What's The Worst That Could Happen?

[JRScott]

Well thanks for the update Ann. Sorry it has not gone so good .

[Annika]

I just wanted to post another update to this situation, now that a couple of years have passed. There are two or three threads in all.

Things have only gone further downhill for my sister.

On the good side (for her), she somehow managed NOT to go to jail for the bounced checks. She borrowed money friends and family to help pay for the checks and the court costs. She has not yet paid anyone back. I didn't lend her a dime, thank goodness, but she literally owes thousands of dollars to our parents, one of our uncles, her ex-husband, etc.

On the bad side, she's facing bankruptcy again. She doesn't have internet access anymore (didn't pay her bill), but she had me get a copy of her credit report so she could take all the information to a lawyer. She let me look at it. I knew about some of the bills and problems she's had, but not all. Since 2004, which is when she filed Chapter 7 (old laws), she's had:

31 (!!!) credit cards and other similar loans. It's possible that some of these may overlap, but I tried to get an accurate count, going by the balances. Even so:

3 unpaid (cut off) utilities

2 lawsuits (credit card companies)

1 bounced check for $41 that made it to her credit report, although I know for SURE that there were more checks than that

2 repossessed vehicles

11 unpaid medical bills


The balances on the credit cards and other loans are all individually small, mostly $300-$1,100. A lot of that may be interest and late charges.

At least two of them have a notation that she never even made a single payment. Apparently she applied for the cards, got them, ran them up, and never paid a dime.

From a trustee's point of view, I'm wondering if some of her activities might be considered fraudulent. After all, it kind of looks like she had a big ol' party without the means or intentions of paying all that money back, and perhaps she was trying to avoid lawsuits by keeping the individual amounts relatively low.

As her sister, I'd like to believe that isn't the case, but now I'm skeptical.

What do y'all think?

She's still working at the same $7/hour job, rents a house, is still married (husband is unaware of most of this), and if she's able to file bankruptcy again, she intends to do so alone so that her husband won't find out (not sure how that'll fly!).