Riverside County Law Firm - The Chapter 7 Timeline

When you first file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the Riverside County courts, a trustee is appointed to oversee your estate, which becomes the bankruptcy estate. You are not permitted to make most kinds of financial transactions for the duration of the bankruptcy proceeding. The trustee has the responsibility to see that as many of your unsecured creditors are paid as is possible, based upon the sale of your non-exempt property. The courts ensure that the trustee has an incentive to find as much for the creditors as possible, due to the fact that the trustee is paid a percentage of anything that he or she is able to recover for those creditors.

You will attend what is known as a creditor's meeting after you have filed for bankruptcy. During this meeting, the bankruptcy trustee will ask you about any assets and obligations you have listed on the bankruptcy forms. Your creditors may attend this meeting as well and they have the option to question you about your debts. However, it is highly unlikely for an individual's creditors to actually attend such a meeting, and in most instances the creditor's meeting only lasts for about 10 minutes.

After the meeting, the bankruptcy trustee will categorize your property and assets as exempt or non-exempt. He or she will sell off non-exempt property in order to pay your non-secured creditors. Once the bankruptcy trustee has exhausted the funds obtained from liquidating your non-exempt property, most of the remaining unsecured debts are discharged, leaving you in the clear, financially speaking.

It is possible that not all of your non-exempt property will be sold. This is particularly true if the items are of little value, or if they would be too cumbersome to move, store, or sell for the benefit of creditors. Likewise, if the bankruptcy trustee notes that selling an item would leave little or no money for your unsecured creditors, he or she may leave that property, in a process known as abandoning the property to the debtor. In this way, you may be able to keep more of your property than you first imagined.

A typical Chapter 7 bankruptcy can take anywhere from 4 to 6 months to complete from start to finish. If you need help with your Riverside County bankruptcy proceedings, please contact our office. We can provide help for every step of the way, including providing explanations on exemptions, liquidation, and Chapter 7 bankruptcy's long-term effects. Don't delay - the sooner you contact one of our Riverside County Bankruptcy professionals, the sooner you will be able to get back on your feet again.