How many of you had creditors fight or dispute you in Chapter 7?

If you file bankruptcy under Chapter 7, some of your non-exempt property may be sold in order to pay a portion of your debt, while the rest will be wiped out. However, if you do not have any non-exempt property, your entire debt will be discharged. But however, if you have sufficient income to pay off the debt, you may not be allowed to file Chapter 7.

Most of the time none of the creditors show up. Credit Card companies do not come for sure.

Yup, unsecured creditors dont bother showing up. Thru my own BK and the couple I have attended as moral support for others, only on occasion did a secured credit show, like for a car.

Is this the same for Chap 13??

I think it is for the most part with unsecured debts.

How come on the other thread it is made to sound like ch 13 trustee goes for the throat? Are they the "real enemy" - not the creditors?

How come on the other thread it is made to sound like ch 13 trustee goes for the throat? Are they the "real enemy" - not the creditors?

No I don't believe the trustees are the enemy, they have to follow the laws. Most are there to actually help you. I don't know what thread your referring to. Sorry.

The trustee is not your enemy - however, it needs to be said that they work for the Bankruptcy Court - not for you. It is their responsibility to ensure that your debts are paid, if at all possible, before being discharged.

Therefore, the trustee may seem hardnosed and hateful to deal with - some of them are real buggers during the hearings, and some of them are nice as pie (I've dealt with both during my BK ordeal) - but they are hired to do a job for the BK Court, and are held to very rigid standards themselves. So if they seem nit-picky and like they want to know every personal detail about your finances, please don't take it personally - it's their job to do so. And whatever you do, don't get angry with them - it won't help you one bit.

In my case, I had one trustee (a man) who was soft-spoken, very kind to me, and very nice to deal with. He knew I was nervous and worried about the whole situation, and really was quite nice. The other trustee I dealt with later in my case (a woman) was hard-nosed, loud, and almost rude when she spoke - not only to me, but to everyone. She said outright that she was not on our side and did not work for us - that's why we had lawyers. :shock: (This is true, but the way she said it, I can see why some people think the trustee is the enemy.)

Oh, and I forgot to answer the original question.

Most unsecured creditors won't bother showing up for any of the hearings. They are sent notice of the hearing far in advance of the date, and if they don't file an objection or show up to the hearing, they are lumped together with the other debts being discharged in the Ch. 7 or included in the Ch. 13 payment plan.

I have heard in the past that Sears is a stickler for showing up if you have purchased things from them using a Sears card, and demanding the merchandise be returned. I don't know if they still do this, but they did years ago. It was pretty ridiculous for them to do so, though, because in most cases, if someone bought items on a Sears credit card and then became financially destitute enough to need to file bankruptcy, there's a good chance the Sears merchandise is no longer around - it's probably been sold for money to pay bills! I heard that 9 times out of 10, the Sears rep walked away with nothing to show for their time spent at the hearing.

I have read that the BK trustee gets a piece of the action - a percentage of any assets that can be liquidated. So the trustee is not your friend.

I believe that may be true - everything I've read about how a trustee gets paid indicates that trustees get a flat fee for processing Chapter 7 cases, but they get a percentage of the recovered debts in Chapter 13 cases.

However, that still doesn't make them your enemy. If your attorney has done his/her homework, dotted all their i's and crossed all their t's, the trustee shouldn't be a problem at all. I mean, you're going to be paying the attorney a large chunk of change as well, so why be angry at the trustee for how they get paid?

none of my creditors showed up or even contested at all..i filed ch 7 and it was over in 20 min tops in court room..no one really cared to contest or show up..