What is a Creditor Hearing?
What is a creditor hearing? Also known as a 341 meeting, this gathering requires that you answer numerous questions about your particular case.
If you are picturing a firing squad ready to take you down, you are only half right. Unless your filing is somewhat suspicious, most creditors do not show up for this type of meeting. However, you are expected to show up and answer questions posed by a trustee, examiner, or United States trustee. More often than not, your bankruptcy attorney will also appear at this meeting, though they will not be able to answer for you. During this time, your attorney is only there to object to certain questions that are not fair. This is the most basic answer to the above question (what is a creditor hearing?), though it can be slightly more complicated.
Most of the time, this meeting takes about fifteen minutes to complete. If there are any creditors that dispute your claim, you may have to go through numerous court hearings. Following this meeting, you will be sent discharge papers that mark the beginning of your bankruptcy. Most of the time, those that file Chapter 13 bankruptcies will not be given discharge papers until all payments have been made to all creditors. Those that file Chapter 7 usually receive their papers in approximately 90 days, though larger cities will take a longer amount of time.
This type of meeting is the only meeting (usually) that you will have to attend concerning your situation. Once this meeting has been adjourned, your creditors can no longer call you, send you letters, or harass you in any manner. In many ways, the 341 meeting is a lot like the final say regarding your present debts. Creditors cannot decide to dispute your claim after this meeting in any manner. Now that you know the answer to the original question (what is a creditor hearing?), you can relax.
While this article gives you a general overview of the meeting itself, there are many more details that should be considered. Contact a bankruptcy lawyer in order to find out all that you need to know. General information can be helpful, but it is not meant to be taken as legal advice.
What is a creditor hearing? Thankfully, it’s the only meeting that you will have to go to during this difficult process.