How did you fill out your forms? (not content, but actually filling the forms out!)

[mb10240]

I've been preparing my bankruptcy using a demo of Best Case, but obviously I can't use that to print out my forms since it slaps three big, bold "DEMO" warnings on each page, so my plan was to fill out the official PDFs from the USCourts website after preparing my case with Best Case.

But I've got a heck of a lot of stuff when it comes to personal property, and that just simply isn't going to work.

So, how did y'all fill out your schedules? I did some PDF voodoo with the Unsecured, Nonpriority Creditors schedule (duplicating pages, combining several PDFs as one single PDF), but Schedule B is really throwing me for a loop. There's just not enough room to list all of my personal property, even if I combined it into one convenient one sentence description...

[tigergem]

You aren't actually listing your personal property individually, right? I mean you can list it categorically, like "furniture" and "clothing" , "electronics" - - not each piece of furniture and each article of clothing. You know that, right? Unless you have a collectible or something of unusually high value, I wouldn't worry about itemizing each and every item.

I used Best Case... so I can't help you with the "actual" form filling part.

[free2breathe]

I just attached a page listing items that there weren't room for. I didn't list every specific item, but I did list the major items. (I had my mother's bankruptcy papers that had been filed previously to look at for reference. This was how her attorney handled it.) On the attachment page I just listed "In re: (Debtor names went here), I put a spot for the case no., but since we didn't have one, I left a blank line. Then I put "Continuation of Form B 6B". I put the column headings as they were on Schedule B and then listed the additional items there.
At the bottom of schedule B there is a spot for you to put how many continuation pages you are attaching. I then totaled the amounts on Schedule B and the amounts on the continuation page for the total.

[abkguy]

You probably don't need to go into that much detail. I listed general categories as they were on the forms (eg. "computer and audio equipment"). If it's a no-asset case the trustee probably doesn't care if you list smallish items individually.

Edit: I used the PDFs on the us courts site to file.

[justbroke]

I used an on-line service, Best Case, and a PDF Editor (PDFProfessional). Without using a PDF Editor, where you can actually SAVE the forms and make changes later, was just too much work for me. Especially Since Official form B22C (Chapter 13 Means Test), one mathematical error built into it!

In any event, you could use a trial version of PDFProfessional or even Adobe, but they will only last 30 days. If you think you'll need to be able to modify things later, and can justify the cost ($99+) then I'd get a real editor. The cheap ones (free ones) are just that... cheap.

Also, as directed above, you can have "continuation" sheets so long as you include them in the total -- and statistics pages -- and caption them correctly. I don't know why anyone would need continuation of Schedule B. The categories are mostly already there.

[wipetheslate]

I downloaded blank, form-fillable pdfs from the uscourts website.

http://www.uscourts.gov/FormsAndFees/Forms/BankruptcyForms.aspx

Edited to add I have Acrobat Pro, not just the free reader.

[dumpinmydebt]

I printed all of mine out and filled them out by hand. Then when I had them done, I filled out those forms on the website above. This was when I was sure I had nothing to edit. Then, I downloaded Acrobat Pro (free 30 day trial) and scanned them all in and saved them for my records.

Yes, I should have just downloaded the trial before I filled them out so I could just save instead of scanning and saving, but I never thought about it. LOL!

[mb10240]

Also, as directed above, you can have "continuation" sheets so long as you include them in the total -- and statistics pages -- and caption them correctly. I don't know why anyone would need continuation of Schedule B. The categories are mostly already there.

It's not so much the categories already being there -- I have a great deal of items that would be in one particular category, not all of them are exempt (Louisiana's exemptions stink big time... who the heck needs an ox?). If I modified the text box to use an automatically sized font in Adobe Acrobat and attempted to put everything in that box, it'd be like size 1.5 pt. font and would be impossible to read... lol

I actually came up with a solution though: although the cut and paste option is disabled in the demo of Best Case, drag and drop is not -- you can go to "Edit form" and drag and drop into Word. Of course, it screws with the formatting somewhat, so it can't really be used for the forms, but you can use it to create a perfectly formatted continuation sheet.

[dumpinmydebt]

I don't know why anyone would need continuation of Schedule B. The categories are mostly already there.

Not sure why either. I used more general terms on Schedule B, and itemized on Schedule C.