90 Days to Financial Freedom
So just a quick review. Chapter seven is the liquidation bankruptcy. That’s the one you want to do if you can. It’s a deal and you’re going to give up all your qualifying debt in exchange for any of your unprotected assets. And of course, you want a good deal. You want to get rid of lots of debts and not give up any property. And if that’s the case, it’s a no-brainer. Depending on where the scales fall, you’ll decide whether to do it. So that’s the bankruptcy we’re talking about, not chapter 13 or 11 or some of these others that we’ll get into later.
Talking about your basic straightforward one and done bankruptcy. So from the date of filing in just about exactly 30 days, you’ll have a 341 creditor meeting. That is an opportunity for your creditors to question you. As you’ll recall, they got notice when you filed by mail and electronically, so they’ll know about the meeting. Most of the time they don’t show up. Most of your stuff is straightforward, but say if you’re hiding a piece, the collateral you didn’t tell me about or something weird is going on, they’ve got that opportunity. The trustee will ask you, did you provide all the information I used to file your bankruptcy? Did you list everything? Did you leave anything out? Has anything changed? Basic questions, are you a real person? The whole thing takes maybe five minutes. Fortunately, now it’s by telephone and it may or may not stay that way. That’s due to COVID.
We’re all hoping it will stay by phone. Much easier for our clients obviously to get there and attend. That happens 30 days in and then there’s an additional 60 days to accomplish whatever else needs to be accomplished. For example, filing reaffirmation. As you might recall that’s bringing your debt, usually your car notes back out of bankruptcy so you can keep your vehicle and keep paying the note. Those need to be filed. If you wait till after 60 days, you’re too late. It’s plenty of time. We get on that right after the creditor meeting, giving us that full 60 days. But you don’t want to wait too long.
The only time this is going to change where it’s going to be more than 90 days is, for example, if someone files an adversary against you, highly unlikely. Again, unless you’ve been fraudulent, you’ve lied to me about something, or left something out, chances are none of this is in the realm of possibility of happening. And when those 60 days are up, you’ll get that discharge and that’s what you’ve been waiting for. Sometimes the case will take a week or two to close after that, but that discharge is the date you’re looking for and that’ll be 90 days. So file by January 1st, done by the end of March.
As always, you can reach me, I am an OKC chapter 7 lawyer. You can contact me at Edward Kelley law, K-E-L-L-E-Ylaw@gmail.com, or by phone at (580) 478-3130. You can also reach me at oklahomacitybankruptcyattorney.pro.