It is still necessary for you to sign your bankruptcy petition even in the era of electronic case filing. In its infinite wisdom, congress decided that you must sign an original bankruptcy petition. That signed petition is not filed with the court. We call this the wet signature. Since I have unlimited space, and don’t have anything else to do with it, congress decided that the best place to store your wet signed bankruptcy petition is in the office of your bankruptcy attorney.
I actually schedule an appointment to meet with you to review the entire bankruptcy petition for accuracy. When you come in I will need the following documents, yes more documents, it seems to never end:
1. Government issued photo id. Politically correct term for drivers license or state id card.
2. Social security card, or recent W-2 or 1099 from your tax return with you social security number.
3. Statements from all bank accounts for the past 90 days, including a printout with the balances on the date of your signing appointment.
4. Any pay stubs you have received up to the date of your appointment that you have not yet provided.
The photo id and proof of social security number are actually required for your meeting of creditors. You can not imagine how many clients forget these things in spite of numerous reminders to bring them. I want them to be part of my file so we can lessen the possibility of the trustee adjourning the meeting of creditors to another date. Help me here, I’m trying to save you money and time.
In a previous life when I was trying to be the least expensive bankruptcy attorney around, I would flag the petition at each place you needed to sign. I would put you in a room and tell you to go through it, sign where there is a flag, and make a list of anything that was wrong. The result? Hardly anyone read anything. They just signed each flagged line skipping everything in between. This was usually okay. In some cases things had changed since the consultation and the bankruptcy petition was plain wrong.
Things are different now. You, and your spouse if it is a joint bankruptcy petition, will sit with me in my office. There will be no interruptions. We will go over each and every line on your bankruptcy petition. The wet copy becomes even wetter. You will initial each and every page that does not require you to sign. If there is a change you will note it on the petition, and at the same time I will correct on my computer which will be uploaded to the court during filing.
When we are done with the bankruptcy petition singing appointment, We will have a wet copy that is as accurate as possible and a computer version which is identical. Depending the situation, I will either file bankruptcy for you while you are sitting in front of me, or later if I have other signing appointment that same date.
For many clients, this appointment is the first time they actually see the amount of work that goes into filing bankruptcy. Many comment that I should be charging more. It’s nice to hear, but I haven’t listened yet.
Picture sold at istockphoto. Picture by cruphoto.
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Tom:
I am not your attorney, and I am not licensed in Florida. All I can really do is to give you some general information. I have never had a trustee take money from a client when it is on deposit in a bank account from wages. Where this normally comes into play in Northern OH is when some other non-exempt cash type asset is recovered for the benefit of creditors. This could be a tax refund, investments, savings bonds… The trustee will then determine the non-exempt value of the bank account to “add to the pie.”
You should confer with your attorney as to how to handle your next pay check. Unless you are making really big bucks, I don’t expect a problem.
In Cleveland filing is expected to occur in much closer proximity to signing than a full week. Maybe your district is different.
Hi..
Great article. I read thru it carefully trying to answer a problem im having.
My attorney has me really confused. Everywhere i have read points to having as low a balance as possible upon filing. I get paid next Thurs (bi-monthly) and will sign the Ch7 paperwork next Tuesday with a bank balance of around $150 or less. The problem im worried about is that the attorney is telling me that they will file up to a week after we sign the paperwork and not to worry about the balance on filing date, and that the balance when we signed the paperwork is suffiicient.
I asked about the balance on filing day and was told that the trustee will look at that but they know that the account fluctuates thruout the month and that i dont need to worry.
With persoanl property i use up all of exemptions. I did read this online for FL exemptions:
Wages
222.11 – For head of family, 100% of earnings up to $500 a week; Applies to either unpaid or paid wages, or wages deposited in a bank account for up to 6 months.
Would this mean that $1000 or my bi-weekly pay is exempt?
Should i just spend down my paycheck when i receive it next Thursday to be safe?
Thx for the help..