Hiding Stuff From Your Bankruptcy Attorney - Don't Do It
Sometimes a person filing for bankruptcy will think it's not necessary to tell their bankruptcy attorney everything. They will decide which facts and financial information for bankruptcy attorney needs to hear. In the case of filing bankruptcy, less is not more, the bankruptcy attorney should be bombarded with all the information regarding a person's financial history. The attorney should be the one that decides whether the information is important or not. Failing to share something with the legal counsel and end up with a loss of the bankruptcy discharge.
When it comes to bankruptcy filing, honesty is of utmost importance. Many people think they don't need to list all of their creditors as if they pick and choose which people to file bankruptcy on. It is required under the bankruptcy code to list all of one's creditors. All means all, not a partial list. Many people have the idea that if a credit card has no or low balance on and as long as the payment is current they can keep it open. It sounds like a good idea but it doesn't work that way. Creditors randomly run credit checks on their customers and when they see the big scarlet B on the credit report that account will be closed. Not only that, if the bankruptcy trustee finds out, they will start to go over everything with a fine tooth comb because the person has already been dishonest with them.
Another area where people tend to shade the truth is when listing their property. Some feel it's not necessary to list everything and they give their attorney a partial list of the property they own. Or even they lower the value lower than what it is really worth. Once again, all of the individual's property becomes part of the bankruptcy estate and everything needs to be listed.
A person will not need to list five pairs of socks worth five dollars, but they will need to list their entire wardrobe as a whole with an estimated replacement value, taking into consideration the age and the condition. Most of the time the attorney will tell the individual to use swap meet prices. Stop worrying about the outcome, the bankruptcy attorney will know how to protect the maximum amount of property using bankruptcy exemption laws.
If the bankruptcy trustee finds out the individual is hiding property, they could charge the individual with fraud or in the least take the property. It's much easier to be honest and let the attorney earn their keep. The trustee usually won't question the facts unless you give them a reason to. Nothing is worse for a bankruptcy attorney, to be blindsided by an allegation of dishonesty by the trustee. In this technology driven world, it's easy for the bankruptcy trustee to find out about an individual filing bankruptcy.
Resources: http://bit.ly/1r7jU8c http://ezinearticles.com/?Hiding-Stuff-From-YourBankruptcy-Attorney---Dont-Do-It&id=8037996
Thank you for reading!