Order of the Court?

[Amy26]

Ok, my attorney isn't emailing me back and its annoying me... I know he's probably doing family things and taking a break from work or something but I'm getting frustrated with just the "I just filed your case" email and then no copy of the petition or my case number.

He simply told me I will be receiving an order from the court and to follow that and make sure I read it.... what the heck is that, have any of you gotten anything from the court after you file?

I'm also not sure about how I can spend my money... some people have said use your money to live and someone else said I'm free to do what I want with it... I'm not gonna go buy a boat or anything but I wanna make sure if I pay something its not gonna bite me in the ass... or if I try to save some money.

[Frshstart09]

Spend your money on your normal living expenses. We all need to pay for food, rent, clothing, misc items. The only thing I would stay away from are big ticket items that can be liquidated by the Trustee. Nothing wrong with getting some money saved up :o)

[Amy26]

ok thank you... but what is this order of the court thing? Is that normal?

What if we wanted to buy some furniture? We are finally getting our own apartment...but we own nothing. We have a bed and that's it. My husband's family gave him some money for our wedding and we wanted to at least buy a dining room set with that... is that ok? It will not be purchased with my money and his bank account is in Denmark.

[justbroke]

This particular Order is one that is issued when the case is filed. It's called the Order Establishing Duties of Trustee and Debtor, or something similar.

It basically has things on it for you to do and comply with. However, it's usually your Attorney who deals with those things and make sure you comply.

[Amy26]

Is it standard or is it different for everyone?

[AngelinaCat]

Our attorney filed for us electronically. We had a case number in hand when we left her office.

You will get a paper notice from the court through the mail stating essentially that you have filed and the date for your 'Meeting of Creditors' commonly known as the 341 will be held at xxxx place at xxxxx time. Then it contains a list of dos and don'ts and other information.

To be on top of the situation, you need to sign up for PACER. You will see that talked about here and there all over the forum. Here is a link to the 'Sticky' explaining what PACER is:

http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.php?t=1011

Court documents and other material will be posted here before you get the paper documents via snail mail. You can view your documentaion online. I caution you though, that PACER charges $.08 per page. That does not sound like a lot, but if you are a 'click-aholic' it gets expensive very quickly. One member of this forum was able to include her PACER bill in her BK.

The documents are PDF files and can be read by Adobe Reader. What we do, every time there is a new document, is to download it onto our harddrive, give it a meaningful name, and then we can view it at our hearts' content.

Good luck to you.

[MrSmithster]

i would ask for a copy if it has been filed. do you at least have a case number and date filed? if your laywer is still yanking your chain, go on Pacer and search using your ss number. that way you know if he did file at least, and you can get your case number and 341 date maybe. good luck

[Amy26]

Thank you guys so much. I did log in to pacer and I did find my case... but now I'm really worried... why is my rental apartment community listed as a creditor? That means they are going to be notified? This is not good! Also, one of the creditors I told him to list 3 times and he said he would add it and I don't see it! There is also an attorney I've never heard of listed as a creditor? Where did that come from?

Ugg... now I'm even more freaked out. I don't even understand half the stuff on my petition. I see the part where it says I'm under the median.... my income is 30k and the median is 65k (2 people). So, I'm extremely under the median...which I assume is good. But on my budget sheet (which my lawyer told me was a going forward budget) that I have 160 dollar left over per month. Are they going to push me to a 13?

[Amy26]

I just talked to him.... he said he was going to call my rental place and make sure everything was ok... he told me not to worry (again) and thinks everything looks good and fine. He didn't think the left over budget money would be an issue... ugg... so nerve racking.

[music12]

hi amy,

my lawyer and his secretary also keep saying don't worry. they made a mistake with an address - don't worry. they made a mistake with exemptions - don't worry, the trustee won't even notice. another mistake with exemptions - oh never mind, this particular exemption would not have worked anyway.

also, if the trustee is going to ask whether we read the petition before signing it, how can we say yes if we saw it only after? why do these lawyers file these papers without showing the final product to us first?

[Amy26]

I know right?? I went to his office before we filed it and he was flipping through each page telling me oh sign here.... and he was like ok that was your list of creditors...then ... sign here... and I felt kinda rushed. He kept saying he had to get somewhere for his son. Then the next day I asked him to send me a copy of the petition before he filed it so I could review it and he says we reviewed it yesterday... lol. I also saw a few "mistakes"... like they put I got 5k from my renters in rental income but its really 6k... Hello... January through June...that's 6 months...

Oh and the creditor that wasn't on my credit report... I sent it to him like 3 times! And when I asked him about it on the phone today he's like I vaugly remember that. He sends me an email saying like "make sure this time you get all your creditors to me and then we can amend it up to 2 months from now" ... I'm like...dude its your fault you left it off not mine...

Anyways I still really like the guy and feel confident in him just these silly little things that are annoying me a bit.

[AngelinaCat]

Hi Amy:

As lousy as our attorney turned out to be, she had us examine and sign off each page of our bk petition before her assistant uploaded it. We made plenty of corrections, which were duly corrected. The corrected page was brought to us for our initials.

Even so, mistakes occurred. But we were fortunate in spite of everything.

Good luck!

[Amy26]

Well, at least yours did that...we just glossed over each page before I signed them and then he wouldn't send me a copy of it before he filed it. And now I just realized another one of my credit cards isn't on his list... I dunno where he pulled a list of my creditors from but I can't figure out why some of them weren't on it. And I totally missed it because I have so many Chase accounts... Its my big 10k chase credit card ><

Also why is the US attorney listed as one of my creditors???

[AngelinaCat]

I don't know what to say, except to stay on your attorney's butt. If you have paid him all of his fee, then YOU are his employer, and HE is the employee. Many of them forget that.

Your petition can be amended at any time, whether for 1 correction or 2000. The one-time fee is around $26.00, though you should not have to pay that. Your attorney should make the corrections for free.

I see that your 341 is in July. Tell him that unless these mistakes are corrected w/o you having to pay extra, when you go to your 341 and the trustee asks if you have read all of your petition, is everything correct, and did you sign it, [remember, you ARE under oath, and you are being recorded for the court records.] YOU rise up and say: "NO, it is NOT correct, I have tried xxx number of times to get this corrected."

Have all of your paperwork with you, and then let the chips fall where they may. I bet he'll change his tune.

Good luck Sister

[music12]

yes, the lawyer is our employee, but the way it turns out is that it doesn't really matter because we are the ones who really need the lawyer, and the lawyer knows that. they already got the money, after all, and they know we can't get it back. still, they should be ethical enough to make any necessary corrections...

i personally would avoid any confrontation at the 341 meeting! anything that gets screwed up only ends up hurting us, even if it's the lawyer's fault. why risk it? as long as nothing in the petition is significantly wrong, it's not a big deal. for example, if the difference between the 5k and 6k would not have gotten you to fail the means test, then it's immaterial and i would try to forget about it (yes, i know, easy for me to tell you to forget something!). Also, if you already have one chase account there but not another - it's not a really big deal because the main thing is that chase knows about the bankruptcy because it's already on the list of creditors. if it were a credit card with a different company, it would be important to add them.