Potential lawsuit, do I include them?

[Skip Intro]

Without going into the needless messy details, here's my situation:

I was in a business venture with some friends. It did not end well and is a big part of the reason I will be filing Ch7 (zero asset). Through the grapevine, I've heard that they are planning on filing a suit against me, although I can't for the life of me imagine the grounds for such a suit. But you know how it is.... anybody can file suit against anybody for anything.

They know I am probably going to file BK and they went through the process a number of years ago. Accordingly, they've allegedly said they're planning on waiting until I have filed my bankruptcy and received a discharge before suing me.

Here's the question: Can I include them on my list of creditors even if they haven't even officially notified me of intention to sue? I'd like to short-circuit their attempts at a suit and make sure they can't recover anything from me.

I searched a couple of different times and found threads with similar but different enough situations to make me wonder. Any ideas?

[aa06a47]

Is there any merit in there lawsuit? If you obtained money from them, I would include an amount equal to or slightly above any money borrowed from them. Or anything you "might" owe them. If they file a lawsuit after the fact, then I don't think they could collect any additional money except that amount when might be awared them above what you discharged. Just an angle of attack. But then again, if your BK, they can't get money out of a turnip, so why should they even try. (except if your have alot of exempt property they might attach).

[Skip Intro]

Is there any merit in there lawsuit? If you obtained money from them, I would include an amount equal to or slightly above any money borrowed from them. Or anything you "might" owe them.

I don't think they have any grounds to sue, but I'm not that objective. I put money into the business far and above what I got back, especially compared to their contributions and what they took out.

The only thing I can think of is the $16k-some owed to the IRS, but one of them took responsibility for the taxes and was listed as the responsible party on the IRS application for the FEIN. Since we didn't have an operation agreement for our business venture, I don't have any liability related to that debt.

So I should take a guess at what they might want to sue me for and list that on my creditor matrix?

[aa06a47]

In your case, you should consult an attorney. It kinda sounds like your planning on filling pro-se, but I would talk to 3 or 4 attorneys who are giving free consults. You need to find out how to protect yourself and your assets. Also, even in the event they get a judgement against you, you will still have a chapter 13 to fall back on (depends on what your filing now).

Now, I would include them in the bankruptcy anyway. It gives them a chance to file a claim. It could later down the road in a trial or something help you say, well back here, they didn't say I owed them anything, now they are saying I do...(just a shot in the dark there), sounds like they were trying to beat the federal bk system by waiting.

[keepmine]

Your attorney will list them as creditors and the liability as unliquidated/contingent.
Pretty routine-just be sure you do it right.

[SinkingFast]

We have a similar situation. An open ended $$ amount Creditor. Some of the cost is fixed, but some is subject to interpretation. The attny said he would just word the statement regarding that one "open ended" as well. Meaning they can run up whatever $$ amount they want, but it won't do them any good. They won't get a penny from us because the debt itself will be discharged in the BK.