So you’ve completed our initial bankruptcy worksheet either online or by hand and submitted it to us – – – GREAT! Congratulations! You are now on your way to regaining control of your financial future – but where do you go from here? What can you expect? Below you will find a general timeline and additional information about the bankruptcy process from this point forward:

Want to know more about the bankruptcy process or talk to an experienced lawyer about your specfic situation? Call 1-888-808-9291 today.

Bankruptcy Timeline

After you complete one of our detailed bankruptcy worksheets, Attorney Chris Felden will assess your situation and prepare a draft of your bankruptcy petition for you to review.We will go through and highlight places that we need you to sign and mark places where we can see we need additional information. This petition will then be mailed to you with additional information about filing bankruptcy. You can expect to receive this initial petition packet within a week of submitting your worksheet to our office. At some point you may wonder “How important is it to disclose all of my debts when seeking to file for bankruptcy relief?” The answer is very simple: Whether your failure to list certain debts is an honest mistake or a deliberate action, Trustees take bankruptcy fraud very seriously and you can be prosecured in Federal Court even if it was just a simple error that went uncorrected.

After you have received your initial bankruptcy paperwork in the mail, please take some time to read through everything carefully. If you see anything that you would like added or changed, please feel free to do so directly on this petition draft. If at any time you have questions regarding this paperwork, or if you would like to schedule an appointment to review everything with Mr. Felden, please do not hestiate to contact us at 888-808-9291. We are here to assist you in any way that we possibly can. Once your paperwork has been sufficiently reviewed, please return it to our Cary, North Carolina office for further processing.

Upon receiving your returned petition draft we will make the necessary corrections and/or additions. This process usually takes a week to complete.
Once we have updated your paperwork, we will reveiw everything again to see if any additional information is needed. If nothing else is needed to proceed, your bankruptcy is now ready to be filed. Generally speaking, we are usually about two to three weeks out with our filing. (At this time you can request an updated draft of your paperwork to review, however this is not necessary to proceed.)

Once your bankruptcy has been filed, we will immediately send you an e-mail with your case information. At this point, the court will appoint a Bankruptcy Trustee to your case. In most instances, the court will also grant an Automatic Stay, which means that creditors are (temporarily) prevented from taking furthur action against you outside of the bankruptcy court.

Upon receiving a copy of your filed bankruptcy petition and other notices from the bankruptcy court, we will prepare another packet of information for you. Contained in this packet will be more details about your bankruptcy, your meeting with the bankruptcy trustee, and other items that may relate to your case. (You will also be receiving a copy of these notices directly from the bankruptcy court.)

Approximately one week prior to your scheduled meeting with the bankruptcy trustee, we will be contacting you to let you know if any additional information is needed in order to proceed with you bankruptcy. This additional information may include updated pay statements, domestic support documentation, bank account statements, and tax returns.

On the day of your scheduled 341 meeting (this is the meeting with the bankruptcy trustee and is the only thing that you are required to attend), Mr. Felden will meet you at the Federal Courthouse 15 minutes prior to the start of your meeting. He will be available to answer any questions that you may have at this time.

From this point forward we will be working toward the confirmation of your bankruptcy and the final discharge of your debts. Before you are eligible for your discharge, you must complete a debtor education course which is designed to help you develop skills for budgeting, managing money and making the most of the fresh start that this bankruptcy filing has give you. In bankruptcy cases, “discharge” is both a forgiveness of debts, like credit cards and medical bills, and an exit from your bankruptcy when the case is complete.

If at any point throughout this process you have any questions or require additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us at 888-808-9291.