And it went very well. A few observations, though...
Our meeting was at 9:30 and we got there an hour early. (had heard if not there at time called case would be dismissed)...we wanted to make sure finding a parking space was not a problem....we got into the building and meeting room exactly 1/2 hour before. 2 creditors were there. I thought they were filers like us but from their conversation to each other we gathered they were creditors. But they were together...dont know why...but anyway by 9:30 only a few more people had shown up and later their attorneys. By 9:45 the secretary of the trustee showed up and went into the room (it was a room within a room)...at 9:50 the trustee showed up. Soon the secretary taped a sheet of paper with names in front of the door. There were 3 people scheduled at 9:30 including us. There were meetings throughout the day. We were the only ones filing pro se. One of the attorneys had 2 clients and the 2 creditors were for one of those clients, they kept stepping into the hallway to try to work something out it seemed, something of a loan, trying to maybe lower a pmt.
Anyway the secretary then called 4 of us to approach her with ss cards and ids. The lady before us had not taken her ss card, but a copy...no good...the secretary wanted something government issued with the ss#...they fumbled over 5 minutes trying to find something, eventually she let them off the hook by saying just fax it to them later. After ids were shown, we were called into the room and sat around a table. There was a tape recorder.The lady with no ss# was first. I could then see all of us in that little room we would have an audience... oh well, by then I was nervous to say the least. The lady before us had a business that went under and there were so many issues it made me wonder what the heck was her attorney for?? I mean the trustee was clearly a no nonsense type, don't mess with him....he was so not happy with all that was omitted or was incorrect, he drilled her and they fumbled the ball on obvious things....like she had been working part time but that was not listed....also was claiming 4 on fmly size including a sister she only saw once a month. Also she had stated business was still on yet it had closed in jan/10. Trustee gave them 10 days to amend a bunch of schedules, if not he was going to continue the meeting next month. After they were free to go we were called next...
First thing the secretary asked was where was our attorney....the trustee interjected saying Pro Se.....the secretary seemed a tad surprised....
we took the oath and he proceeded to ask a bunch of questions...not in the order he asked but here are the questions i remember....about our home, do we rent or own, how did we come up with the house's current value, (took the middle of 2 separate websites which is close to what we paid), how much did we owe on it, did we have any help filing our paperwork whatsoever...i said no...(does nolo book and this website plus google count?)...He asked about some stock we sold last year, over a year ago, dh then said yes we sold some and he then asked if we still had some...he said yes and that it was listed on the schedules...
He asked about our employer, yes we said we both work for the same employer....he then asked how long we've had our roth ira with our employer, then he asked about life insurance, if we could get any cash out of it or if it was term life, we answered no, we had regular life, employer paid.
He looked briefly thru our bank statements, only the front pages, then leafed our tax returns (these were his copies btw, I went in prepared with everything under the sun but was not asked for anything at all). He looked thru all the schedules, did not question anything on the expenses or income. He did ask why we were filing(like he asked the lady before us)...I answered due to several reasons, health reasons (I did not elaborate, not did he ask me to), paying minimuns on credit cards, postponing medical/dental needed for our kids since we could not afford it with all the debt we have. He was satisfied with that answer. As he was nearing the end of the paperwork he asked if we were due to get any inheritances, etc and we answered no.
Oh I saw him looking at the exemptions page at one point and he said we did well on the exemptions.
He also asked if we had listed everything we own, we said yes. Asked if we had filed bk before....we said yes (gulp), was it discharged? we said yes.
At the end he proceeded to say he was concluding the meeting and making our case a no asset case and all exemptions applied(or something to that effect). We were free to go and he wished us luck. End of meeting.
A bit longer and with more questions that i anticipated but all ended well. I assume we are pretty good to go this next 60 days.
Our meeting was at 9:30 and we got there an hour early. (had heard if not there at time called case would be dismissed)...we wanted to make sure finding a parking space was not a problem....we got into the building and meeting room exactly 1/2 hour before. 2 creditors were there. I thought they were filers like us but from their conversation to each other we gathered they were creditors. But they were together...dont know why...but anyway by 9:30 only a few more people had shown up and later their attorneys. By 9:45 the secretary of the trustee showed up and went into the room (it was a room within a room)...at 9:50 the trustee showed up. Soon the secretary taped a sheet of paper with names in front of the door. There were 3 people scheduled at 9:30 including us. There were meetings throughout the day. We were the only ones filing pro se. One of the attorneys had 2 clients and the 2 creditors were for one of those clients, they kept stepping into the hallway to try to work something out it seemed, something of a loan, trying to maybe lower a pmt.
Anyway the secretary then called 4 of us to approach her with ss cards and ids. The lady before us had not taken her ss card, but a copy...no good...the secretary wanted something government issued with the ss#...they fumbled over 5 minutes trying to find something, eventually she let them off the hook by saying just fax it to them later. After ids were shown, we were called into the room and sat around a table. There was a tape recorder.The lady with no ss# was first. I could then see all of us in that little room we would have an audience... oh well, by then I was nervous to say the least. The lady before us had a business that went under and there were so many issues it made me wonder what the heck was her attorney for?? I mean the trustee was clearly a no nonsense type, don't mess with him....he was so not happy with all that was omitted or was incorrect, he drilled her and they fumbled the ball on obvious things....like she had been working part time but that was not listed....also was claiming 4 on fmly size including a sister she only saw once a month. Also she had stated business was still on yet it had closed in jan/10. Trustee gave them 10 days to amend a bunch of schedules, if not he was going to continue the meeting next month. After they were free to go we were called next...
First thing the secretary asked was where was our attorney....the trustee interjected saying Pro Se.....the secretary seemed a tad surprised....
we took the oath and he proceeded to ask a bunch of questions...not in the order he asked but here are the questions i remember....about our home, do we rent or own, how did we come up with the house's current value, (took the middle of 2 separate websites which is close to what we paid), how much did we owe on it, did we have any help filing our paperwork whatsoever...i said no...(does nolo book and this website plus google count?)...He asked about some stock we sold last year, over a year ago, dh then said yes we sold some and he then asked if we still had some...he said yes and that it was listed on the schedules...
He asked about our employer, yes we said we both work for the same employer....he then asked how long we've had our roth ira with our employer, then he asked about life insurance, if we could get any cash out of it or if it was term life, we answered no, we had regular life, employer paid.
He looked briefly thru our bank statements, only the front pages, then leafed our tax returns (these were his copies btw, I went in prepared with everything under the sun but was not asked for anything at all). He looked thru all the schedules, did not question anything on the expenses or income. He did ask why we were filing(like he asked the lady before us)...I answered due to several reasons, health reasons (I did not elaborate, not did he ask me to), paying minimuns on credit cards, postponing medical/dental needed for our kids since we could not afford it with all the debt we have. He was satisfied with that answer. As he was nearing the end of the paperwork he asked if we were due to get any inheritances, etc and we answered no.
Oh I saw him looking at the exemptions page at one point and he said we did well on the exemptions.
He also asked if we had listed everything we own, we said yes. Asked if we had filed bk before....we said yes (gulp), was it discharged? we said yes.
At the end he proceeded to say he was concluding the meeting and making our case a no asset case and all exemptions applied(or something to that effect). We were free to go and he wished us luck. End of meeting.
A bit longer and with more questions that i anticipated but all ended well. I assume we are pretty good to go this next 60 days.
Bankruptcy Wizard
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