New Judgement after Chapter 7 filed

[free2breathe]

Hi,

My exH filed for Chapter 7 on Sept 20, 2010. His 341 meeting was October 13, 2010 and he is now awaiting discharge.

He was sued in small claims court on August 18

Ok, so what I'm seeing here is that your ex filed after he was sued. So, it stands to reason that he should have let his attorney know about that little glitch. So, either he mentioned it and the attorney let it slip, or he didn't mention it and the attorney wouldn't have known to include it. He definitely needs to contact the attorney so they can make it right. I'm thinking that if he'd let his attorney know, the attorney could have sent the Suggestion of Bankruptcy to the attorney on the suit and the landlord, who at this point would be the creditor. Then, at that point, the attorney for the plaintiff (landlord) would have known to withdraw the lawsuit, as the courts don't look kindly on carrying through with a lawsuit that would be included in a bankruptcy. Can't wait to hear what the outcome on this is.

[tcreegan]

Hi all, Hi exCh7,

Yeah, the landlord was a creditor before the judgement. If you aren't a creditor you can't file for a judgement.....

...sued Aug 18.....filed Sept 20.... this is a pre-petition debt, discharged in the BK. Courts have consistently ruled that pre-petition unsecured debt is discharged even if the debtor forgot to list them.

The easiest path at this point is to go to the local court that awarded the judgement and file a motion to vacate/set aside the judgement. He files the whatever form the court uses + his BK notice or discharge order w/ case # and filing date. (He is going to want to do this anyhow, to get the judgement off his record and save any future hassles with it.)

And he needs to serve the landlord with the BK notice inc. case # and file date.

This may be all he has to do to handle this, but amending his schedules is not a bad idea...need to check w/ his atty.

Tom in Colo