid handsomely for the day.
Finally our case got called and the first thing our trustee tells us is that he needs to recall our case. Great, my heart is pounding in my chest now. It turns out that we forgot to sign the declaration of schedules form. I honestly don't know how we missed it, but we did. Anyway, he tells us to go upstairs to the clerk's office and have it file stamped and then come back down. My husband responds with, "I'm surprised. We really tried to be careful with everything." Then the trustee responds with, "I'm not surprised. You don't have a lawyer." He says this like he clearly is irritated with us for filing pro se. I didn't know it was going to be taken against us.
We go upstairs to get our form stamped, come back down and wait for him to finish the case he is on. Then he calls us up to the table again. He tells us that he needed us to file the signed form or it wouldn't be legal. He says this very politely. Then abruptly he says, "You're going to answer my questions succinctly and we're not going to get into a conversation" and then turns on the recorder. He asks us the basic questions and a few more other questions. The questions themselves weren't that bad at all. Everything is starting to go smoothly.
Then the fun part starts. His assistant scribbles something down on a piece of paper and gives it to the trustee. His assistant then asks us how many bank accounts we have. We answer that we have five, four checking and one savings. His assistant then tells us that we have seven accounts. My husband says, "No, sir, we have five, four checking and one savings." Then his assistant says something about having a couple of transfers. My husband responds, "The transfers could have only been between our own accounts, which are electronically linked." Then his assistant says that we only gave him the statements for two of our accounts.
At this point we are totally befuddled why they are insisting we have two other accounts that we DON'T have. Basically we got accused of lying on the record. Finally, the trustee's assistant wrote down which account numbers he has statements for and which accounts he still needs statements for. The two extra account numbers do not ring a bell to us at all. The trustee says if we provide the documentation to him, then he can "conclude" the meeting. He does reset the meeting to January 29th if we don't provide the documentation.
So we get home and look over the email we originally sent his office. They did receive the statements for all five accounts back in December. They must have lost them along the way. We look at one statement in the credit transactions section and there are two transfers that occurred for that statement. The last four digits of the transaction numbers for those two transfers match the two "phantom" account numbers they accused us of having. Those transfers did, indeed, come from one of our other checking accounts that we disclosed on our Schedules B and C.
I am totally baffled how they leaped to the conclusion we had two other accounts, when, in fact, those were only transfer transaction numbers between our own checking accounts. They clearly did not do their homework. I think they lost the statements for three of our accounts and so couldn't readily match up the transfers. Instead of simply saying, "We need the statements for your other three accounts," I guess they decided it would be easier to outright accuse of us having two accounts that we didn't have. I really didn't appreciate them accusing of us lying.
We resent the statements for all of the accounts and mentioned the reference numbers and which account the transfers came from. I sure hope this is cleared up soon. By the way, the transfers totaled only a little over $200. Talking about trying to find blood! I guess if they even think for one minute something might be going on, they pounce on you.
Anyway, other than a couple of issues that we didn't expect and the trustee being rude, the bulk of the meeting wasn't that bad.
Now, where can I find on PACER if he has filed a no-asset case report? I really want to keep an eye on our case now because I have a feeling the trustee is not going to let us know everything is cleared up. All in all, a very strange meeting.
Hoping to officially be in the 60-day club soon!
NO ASSET
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