How Long Will I Be In Court For My 341 Meeting of Creditors?

If you're filing for bankruptcy, you'll need to attend a hearing called the 341 Meeting of Creditors. In most cases, you can expect your involvement in the hearing to take less than five minutes.

Your case will be placed on a calendar with probably ten or so other cases. The trustee will attempt to hear all of these cases within a one hour period.

Nothing requires your trustee to complete the calendar by the end of the hour. If an involved case takes longer than expected then your trustee will likely not finish the calendar within the one hour time frame. This means that the next hour’s calendar will start later than expected. However, generally, this does not happen. If a trustee realizes that a given case is taking up too much time then generally he will continue this given case to another date and time.

Trustees generally do not like falling behind on their calendars. Therefore, you should expect that your case will be heard, along with all the other cases on calendar, within the one hour your matter is set for hearing. Your actual time before the bankruptcy trustee is likely to be only 3-5 minutes. This is especially true if your bankruptcy petition is complete and without errors, and if you have timely turned in your tax return and pay advances to the trustee.

The trustee will be swearing you and, if you are married, your spouse in, checking your identification and social security cards, and asking you all of his questions during this 3-5 minute period.

Most of our clients take a half day off from work to attend their 341 Meeting of Creditors. This allows them time to drive to the Court, find a place to park, attend their Meeting of Creditors, decompress after their hearing, and drive back to work.

If you have further questions please feel free to contact our office at 888-801-6558 for a free consultation. We have office locations in Fairfield, Sacramento, Roseville, Stockton, and Auburn.

Disclaimer: The information provided on this site is not legal advice but general information only. This article is only a basic introduction to this issue. You should seek legal advice prior to filing for bankruptcy.