courts giving pro se filers a hard time

[wrenegade]

I filed an emergency petition on Nov. 10 and I have until Nov. 25 to file my schedules. I plan to file them on Friday -- 5 days ahead of the deadline. Over the past week, I have received at least three letters from the court and trustee's office telling me "I strongly suggest you hire an attorney", a woman called me from the court to strongly suggest the same and just today the judge has ordered a Dec. 3 status hearing (the courthouse is two hours away, each way for me) to make sure I have timely filed my documents. Geez, the deadline is still a week away and already they're scheduling a hearing that I'm going to have to take a day off of work to attend just to make sure I file everything. Are all courts this hard on pro se filers? I can't imagine them giving a lawyer this much grief.

[justbroke]

What they probably realize is that your skeletal filing already has issues. The Court is doing you a favor by highly suggesting that you seek professional help. Many Courts automatically send a pro se debtor information about filing and other encouragement to obtain an attorney. If you do this wrong... then you can actually lose alot. Even if you think you have nothing (no property) to lose, there can be all sorts of pitfalls especially around obtaining a discharge. For example, you don't want to be dismissed with prejudice, and certainly you don't want a dismissal barring you from discharging any of the debt that you scheduled (or that you accrued before filing).... forever. It happens.

I filed an emergency petition on Nov. 10 and I have until Nov. 25 to file my schedules. I plan to file them on Friday -- 5 days ahead of the deadline. Over the past week, I have received at least three letters from the court and trustee's office telling me "I strongly suggest you hire an attorney", a woman called me from the court to strongly suggest the same and just today the judge has ordered a Dec. 3 status hearing (the courthouse is two hours away, each way for me) to make sure I have timely filed my documents.

I don't blame them for prodding you. Many debtors file (and even one recently here) pro se and have no clue what to do after filing a skeletal or emergency petition! The Judge just wants to be sure that you're actually preparing your petition. Some debtors even abuse the automatic stay, and that's another reason why they are wondering what you're doing.

Most attorneys don't even file skeletal (emergency) petitions. Even when I filed, I filed everything but my (Chapter 13) Plan.

Geez, the deadline is still a week away and already they're scheduling a hearing that I'm going to have to take a day off of work to attend just to make sure I file everything. Are all courts this hard on pro se filers? I can't imagine them giving a lawyer this much grief.

No, it's probably because you filed an "emergency" petition and with very few of the schedules filed. You may have also made other procedural errors, but you didn't mention if you received any deficiency notices.

I think your Court is trying to be nice. They could just let you fall flat on your face. I also think that they believe you are going to have issues with a confirmable Plan. One that is in the correct format, and does the right things. Even so, creating a Chapter 13 Plan that works for the Debtor is a skill that many attorneys don't have. A Debtor writing his own Chapter 13 Plan... would certainly give the court and Trustee pause.

They gave me no grief, but my pleadings have been 99% accurate and I didn't file an emergency (skeletal) petition.

Also, if it's a status conference, call your Case Manager and ask if you can do it by conference call. Explain that you live 2 hours away from the court. Do you now if the Judge requested the Status or the Trustee requested the status conference?

[wrenegade]

Justbroke -- Thanks for the reply and information. The only deficiency notice I received was from the court showing what documents I needed to file within the 15-day period. There was no mention from the court or trustee of any deficiencies in the skeletal filing itself.
I filed an emergency petition because we bought our house with a Contract for Sale of Real Estate (VA repo) and I was worried about the other party canceling the contract, giving me no recourse to keep the home. I plan to assume the contract in the Ch. 13 plan.
I believe the hearing was scheduled by the judge, because it was his order and there was no mention of any request by the trustee. Status conferences seem to be a matter of course for pro se filers in this district.
I'm certainly no lawyer, but I have reviewed hundreds of bankruptcy filings because of my work. I'm not an expert, but I'm also not just some guy who figured he could do it hiimself to save a few bucks.
So I'm confident I can do the work as long as the judge or trustee doesn't simply dismiss out of hand the notion that a pro se filer could succeed.
Now that I've had a few hours to think about it, I'm wondering if the judge scheduled the hearing at this point to give me enough notice and he will cancel the hearing if the paperwork is filed on time and to the trustee's satisfication. At least that's what I'm hoping.
Asking for a conference call is a good idea. I'll try that. If not, at least the court is in a resort town so the visit won't be a total loss.
Thanks again and I would like to hear any other thoughts you might have.