Filing Bankruptcy and the Trustee (who’s that?)
Who is the trustee when filing bankruptcy?
The trustee is appointed in your case by the United States Trustee. There is a group of trustee’s in this district, thirty some in Cook County and four or five in each of the other counties. Trustees are generally attorneys who practice bankruptcy and being a trustee is not their full time job. We have no control over who gets appointed.
The trustee’s job is to see if you have any property that could be a source for paying at least part of your debt. He/she does not come to your house except in extremely rare cases. We go to him/her at the date set for the meeting with the trustee. At that meeting the trustee will have a copy of your bankruptcy and he/she will ask you questions to verify the information contained in your bankruptcy especially concentrating on the assets we listed on your bankruptcy. This meeting usually lasts less than five minutes. If the trustee has any reason to suspect that any of the information is not correct or if he/she believes the values we put down are inaccurate he/she then could go or have an appraiser go to your house. That almost never happens. The great majority of the time the trustee concludes that you have no property that interests him/her and concludes the meeting.
What if I am unable to go on the day scheduled for the meeting with the trustee?
We can continue the meeting to a later date one time. The later date is usually about a month after the first date. We have no control over when that later date will be. You then must be at the later date. If you do not go on the second date the trustee will ask the Court to dismiss your case. Once the case is dismissed you are no longer protected from your creditors.
What if I can go on the day scheduled for the meeting with the trustee, but my spouse can’t?
Presuming you both filed bankruptcy, the trustee wants to see both of you at the same time. So
if one or the other of you can’t make it, then it will be continued to a later date for both of you
to be there together. Once again if either or both of you don’t attend the next time the trustee
can ask to have your case dismissed and you would then no longer be protected from your
creditors.
What kind of proof of my social security number do I need to bring to the meeting with the
trustee?
You will need to bring to the meeting a picture ID and something with your social security
number. Your driver’s license or state ID and social security card or W-2 and sometimes other
forms with your social security number are acceptable.
What else do I need to bring to the meeting with the trustee?
Nothing other than your ID and proof of social security. The trustee usually needs nothing from
you. In some rare cases at the meeting the trustee could ask for some other documents like tax
returns, appraisals, or insurance statements, but we can provide these things through the mail
later if requested.
Will you be there at the meeting with the trustee?
Yes. This is part of my job. At times I may have a scheduling conflict of some kind and may not
be there myself. I will hire another attorney at my expense to be there in my place. Any
attorney I would hire would also be a bankruptcy attorney who I would inform about your case.
Does anyone else attend the meeting with the trustee?
No, not usually. All creditors are invited to attend but they usually do not show. Once in a while
creditors may show for the purpose of getting reaffirmations done at the meeting but even in
those cases the creditor meets with you and I in the hall and they don’t normally actually sit in
on the meeting itself.
How long does the meeting with the trustee take?
The meeting itself usually takes only three to five minutes. It is quick. But the trustee’s schedule
many meetings on the same day and several at the same time. So we may have to wait for
quite some time before your meeting is actually called.