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Bankruptcy Process

 

Bankruptcy begins with meeting with attorney David Enos at your free initial consultation. During that time, David will listen to you about your current situation - your income, expenses and other obstacles you face. Based on that, David will explain the general concepts of bankruptcy and the specifics of how filing bankruptcy will effect your specific situation. David will also discuss the benefits and negatives of bankruptcy.  This free consultation can be very critical because there may be some debts that you are advised to stop paying immediately in order to avoid wasting money on loan payments that may be discharged in your bankruptcy.

 

Once you hire our office we will have you complete worksheets that detail you assets, debts and transactions you may have been involved with over the last couple of years. You will also be asked to gather some required documents like recent tax returns, pay stubs, account statements and the like.  

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Once you return your paperwork our office will input your information into the required schedules and statements to be filed with the Bankruptcy Court. Then you will return to our office to review each page to make sure the information to be filed with the Court is accurate and complete.

Just prior to filing your case you will need to complete a credit counseling class that is required by the bankruptcy code. This class can be taken in person or over the internet. The internet class takes about an two hours to compete, and can be worked on over several days. Once you complete the class our office will be emailed a certificate of completion which acts as a ticket allowing us to file your case.

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Our office will review your case and if eligible for chapter 7, your case will then be filed with the United States Bankruptcy Court. Federal law now prohibits creditors from taking any action to collect on a debt or interfere with your property. This law is called the “Automatic Stay.” The automatic stay will stop any law suit currently filed against you, prohibit creditors from calling you or repossessing your vehicles or other property.

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The bankruptcy court will then send notices to all your creditors informing them of your creditor meeting. The interesting fact is that creditors almost never come; and so it will be just you, your attorney David Enos, and the local trustee at the meeting. See our creditor meeting information page to learn what to expect at the creditor meeting.

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If you filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, your first plan payment to the Trustee will be due about this time. There will be a confirmation hearing in Chapter 13 cases about a month after the creditor meeting and then after that all you have to do is make your regular monthly plan payments. See our Chapter 13 page for more information.

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If you filed a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, our office will begin processing reaffirmation agreements with your secured creditors after the creditor meeting and working with the Trustee to get the case ready for discharge. Also, at this time you will need to complete a second class called the Financial Management Class and provide our office a certificate of completion for the class.

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About 70 days after your creditor meeting the bankruptcy court will review your case.  If all the requirements have been met, the Court will issue your Discharge Order, which is the court document what wipes out all your debts and closes out the case. At this point you should refer to our Reestablishing Credit page to learn how to raise your credit after bankruptcy.

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See our Frequently Asked Questions page for more information.

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If you are considering filing for bankruptcy, please contact the Law Offices of David Enos for a free consultation with an Amarillo bankruptcy lawyer today (806)372-7307. 
 

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