objecting to a discharge

[LuciluS]

Does she know what happened after his 341. She can get a Pacer Account which is $.08 a page query and see if the Trustee filed anything after the 341 hearing

I found this website:

http://bankruptcy.findlaw.com/bankruptcy/bankruptcy-chapter-7/bankruptcy-chapter-7-eligible.html

The last part:

bankruptcy court may dismiss your case if it thinks you have tried to cheat your creditors or concealed assets so you can keep them for yourself.

Certain activities are red flags to the courts and trustees. If you have engaged in any of them during the past year, your bankruptcy case may be dismissed. These no-nos include:

unloading assets to your friends or relatives to hide them from creditors or from the bankruptcy court

running up debts for luxury items when you were clearly broke and had no way to pay them off

concealing property or money from your spouse during a divorce proceeding, or
lying about your income or debts on a credit application.
In addition, you must sign your bankruptcy papers under "penalty of perjury" swearing that everything in them is true. If you deliberately fail to disclose property, omit material information about your financial affairs, or use a false Social Security number (to hide your identity as a prior filer), and the court discovers your action, your case will be dismissed and you may be prosecuted for fraud. (For more information, see Tell the Whole Truth When You File for Bankruptcy.)

Copyright 2007 Nolo

[JRScott]

The back child support would not be dischargeable and he'll still owe that, however the credit card debt appears dischargeable.

But I agree she should sign up for PACER and check once or twice a week and see if anything knew comes up. In fact back child support I think would be a priority debt only superseded by tax debt.

As far as the home goes, is he still on the mortgage or deed? If so she needs to get that fixed.

[rae2009]

I have access to pull all of the information on the case, nothing has been filed as of yet after the 341 meeting.

He was never on the mortgage or deed. The back child support is a priority debt and will get paid. That's why all in all, it will help her if this BK goes through and the assets are recoverd. Otherwise she will never see a penny from him because he never holds a job down. My only question that I wasn't so sure about was whether or not an objection to the discharge would go through. We are going to go ahead and file the objection and just see what happens. It'll only hurt not to do it, simply because we don't really know what will happen. It is a gray area and it will take the judge to determine whether or not he is entitled to the discharge concerning the other court order and credit card.

[rae2009]

Also, the more I think about it. I think her attorney could prove that him going and filing at the time he did was an intentional wrong doing. He went and filed on what should have been the last day in court to finalize the divorce. The family judge said he couldn't finalize things now because of the BK. He is trying to muck things up even more with the divorce hearing and fought the family court on having to pay any of the credit card. He tried to say that he shouldn't have to pay it because it isn't in his name and he also stated in court (which the attorney has the transcript to prove it) that he wasn't listing all of the creditors he owed money to because they weren't coming after him. Which is wrong doing, and he's intentionally doing it. The more I think about it, the more I think she has grounds to object. It's playing a game, because as I stated before she will get money out of the deal if the BK goes through.

[2Bshinyandnew]

Just my personal take on this...

Bankruptcy court and civil/family court are two different forums, they rarely work "together".

If the credit card debt in question is in your friends name only, I think it is highly unlikely that you will find any help from the BK court as far as it being non-dis chargeable, regardless of what a court order from a family court judge says. Unlike family court which seeks equity, and equitable distribution orders/awards can vary wildly due to individual circumstances, there is little to no variation in BK court. From what I have read and experienced the letter of the law is usually followed.

It is very expensive and time consuming to file an AP (adversary proceeding) in bankruptcy court, even under circumstances where the outcome is favorable to the moving party. A few consults with an actual bankruptcy attorney is your friends best course of action, IMO.

Unless your friend's divorce attorney is admitted in federal court and has experience, he/she can only speculate, research some caselaw, the same as all of us here.

