Information On Bankruptcy Lawyer
Filing for bankruptcy is a difficult decision that requires careful consideration and weighing of all options. While once thought of as a taboo, now the practice is much more commonplace. A record-breaking two million Americans filed for bankruptcy last year.
If you decide to file for bankruptcy, you’ll want to have some idea about bankruptcy court, bankruptcy court procedures, who you’ll be interacting with, such as the bankruptcy lawyer and the trustee and what role each of them plays in the entire bankruptcy process. As bankruptcy law changes are plentiful, you will want to seek out the best resources to stay well informed.
Regardless of whether you file Chapter 7 Bankruptcy or Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, your case will be assigned a trustee. The trustee is the court appointed official of the Bankruptcy Estate who evaluates all your assets and administers the debtors bankruptcy estate.
Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy trustees are appointed by United States trustees. While United States trustees are government employees, Chapter 7 and 13 trustees are generally lawyers and accountants. Note that the trustee assigned to your case represents your creditors (not you) and is looking out for their best interests.
Trustees appointed to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy case usually have a more limited role than they do in Chapter 13 cases. First, your Chapter 7 trustee will be present at creditors’ meetings and ensure everything is going smoothly with your case. This meeting is typically called a “341 meeting” because section 341 of the Bankruptcy Code requires that the debtor attend this meeting so that creditors can question the debtor about debts and property.
A Chapter 7 Bankruptcy trustee will look at your list of assets (if you have any) to determine what assets are exempt from the bankruptcy proceedings. If you have non-exempt assets, your trustee will supervise the process of selling them and distributing the proceeds equally among your creditors according to the scheme of priorities in the Bankruptcy Code (these establish in which order debts must be repaid). The trustee also looks for fraud or abuse either by the debtor or the creditors. In some cases, he may have parts of the claims dismissed.
A Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Trustee is also in charge of reviewing your repayment plan and ensuring you have no difficulties following that plan. You will forward each month’s payment to him and he will distribute the funds among your creditors. Unlike with Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you can usually keep your assets in Chapter 13 since you’ll be repaying your debts either in full or part.
Ultimately, it’s important to keep in mind that the bankruptcy trustee wants to recoup as much money as possible for the creditors. Trustees who work on Chapter 13 bankruptcies earn a percentage of the money collected during the case.
Your Bankruptcy legal advisor should be able to respond to any questions and address any concerns you may have about the bankruptcy trustee as well as working with the trustee and going through the entire bankruptcy process.
Tags: Bankruptcy