In a chapter 13 bankruptcy, you will know that your case is feasible because we will spend at least two hours going over all of the court documents before we file your case. We are not going to rush you. Signing a bankruptcy petition without careful review will cause you future problems. You are much better off taking your time and reviewing the documents with your bankruptcy attorney so issues can be caught before the case is filed.
When you are ready to file a Chapter 13, I will ask you to bring me your paystubs from the last 60 days. You and I will review these paystubs together so that we can create a projected income schedule for your case.
The next step will be for us to review all of your household expenses. Together, you and I will go through each line of schedule J in your bankruptcy petition. My goal to is to make sure that we are as accurate as possible.
In some situations, we may discover that a debtor cannot afford to make the future chapter 13 payments. In those situations, we don’t file the case. We will either take a look at Chapter 7 or wait until the income situation improves so that a Chapter 13 will be feasible.
In addition to the income and budget, we will review every debt you owe. In the ideal situation, I would like to review your credit report with you as well as any bills you have received within the past few months.
While its not difficult to add a forgotten debt to your active Chapter 13 bankruptcy, I would much rather catch everything before the case is filed so that we can address potential issues beforehand. For example, many people will forget to list a debt that they cosigned for because the cosigner is making the payments. Cosigners must receive notice that the bankruptcy has been filed. Its much less stressful to have the air cleared with any cosigners before any bankruptcy gets filed.
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