May a Creditor Stop my Chapter 7 Bankruptcy discharge?
Transcript:
Hi, I'm Matt McArthur, Bankruptcy attorney at Clear Counsel Law Group. I recently sat down with a person in my office, who was getting ready to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and they asked the question, "Can a creditor fight against my discharge?" In other words, can a creditor come in and make problems that would prevent me from obtaining a successful completion of my bankruptcy case? The answer to this question was yes. Creditors do have the right to be involved in the bankruptcy process.
Notice to the creditors, anyone you owe money to, is sent out at the beginning of the bankruptcy case informing them of the bankruptcy filings and they're allowed to be involved in the process everywhere, beginning at the 341 meeting of creditors, where creditors can come and ask you questions related to the debts that you owe them. There's also a deadline that is set for creditors, 60 days after this meeting, that they have to file what we call an objection to your discharge, or file essentially a lawsuit against you inside of your bankruptcy case that would object to the discharge of this debt.
This is a situation that's fairly rare in bankruptcy cases. It is a right that creditors do have, and they do have the ability to exercise this right, but I would say in my experience, over 99% of cases don't have any involvement from creditors at either the 341 meeting of creditors or any objections to discharge filed in the debtor's case.
If you're worried about a particular debt, it's certainly something worth bringing up to your bankruptcy attorney before you file for bankruptcy. The attorney can assess whether or not this creditor would be inclined to file for an objection to your discharge. If a creditor fails to file a timely objection to your discharge, within the 60 days following your meeting of creditors, they can no longer pursue their objection; time has run out for this creditor and you'll have successfully completed your bankruptcy case.
All these things are definitely something that you want to review with an experienced professional. Please consider meeting with a bankruptcy attorney if you have any doubt at all as to whether or not a creditor would fight you inside of your bankruptcy case. That's the best advice that you can really get, is from an experienced professional that has dealt with these sort of issues before.
Again, this is Matt McArthur, Clear Counsel Law Group, saying goodbye for now.
