Filing Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

The woman calling has a question about filing for bankruptcy, Brian Dailey and Justin Grove do a great job of answering her question.

Jean: All right.

Brian Dailey: What can we do for you? You’re on the Law Show.

Jean: Okay. My husband and I filed Chapter 7. We’ve actually just retained the attorney. We were told to call all of our creditors and let them know the name of the attorney and the phone number. I did that with all of them back in February, and we got a summons yesterday from one of them; someone came to our door. So I’m going to call Monday morning first thing this attorney that’s on the piece of paper and tell them this, but what can I expect them to tell me? Why have they done this? Because I was told that’s it, once you took in a name and a number, they can’t pursue anymore.

Brian Dailey: Hey, Jean, I’ve got a question for you before Justin rings in on this. But do you know for a fact that your petition for Chapter 7 is already been filed at the Federal Court?

Jean: Not filed, we retained services. We paid 50% and then we were waiting on some other things to become finalized before we actually gave the full amount.

Brian Dailey: Well, Jean, Justin can tell you exactly why this is going on.

Justin Grove: Yeah, Jean, what’s happened is you hadn’t filed your bankruptcy petition so all your creditors are still free to sue you, they’re still free to collect their judgments, and they are still free to add interest to everything that you’re doing. Until that bankruptcy petition is filed, they’re going to keep suing you, they can get a judgment which is they’re going to do if you don’t answer that complaint, and then they can go after your bank accounts. So until that thing is filed, you have no protection. Just–yeah.

Jean: Really? I thought once we gave the name and number to them that we were filing Chapter 7, they will get Cease and Desist and they can’t talk problems anymore or anything.

Brian Dailey: You only get the benefit of the Automatic Stay. It’s not the Cease and Desist; it’s called the Automatic Stay. You only get the benefit of that once you filed that petition. So right now you’re held up. Unless you can get that petition filed this week, you’re going to still be pursued by these people.

Justin Grove: Right.

Brian Dailey: Now you’ve got a little more work to do because you got to keep track of those summons and complaints that you’re going to be receiving. So call your attorney, get this straight with him, get him paid up, and get him to file the petition. If you have any trouble with that at all whatsoever, call Justin for a free initial consultation, okay?

Jean: Okay, thank you.

Brian Dailey: Thanks for calling The Law Show. We’re going to continue entering all your legal questions at 866-66-LAWYER. That’s 866-66-LAWYER.