r/Bankruptcy

So my 341 went seemingly good. Trustee asked the routine questions and we got through that. She told me to tell her abt the business loss on my return. I’m like wth? (In my head of course.) Lawyer pulls up return and reviews it while I’m explaining to her that I don’t have a business, never had one. She asked if I worked 1099 at some point or for myself, I told her no. No business info was filed on my chp7 bc there’s never been one.

She pushed my 341 off until November (Bummer!) and requested a hard copy of my tax return, I originally submitted Transcripts. But she said she doesn’t really care for transcripts. Then dismissed myself and my lawyer. I went to the IRS portal to see if I could pull a copy and noticed another loss filed on my 2023 return, but not my 2024. Not sure wth my tax lady was doing. She kept her response to my lengthy text to “I’ll send a copy tonight”. As if an explanation isn’t warranted. Literally haven’t even noticed a difference in the amount of my tax return bc her fees always change, etc. Not to excuse my oversight but I’ve trusted her with my vital information over the years so I can’t deny that I’d stopped requesting hard copies or even reviewing my prepared return past skimming the usual sections and verifying names/dob/social are correct before signing for submission. Literally only file my W2 & my child’s info and daycare expenses.

Lawyer was a bit confused bc he said these are usually instances when the trustee reviews the documents beforehand and requests addt information/documentation prior to meeting rather than asking and setting it off even further. But from what he was told, she’s known to have a helluva reputation for being a hard ass & thorough to the point of being rude to drive a point home. He also asked me abt the business loss and I told him the same thing. He told me to get the hard copy ASAP so we can get it in for review and see what her next course of action is should she review and communicate prior to the next meeting.

So my question is has anyone ever experienced this? What was the outcome or action? For the Vets/Lawyers here is the Trustees action normal? Literally freaking out a bit and don’t want my case to be dismissed or thrown out over this. Not sure if I should go to someone else and amend or what. Any insight is greatly appreciated.

It's been 181 days since I filed my chapter 7. I have gotten my discharge and have passed the window it could be reopened. I can finally breath knowing 70k is no longer hovering over my head. Now to start the rebuild. I already have one new card with $500 balance with which I am treading carefully.

It has been a crazy year. I started seriously looking into Chapter 7 after Amex got two different default judgments against me. I was unemployed, in grad school full time, job hunting, and also getting out of a pretty nasty divorce, so basically everything hit at once.

I had around $90k in unsecured debt that accumulated slowly and then very quickly defaulted once the divorce and unemployment happened. I’ve basically been surviving off student loan refunds. I know the student loans themselves aren’t dischargeable, but that money is literally how I’ve been keeping my mortgage paid, utilities on, buying groceries, etc.

Once my divorce was finally done, I was able to file!
My filing appointment yesterday was about three hours and I was SO anxious. There were multiple points where I started getting a little teary because I had convinced myself something was going to go wrong. My attorney was phenomenal though. He’s been doing this for around 30 years and has handled about 4,000 Chapter 7 cases, and he told me he’s never filed one that didn’t ultimately get discharged because he’s so thorough before filing.

The biggest thing I was worried about was my bank history because it looks absolutely insane without context. Since I was scared of bank garnishment since Amex couldn’t wage garnish an unemployed person, whenever I got a student loan refund I would withdraw most of it in cash and then deposit smaller amounts back in whenever I needed to pay my mortgage or bills. At first even my attorney was like, “Oh my God, this is complicated,” and said the trustee would probably look closely at all the cash movement, which obviously made me panic, but once we actually went through it, it was way simpler than it looked. Everything traced back to the student loan refunds, the deposits and bills made sense, every dollar was accounted for, and I am unfortunately not secretly sitting on a mountain of cash somewhere.

He knows I’m very anxious, so he told me if I want to play it extra safe, just give it about a week for everything to process and creditor notices to go out, and then I can finally start using my bank account like a normal person again instead of running to an ATM every time I need to pay a bill.

Honestly, the relief is unreal 🤍

I know I still have my 341 meeting and I’m not discharged yet, but just getting to the point of officially filing feels like such a huge weight off my shoulders. Also, I really love this subreddit. I’ve posted questions here throughout this whole process and people have always been incredibly helpful. If you’re lurking and terrified to talk to an attorney, just do the consultation. Having someone look at MY actual situation instead of me doomscrolling and applying everyone else’s bankruptcy to my own made such a difference.

And if anyone is in Ohio and needs a bankruptcy attorney, I have a phenomenal recommendation because this man handled my chaotic paperwork, approximately one million anxious questions, and me almost crying, and somehow I left feeling completely relieved.

Anyway. Chapter 7 is officially filed.
Holy shit.

I thought this might be helpful to someone - I’m just over two years out of a 5-year, 60% chapter 13 and life is really good. The time before my bk was, as everyone knows, a total low point and insanely stressful. Stressful, demoralizing, hopeless. All-consuming. The ch 13 was hard and friggin long, but I’m so grateful it happened - I am at a completely different place in life now, so much better. My credit score is well above 800, I have an honest to god emergency fund, my retirement savings is even relatively on track. I have two credit cards with obscenely high credit limits that I use rarely and in 2+ years I’ve never carried a balance/paid interest. I generally live well below my means. I feel like bk changed my brain chemistry or something - and I’m actually grateful I didn’t qualify for a ch 7 because I needed the long damn slog to really learn the lessons I needed to learn. A quick three-month discharge or whatever would absolutely not have done it for me.

Anyway, it’s expensive as shit to live rn and I'm not rolling in money, but money is not very stressful for me and that’s a miracle. Not trying to make it sound easy, but I thought maybe that could give some people hope? I hope so 💙