Frequently Asked Questions About Bankruptcy In Minnesota

The bankruptcy court requires tax returns or tax transcripts with your bankruptcy petition. Either one is acceptable. If you don't have a copy of your tax return you can request a tax transcript for free from the IRS. Please keep in mind that this process can take up to 2 weeks.

There are two ways to do this. Either you can call 1-800-908-9946 . Or you can request it in the mail by printing out the form from http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f4506t.pdf and mailing it to the address on the last page.

After you file for bankruptcy but before your hearing with the bankruptcy trustee, you must complete a second class. This course can be done online, in person, or over the phone. Some websites with the course are: www.hummingbird.org, or www.moneymanagement.org. Make sure that you select the "after bankruptcy financial management course." After you watch the video and answer the questions, make sure to tell them that Curtis Walker is your attorney so that they can send us the certificate.

Our letter to you explains several other licensed financial management course providers.

The bankruptcy hearings, which are called the "meeting of creditors" are held in Room 402 of the United States Courthouse at 316 North Robert St. St Paul, MN 55101. For directions, click the following link: http://goo.gl/QP22c, click "get directions," and enter your address.

The attorney will meet you outside the room. Please arrive 15 minutes early so that the attorney can explain the process to you and we can make sure you have everything ready. There are 4 documents you must bring:
1) Photo ID
2) Proof of your Social Security Number
3) Most recent paystub for all jobs you have
4) a bank statement for the day we filed your bankruptcy for each and every bank and credit union account you have even if the balance is zero.

You should have received two letters telling us which courtroom to go to. One from us, and one from the court. Make sure that you go to the courtroom in the letter.

If you are filing a Chapter 13, your hearing will be in a different place. The Chapter 13 hearings are held in Room 310 in the Plymouth Building at 12 South 6th Street, Minneapolis MN 55402. For directions, click the following link: http://goo.gl/UpRbt, click "get directions," and enter your address.

The attorney will meet you outside the room. Please arrive 15 minutes early so that the attorney can explain the process to you and we can make sure you have everything ready. There are 4 documents you must bring:
1) Photo ID
2) Proof of your Social Security Number
3) Most recent paystub for all jobs you have
4) a bank statement for the day we filed your bankruptcy for each and every bank and credit union account you have even if the balance is zero.

You should have received two letters telling us which courtroom to go to. One from us, and one from the court. Make sure that you go to the courtroom in the letter.

A bankruptcy discharge will remain on your credit report for 7 to 10 years, but will eventually improve your credit rating. Credit ratings are computed in part by looking at how much debt you have as compared to the amount of credit you have unused. Before bankruptcy people often have several maxed-out credit cards, and it is these credit cards that are giving them the bad credit rating because they have much more debt than credit. A bankruptcy discharge creates the opposite situation by wiping out these debts, so that the filer has not used any of his available credit. Think about it from the lender's point of view, would you rather lend to someone who already owes thousands of dollars to others, or to someone who has no other debts, but just filed bankruptcy?

Most of our clients receive credit card offers within the month after they file bankruptcy, and many get home mortgages within 2 to 3 years of their discharge. The best way to maintain your credit rating in the face of mounting debt is to file bankruptcy immediately and start over rather than struggle over time to attempt to pay off debts that are constantly increased by late fees and interest.

- You cannot pay your bills as they come due
- You are borrowing on credit cards, using loans to make your monthly payments
- You are considering a consolidation loan, home equity loan or a 2nd mortgage
- Collection agencies are calling or writing you, or if you are being sued or garnished.
- You are behind on mortgage payments.

Our fax number is 612-824-8005.

Are you being called nonstop by debt collectors? Do they call you on your cell phone? At work? If so, then you know how annoying these calls can be. I have clients that had stopped answering their phone because they were afraid of collection calls.

Luckily, I am able to help these clients even before filing for bankruptcy. In fact, as soon as you hire a lawyer to file for bankruptcy, you can refer creditor calls to your attorney. This means that the collection agencies must stop calling you as soon as you tell them that you have retained a lawyer to file your case. Thus you can stop those calls and answer your phone knowing that the caller is a friend, not someone asking you for money.

Credit reports provide information about where clients live, how they pay their bills, and whether they owe money to interested parties. This information, however, is often inaccurate and can give potential creditors, landlords, and employers the wrong idea about people, especially people who have filed for bankruptcy. This is because creditors do not necessarily take the time to inform the credit bureaus that the bankrupt person no longer owes any debts.

Luckily, the government recognizes this and passed a law to make it easy for you to dispute incorrect entries on your credit report. This law is called the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), and it requires the credit bureaus and anyone who submits information to them to keep that information accurate and truthful. It also requires each credit bureau to give you a free credit report once per year.

A few months after receiving your bankruptcy discharge it is a good idea to contest any inaccurate entries on your credit report so that your credit rating starts to increase as quickly as possible. Our office does not handle these disputes, but the process is rather simple and you can do it yourself over the Internet for free. If any website asks you for money, then you are at the wrong site and should go back and find the correct site.

Step 1: go to the website http://www.annualcreditreport,com and input your personal information to request your free credit report from each of the 3 bureaus. Save or print these reports because you cannot get another one, and you will need them later.

Step 2: look at the entries and make sure that none of the debts which were discharged by the bankruptcy are listed as being in default or still owing. Write down the reference number for each of these debts and the report it came from (either Experian, Equifax, or Transunion).

Step 3: go to the website for any bureau that has an inaccurate entry on its credit report. These are http://www.experian.com, http://www.investigate.equifax.com, and http://www.transunion.com. Each of these bureaus has its own online process, but you must give them your personal information, tell them the incorrect entry, and then explain why it is incorrect. After a few weeks you should hear back from the credit bureau, and they should tell you that the error has been corrected (assuming it is an error). If they disagree with you, then you should follow the offline procedure below or go to a consumer rights attorney to pursue the issue further.

If you want to dispute any credit reports by mail, then follow the Federal Trade Commission's instructions on the following website: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre21.pdf. An advantage of this method is that you can include supporting documentation such as your bankruptcy discharge letter, and the list of creditors that will show that the debt was discharged.

I suspect that as you compare the three reports, you will find that they are not the same. This is common, and in my opinion it suggests that credit reports are not a very reliable source of information.