Problem inputting text on PDF bankruptcy forms???

[sscott4775]

Hi everyone,

I'm confused over how to type my information into the little boxes on Schedule C. As you all know, the forms can be downloaded in PDF format from the USCOURTS website, but when I type my information in, and click off from the box, it will hide about half of what I typed in. I thought printing it off would help, but the printed document doesn't show everything typed as well.

I was just wondering if anyone else has had this issue and could offer some much needed advise. I would greatly appreciate it, because I'm kind of stressing over this. As far as all of my bankruptcy stuff goes, I think I finally have everything together, now just to get past this little issue with PDF! lol

P.S., I had this same issue with inputting information on Schedule B too, but since I didn't have much to enter (I have very few assets), it wasn't as much of a problem.

Thanks everyone!

[wipetheslate]

I didn't stick to the boxes, and instead went by lines within the boxes. For short descriptions, I could fit four lines to each box.

Maybe there is a problem with your form? Did you download the most recent version of the form, which is dated 4/10? Your local court will have all the correct versions of the forms to use listed on its site.

[justbroke]

That problem happens to everyone using the "fillable" forms. They aren't that great and it depends on the font size. You can't adjust the font size either. If you're doing Chapter 13, beware of Form B22C which has bad formulas in it. I always suggest that pro se filers get PDF Editing software. (Yes, the cost of this can be $99 or more, but you can get a "trial" copy of most software.)

Other than that, I'd try to shorten the descriptions to the basics. You don't have to put, for example "black 4-legged coffee table purchased from rooms to go with marble top". It's simply "furniture". Since Schedule C is all about your exemptions, the descriptions should still be descriptive but short. If it's a motor vehicle, simply put the VIN and Make, Model, Year... e.g. 2005 Ford Focus XTS VIN1FAFXXX909384901989123. You shouldn't need four lines to describe property on that form.

Mine descriptions looked like the following: (Just make sure it uniquely identifies and matches property on Schedule A and B):

Misc. Household Goods

2004 Ford Ka, VIN 1FAFXXXX90908923840

Misc. Clothing

Retirement 401(k)

[sscott4775]

Thank you both for the responses. I went online and looked for updated forms, and found the forms for a district in Illinois (same forms as the USCOURTS website) (http://www.ilnb.uscourts.gov/Forms/) and the PDF's seem to work better for some strange reason. lol
But I'll shorten my descriptions and hopefully everything will work now.

Thanks!

[dumpinmydebt]

I had those problems also. Had to shorten a lot.

Also, what might help you, is you can (or at least you could last month) download a free 30 day trial of Acrobat Pro(if you don't already have it), that way you can save your forms too.

[sscott4775]

Thanks, I'll give that a shot.

[mb10240]

I used a free trial of Adobe Acrobat Professional to adjust font sizes, etc. to fill out the forms with the information that I needed. For Schedules that needed a continuation page, I created a Word document based off the continuation pages produced by Best Case (which you can also download a trial of).

[sscott4775]

I used a free trial of Adobe Acrobat Professional to adjust font sizes, etc. to fill out the forms with the information that I needed. For Schedules that needed a continuation page, I created a Word document based off the continuation pages produced by Best Case (which you can also download a trial of).

Thank you, I'll download those two as a trial offer and redo the schedule.

[mb10240]

Thank you, I'll download those two as a trial offer and redo the schedule.

Oh yeah, and a little interesting thing about Best Case... while it will print a big "DEMO" warning on every page as a watermark if you print from the application and it (generally) disables "cut and paste," it does not disable "drag and drop." Dragging and dropping will mess up some formatting, but it is easily correctable.

/I'm sure now that I've mentioned this, the fine folks that develop Best Case will correct this "bug" in the next release...

[randian]

I used a website called PDFescape to fill my forms in, since $#%# Adobe Reader no longer saves PDFs with filled-in forms. It's free and they don't watermark them. The interface is simple, and you can't delete anything you upload (in case you upload a duplicate). If you do use them, don't forget to Unlock any field you fill (unlocked fields show green) or the field will be empty when you download or print. That fact is not documented anywhere.

[sscott4775]

Hi randian,
Thanks for the advice; I actually used PDFescape and was quite pleased with the result. It was already frustrating enough trying to do one's own bankruptcy, but to have issues with PDF files...that's something we don't need! lol
Oh, and I eventually learned to unlock the fields...I can't tell you how frustrating that was until I figured out what was wrong!