San Diego Bankruptcy Lawyer – The bankruptcy lawyer for the debtor must be sensitive to the apprehension and nervousness that the debtor may feel at the prospect of attendance at a meeting of creditors. For many San Diego consumer debtors in debt relief bankruptcy, the meeting may be the first time they have ever been part of the San Diego bankruptcy judicial system. Many debtors are embarrassed about having to undergo San Diego bankruptcy debt relief to begin with, and are uncertain about the nature and extent of the questioning they may receive. The debtor should be assured that no one is at the meeting to make moral judgments about their attempts at debt relief.
While, however, no person at the debt relief bankruptcy meeting is there to make moral judgments, or to condemn the debtor to prison for financial failure or a lack of personal responsibility, the debtor may feel like it is happening. At the commencement of the San Diego bankruptcy meeting, the debtor will be required to produce two forms of identification, and one must be a picture identification with the same address on it as the debtor listed in the schedules. If the San Diego debtor does not have the required identification, the bankruptcy lawyer should just continue the meeting to another date; however, practitioners have reported that a few trustees bring a motion seeking dismissal of the case, presumably because the debtor failed to “cooperate” with the trustee. Many debtors take this as treating them as if they have committed some sort of unspecified crime, even if they see this happening to another person, unless they are prepared by their San Diego bankruptcy attorney in advance of the debt relief meeting.
Some San Diego debtors may not have a driver’s license. In most bankruptcy states, anyone can obtain a picture identification from the same San Diego agency that issues driver’s licenses by presenting the same documents as are required for a driver’s license (without the driving tests, of course). In some states check cashing businesses, and in particular those that wire money out of the country, can create a picture identification immediately, and generally without charge (but some require a birth certificate). If a bankruptcy lawyer brings a motion to dismiss a debtor’s case solely on the basis of some sort of lack or insufficiency of identification, the lawyer may wish to argue that the debtor is entitled to debt relief under the Code absent some evidence she is not whom she says she is. The requirement, which is so far always a local rule, seems doubtful if it requires people who don’t have a photo identification to get it since almost anyone with some form of identification can get a photo identification that does not prove any more than the original identification did. Some discount warehouses, such as Sam’s or Costco, issues photo identifications to customers, which is certainly better than nothing.
San Diego bankruptcy lawyers like to ask a quiet debtor, “Mr. X, if I were to ask you the same questions as I asked your wife, would your answers be substantially the same?” And then pause expectantly. An unprepared debtor may conclude from this that there was something wrong with the other spouse’s statement and try to change, clarify or add to their spouse’s answers. This panicky attempt is generally made to “fix” some statement that actually is correct, but the leading nature of the lawyer’s questions can so frighten the other debtor that he or she will try to say something different in the hopes that the differing statement, even if it is not accurate, will please the San Diego lawyer. Yet another reason for reviewing in the calm of counsel’s office what the questions at the meeting might be.
In most states there is a “marital communications” privilege which can be invoked, although doing so is certain to attract unwanted attention, and further debt relief examinations of the debtors in an effort to discover what would have been said, but for the privilege. In effect, the trustee will be convinced that the debtors are guilty of something if there is any sort of hesitation or refusal to answer, or worse yet, to assert an otherwise legal privilege. Again, the way to avoid these moments is to gather and cross-check information on the debtors’ schedules and other filed documents, to remind the debtors in writing a few days before the meeting date of the importance of reviewing everything (yes, those mandatory notices too), and to spend a short time with the debtors before the San Diego bankruptcy meeting to describe its prospective contents. It is poor representation to let consumer debtors, who are terrified anyway, go to an open-ended San Diego debt relief meeting without proper preparation and review beforehand. Also bankruptcy lawyers may think it appropriate to explain to the debtors that, if the bankruptcy trustee asks whether the debtors have reviewed their testimony with a lawyer before attending, the debtors are to answer in the affirmative or the lawyer will appear not to have done his or her job. This question is not invasive of the attorney-client privilege, since it doesn’t ask what was discussed; it is generally asked by newer San Diego debt relief trustees to try to shake up the debtors in the hopes of obtaining information outside of what would otherwise be appropriate.
The meeting will be conducted by an Assistant U.S. Trustee, or by a member of the panel of trustees, and will generally be held at a San Diego site other than the federal courthouse. While somewhat informal, the bankruptcy meeting will be tape recorded, and the debtor(s) will be expected to testify under oath. There have been no decisions over whether the Federal Rules of Evidence apply to testimony given in the meeting; however, creditors are not to use the debt relief meeting as a way of proving their claim, or as a substitute for a deposition.
We at the Law Office of Harold D. Thompson are San Diego Bankruptcy Lawyers dedicated to helping you get out of financial distress. If your debts are piling up and you are looking for debt relief and a “fresh start” call a San Diego Bankruptcy Lawyer that will fight for your rights. Bankruptcy fees start as low as $800.00. Don’t be fooled by big advertisers charging thousands of dollars. Call us TODAY at 619.615.0767 or visit one of our two websites at www.ThompsonLawSD.com or www.MySanDiegoBankruptcy.com/bkblog.
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