Please keep us apprised of any developments. I'm interested. As an ex-wife who got stuck with 100% liability of the all the marital debt in my ex's and my name to the tune of $70,000 despite having a marital settlement agreement outlining 50/50 responsibility, I would like to know what you find out. The 5 bankruptcy attorney's I consulted in my area said I was SOL. The back alimony my ex owed and the child support/future alimony was not discharged in his BK but all the unsecured and secured debt (he was on the mortgage) was discharged. I will be filing BK myself in the future.

My divorce attorney was very, very careful in the wording of our divorce docs, and my ex's possible (and eventual) BK was always in our minds. I was told over and over...if the money owed is not support, doesn't behave as support, and is clearly a distribution of assets/liabilities, it will be dischargeable if ex files BK. We were very careful to word everything related to assets and liabilities "lump sum alimony". Even so the BK attorneys I consulted said it would be very difficult and expensive to prove this in BK court. In the interim the debts would go unpaid and the creditors would be chasing me to pay it, and even if I did win, the bankruptcy court could only say he still owed it, the burden was still on me to try and collect through the state civil system. Since the money your friend is owed has already been identified as ean equitable distribution of liabilities and NOT support, she will be completely on her own to collect, no "help" from any Child Support enforcement agency.

I don't have a job in a bank, but, nonetheless my credit is trashed and my finances are in ruins. If I were your friend I would consider finding out whether a BK really would get her fired from her job.

Her only recourse may be through the family court system, and again, if the debt was never even in the husband's name, it is going to be extremely difficult to enforce. Does that suck? Of course it does. Divorce can be NASTY, and good people are financially ruined. It happens a lot though, spouses running up debt pre-divorce.

As you said, the discharge of the ex husbands debt will free up his future income for support his child, which ultimately is a good thing. That's how I had to view my circumstances. It benefited my children for my ex to file, even if it trashed my credit and will force me to ultimately have to file.

Good luck!

ALSO, since your friends divorce is not final, if the debt is discharged she should be able to bring this up to family court and some other equitable arrangement to compensate for the $14K can be found. I think your spinning your wheels with the BK court since;1-the debt is in her name only and 2-The debt is NOT for support. The BK court will likely refer you back to family court to hash it out.

[rae2009]

Thanks for the input 2B - I am going to send this to her in an email. The family court judge has pretty much said that there will be no final hearing until he knows something as far as the BK goes. So, clearly he sees what you are saying. The the husband will get the debt discharged and leave her screwed. If he waits to finalize things then he can make some changes in her benefit.

The bank has already told her a few times that if she filed or if her house got filed on with his BK she would lose her job. They can't fire her for him listing the house, as a matter of fact they should NEVER even file a claim because he is not on the house. Anyway - that's been a headache all in itself. I feel so horrible for her because he is being so nasty about this divorce. She just wants to be divorced and be have him out of her life....he keeps dragging it on. I will keep you all informed. Her attorney seems to think the BK will get dismissed because she called him out in several lies at the 341 meeting. Said the trustee was very interested in what she had to say and he also requested copies of the court transcript. So we'll just see what happens.

[filingin08]

My $.02 from the wife of a scumbag...

Good/bad, right/wrong, what is FAIR and what is LEGAL are not always the same thing.

We filed Ch 13 and included husband's exwife as a creditor as well as listing joint marital debt that was assigned to him in their divorce. Marital debt is dischargeable in a Ch 13. Domestic support obligaions are not.

Exwife filed an adversarial complaint stating that the three items were support; however, they were not listed as support in the divorce decree and further did not have the flavor of support.

We were set to go to trial in September as we planned on fighting the complaint. Our atty indicated the exwife would likely lose. However, atty cautioned that exwife could come back to family court and request that t he support order be modified - i.e., now that she has additional debt, her circumstances changed and she needed more support.

We settled out of court and agreed to treat one of the debts as support. This will be included in our Ch13 as a priority debt as well, this should strengthen our position if she drags us back into family court.

BK law is there for a reason. I feel badly exwife is getting stuck with husband's share of their marital debt. But I am grateful we have the opportunity for a fresh start.