Timeline of a Chapter 7 Case

The main risk with Chapter 7 bankruptcy is that debtors might lose their property, home, and office, to creditors. There is a lot of chapter 7 bankruptcy information so getting an experience attorney is highly recommended. Debtors can keep some of their exempt assets as defined by the courts. Any individual, company, partnership, or proprietorship is legally allowed to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy if they have not skipped a court date within the previous 180 days of filing for another type of bankruptcy and if they have been to credit counseling within the prior 180 days.

Hire a Bankruptcy Attorney

The beginning of the timeline for filing Chapter 7 bankruptcy is to choose an attorney to represent the debtor during the process. An experienced bankruptcy attorney will be able to answer all questions that a debtor might have regarding the process and can suggest alternatives to filing for bankruptcy that might save the debtor time, money, and their property from being liquidated. Attorneys can be found via a search on the Internet, by looking through the Yellow Pages, or because of a recommendation from a friend or family member.

Attend Credit Counseling

A required step in the process of filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy is for the debtor to attend credit counseling with an approved credit-counseling agency 180 days prior to filing the bankruptcy petition. On the other end of the spectrum, debtors must also take a debtor education course prior to completing the bankruptcy process. Credit counseling classes educate debtors filing for bankruptcy about restoring their credit history and their credit score as well as how to alleviate debt without filing for bankruptcy. The United States government requires debtors to attend credit-counseling courses so that debtors will know that there are other options available to them aside from filing for bankruptcy.

File the Petition for Bankruptcy and Pay Fees

The next stop on the Chapter 7 timeline includes actually filing for chapter 7 bankruptcy. This process should be done with the counsel of an attorney to make sure that all of the proper paperwork is filled out and filed with the courts when the time comes. Debtors should realize and understand that they are legally not permitted to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy more than once in a period of six years. The paperwork should be filed with the local court and should be accompanied by the mandatory fees required by the government. The fees that must be paid at the time of filing include a $245 filing fee, a $39 miscellaneous administrative fee, and a $15 trustee fee.

Meeting of the Creditors

As the timeline continues to move deeper into the process of Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the debtor will arrive at a mandatory meeting with his or her creditors. This meeting will not take place until the trustee assigned to the case actually looks through the debtors’ paperwork. The meeting with the creditors will be extremely brief, lasting roughly five to ten minutes in length, because the creditors will likely not attend the meeting. If creditors do show, they will ask the debtor questions that will seek clarification and explanations detailing why the debtor filed for bankruptcy.

Debts Discharged

The final stop along the Chapter 7 bankruptcy includes receiving the letter of chapter 7 discharge. The letter of discharge details the removal of the debts, or discharge of the debts, from the records of the debtor. If the letter of discharge never shows up in the mailbox of the debtor than he or she will not have their debts removed from their records for one or more reasons. One of those reasons could be that the debtor continues to make purchases of large amounts and the trustee feels that he or she is trying to cheat the system.

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