Maine Bankruptcy and Debt Relief Blog

Process for Filing for Bankruptcy

Posted on 04/02/1999 at 01:33 pm by Molleur Law Offices
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To file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, a person must file a bankruptcy petition schedule, statement of financial affairs, statement of intention, and creditor mailing matrix. The filing of the bankruptcy petition instantly causes the "automatic stay" (11 U.S.C. Section 362Ca) to become effective. The automatic stay prevents creditors from contacting the person filing bankruptcy in order to collect a debt.The Bankruptcy Court, through the Clerk's office, notifies creditors of the Chapter 7 filing. The notice invites the creditors to a meeting between the Chapter 7 trustee and the person filing bankruptcy. The meeting takes place approximately 30 days after filing. The meeting is brief, usually no more than 5 minutes in length. Creditors may appear and can also question the person filing bankruptcy regarding property owned by the filer.After the meeting, the filer has 60 days to reaffirm and debts. Creditors have that same 60 day time period to initiate litigation in the Bankruptcy Court against the filer. Creditors that sue a filer in the Bankruptcy Court are generally attempting to persuade the court that the filer should not receive a discharge as to that creditor's debt because of fraud.At the end of the 60 day time period, the filer generally receives his/her Chapter 7 bankruptcy discharge. The discharge eliminates most kinds of debts, except those for child support, alimony, student loans, recent tax debt, and other debts listed in Section 523 of the Bankruptcy code.