Information For You Bankruptcy Attorney
When you are filing for bankruptcy, your attorney is going to want to know a series of information from you. Most importantly, he’s going to want to know what you own, what you owe, what you earn and what you spend. In my office, we have developed a confidential bankruptcy questionnaire. The questionnaire will ask you information about yourself, your name, your address, your Social Security number and where you live. We want to know your phone number, your email address and if you’ve ever filed for bankruptcy before. We’re going to want to know if you own any real estate property whether it be a single family home, a two flat, condominium, a timeshare property or any other real estate property or vacant land. We are going to want to know whether you are renting from anyone and if so, who your landlord is. We are going to want to know if you own or lease an automobile. We are going to ask you about bank accounts, checking accounts, savings accounts, household goods, about your clothing, whether you have an IRA or 401(k) or profit sharing. Whether you can sue anybody for any reason, whether it be personal injury or workers compensation claims. Whether you expect any inheritance in the next six months. Whether or not you have animals, any boats, any life insurance or any other assets that could be of value to you.
Information About Your Financial Affairs
We are going to ask you about your marital status and if you have any dependents. We’re going to want to know what your income is, where you are working and of course, we are going to want to know what your monthly expenses are. We are going to need to know your statement of financial affairs which is what you’ve made in the last three years from the job. If you’ve had other income other than a job in the last three years such as Social Security or unemployment or workers compensation. Whether you have made any large payments of over $1000 to any single creditor in the last 90 days. Whether you have been involved in any lawsuits. Whether you have closed any bank accounts in the last year. If you own a safety deposit box. If you’ve been at the same address for more than two years. We will want to know if you have any co-debtors other than you. For example, does anybody else owe money on a particular debt? Did anybody else sign on something with you? Do you have any student loans question mark to you owe any income tax that? And then of course, who you owe money to in general.
The Bankruptcy Questionnaire
This is the information that is all provided in this confidential bankruptcy questionnaire. The attorney is going to go through that questionnaire and interview you and point out any issues that he sees during the process. For example, if you have a student loan, the attorney is going to point out that that student loan is not eliminated in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. If you have IRS debt, the attorney is going to point out to you that IRS debt is typically not eliminated unless it’s more than three years old and you must have filed a return on time. The attorney will also advise you with regard to real estate in vehicles as to whether or not you keep those items and what you need to do to keep those items.
So that’s the information that you really need to provide to your attorney in the questionnaire is a starting point. And then you gather additional items that you might need such as letters from bill collectors or credit card statements that you have in your house. My law firm will also pull your credit report so that the information you provide in addition to what’s on your credit report should be a comprehensive look at your total financial situation. It is from that information that we can start to prepare your bankruptcy case and get you moving in the right direction toward either a fresh start or a reorganization.
So the information that you are going to need to provide to your attorney is typically found in the questionnaire with some additional supplements.
