First Meeting At Lord & Faris Law Office

In order to get an accurate picture of your financial status, please bring the following with you for your first meeting with the lawyer:

Before we file the petition you must get a credit counseling certificate from a qualified agency. We will guide you in that process.

Once you and I have filled out all the forms, we will go over it with a fine tooth comb so there are absolutely no mistakes.

Before you are discharged you have to have a complete course of “debtor education.”

You must provide a certificate before 2 weeks prior to discharge. Be very careful about getting this done promptly because if you don’t have it done by the discharge, you will be dismissed and will not be able to file again for 8 more years. In addition, whatever assets the trustee may have taken will not be returned. You can use the same agency you use when you did your pre-bankruptcy counseling.

Meeting of creditors:

We are required to go to a meeting with the Trustee about a month into your bankruptcy. It is sometimes called a 341 meeting or a hearing. The Trustee is sort of like a judge who makes decisions about your case and recommends either discharge or dismissal to the bankruptcy judge. There are many hearings on the same day and the Trustee will be working hard to get through each case efficiently.

Bankruptcy Discharge Is the Goal

Once you have your discharge, which takes three to four months after filing, the creditors will not be able to come after you any longer. You will receive a piece of paper from the bankruptcy court formally letting you know that you have been discharged from all the debt you listed in your petition. Make sure you save it with your important papers because it is likely one of the creditors will contact you again, forgetting that you have been discharged. By sending them a copy of your discharge, that should be the end of the matter. Never send the original discharge letter.