What is the process for filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy with my office.

Pre-Filing Process

  1. Initial free call for about 15 minutes to determine if a bankruptcy through our office is a viable option for the potential client.  If so, we set up a Zoom call with Mr. Hunter, in most cases we will also arrange for access to a client portal for the potential client to upload documents, and access to a manner in which to pay the fees to do the bankruptcy.
  2. An Initial Zoom Conference with Mr. Hunter which will last between 1 to 3 hours and will cost $200.  In this conference the potential clients and Mr. Hunter will explore:
    a. The specifics as to the situation of the potential clients;
    b. the options available for them, primarily bankruptcy options, but also non-bankruptcy options;
    c. the relative benefits and detriments of those options;
    d. issues which could arise given the potential clients specific situation;
    e. the effect of the selection of any option upon:
    i. what they will owe on debt after the selection of the option;
    ii. what effect will the selection of any option have upon credit;
    iii. the cost (or estimated cost) of attorney fees and other expenses, and the timing required to pay for such costs;
    iv. the likely result of the selection of any option.
    v. The timing of the process for any options to be handled by Mr. Hunter’s firm.
  3. If the potential clients desire to retain the Law Offices of Patrick M. Hunter, then they will need to pay an additional $500 before the office is formally retained to handle a bankruptcy and the potential clients are formally clients of the office.  In the interim they can continue to provide documents that are necessary to do the bankruptcy and if they are sued on debts we can prepare an answer that the clients can file to get some additional time to file the bankruptcy  Other than that we will do no more work until the total of $700 has been paid ($200 at the initial consultation plus the additional $500).  Once the $700 has been paid and a fee agreement has been signed, we will advise creditors that call or email us that we are retained, and provide an approximate filing date if we have one.
  4. The fee agreement will spell out the total fees and expenses that need to be paid before filing.  In a Bankruptcy, 90% of the uncontested attorney fees will be earned before filing. For such reason, the uncontested case fees must be paid before we file the bankruptcy. Now that we are retained the clients will need to provide us all the documents before we begin preparing the bankruptcy, and continue to provide additional paystubs, lawsuits, tax returns, new creditors and debt collectors that arise.  
  5. Information is provided to prepare the Petition. We will pull a credit report once we have been retained, a copy of which will be provided to the clients.   They will need to provide information on any debts that are not on the credit report, which include any judgments against them, or liens on their property.  We cannot be, nor we responsible for locating that information.  We need a complete list of everything that is owned and car titles, property titles, copies of mortgages and liens, and an assessors valuation of all real property.  We will need income information including tax returns for three years, and written proof of all income (pay stubs, awards of Pension or Social Security, etc.) for the seven months prior to the day we file the case.   We will need a list of family expenses.
  6. Debtors may choose to sell property that is not exempt that they own, using the proceeds to pay attorney fees, living expenses or make clothing and food purchases and necessary repairs to homes or vehicles.
  7. We will begin to prepare the petition once we have all of the information and know that the total amount of agreed fees will be paid within 30 days.    
  8. Thirty (30) days before the bankruptcy is going to be filed the debtor will need to complete the Credit Counseling Class required for the Bankruptcy.  My office pays for that class out of the fees our clients pay.  The class is done online, and takes about 2 hours to complete and there is an exchange of a couple emails before the certificate is issued.   That certificate must be filed with the bankruptcy court and must be issued within 180 days before the case is filed.
  9. We try to email a draft petition to our clients within 15 days before the day we have scheduled to file  our clients’ case.  The draft petition must be reviewed by our clients very carefully, because they will be required to sign the petition under penalty of perjury.  The clients advise us of any changes for accuracy and completeness.  We make the changes and send the revised petition to them for a second detailed review, together with a set of signature pages for the clients to sign.
  10. The final steps just before we file are:
    a. The clients sign the petition signature pages under penalty of perjury, uploading a copy and mailing or dropping off the original signed pages and fee agreement.
    b. The debtors verify that their bank accounts have less than $25 in them with all checks cleared and debits posted.

The Bankruptcy is filed

What happens now?

Immediately after filing:

  1. The clients now own nothing, because everything they owned is now legally property of the Bankruptcy Estate that is created when the case is filed.
  2. A case number is set for the case in the for of YR-20###  where YR is the year of filing and ### is the consecutive number assigned to the case.  So  case number 25-20106 means the case was the 106th case filed in Wyoming in 2025.
  3. The Automatic Stay is imposed.   This stops garnishments, foreclosures, or any other act against the debtor or the property of the estate (and since everything that the debtor owned is now property of the estate it stops the seizure of any property).  
  4. A Chapter 7 trustee is appointed to administer the Bankruptcy Estate.  The trustee must determine what property is or is not exempt.  The exempt property will legally return to the clients, the non-exempt property, if there is any, may be taken from the debtors, turned into cash, and distributed to the creditors who file claims in the case.
  5. The First Meeting of Creditors is set and the Judge is appointed.
  6. The firm emails the client with all of the case setting information, the case number, the date of filing, the name of the assigned trustee, the Zoom information and date and time of the First Meeting of Creditors.  This email will also advise them what they must do now that the case is filed.  If a garnishment is pending the firm may also notice the employer, the state court and the creditor seeking the garnishment of the existence of the stay.

After filing the clients must:

  1. Provide our office with the first and sometimes the second pay advice that they receive after the case is filed.  
  2. Provide our office a copy of the next Account Statements they receive for every open account they have.
  3. Take and complete the second class, a Financial Management Class.  
  4. Our clients will need to decide how they wish to deal with the secured loans on cars, homes and other property.  They must either reaffirm, Redeem or surrender the property by law, but there are sometimes other options.  We will discuss this process in more depth at the Initial Zoom Consultation.  Reaffirmations and redemptions will need to begin to be handled as soon as the case is filed.  
  5. The First Meeting of Creditors is scheduled to be conducted by Zoom between 22 and 45 days after filing.  This is a short meeting (usually less than 10 minutes) between the Trustee and the clients and the attorney.  There are usually 8 meetings scheduled every hour.   Creditors may, but very seldom attend.   The Clients are put under oath to answer questions that the Trustee has about their assets and debts.   Since in many cases this is the only official event, clients are very nervous about this but honestly the stress of worrying about the meeting is much more difficult than the meeting.
  6. At the meeting the Chapter 7 trustee may request that the clients turnover non-exempt property or agree to buy it from the estate.  If that is going to be an issue the Law Offices of Patrick M. Hunter probably discussed it with them at the Initial Consultation.  The trustee may also want additional documents.  In both these cases the trustee will provide a directive for the clients to sign and return and to follow.  The deadline to follow that directive will be included.  The Law Offices will discuss the directive with their clients.  Usually they will need to follow the directive, but at times an objection will be filed for our clients and the Court will decide whether to require the performance or not.
  7. Now there is a 30 day waiting period during which the trustee must object to any claim of exemptions, which is rare.  After 30 days, our client will be the legal owners of all property claimed as exempt. 
  8. An additional 30 day waiting period takes place.  This time is provided for three different reasons:  to give the debtors time to reaffirm any debts which they desire to reaffirm; for the US Trustee to object to the debtors filing because they are not qualified to file under the means test or because the debtor is not qualified to file because they filed bankruptcy previously and the required time had not passed before filing again; and finally to allow creditor who were allegedly harmed by certain bad act of the debtors to file an objection to discharge of the debt owed by the debtor.  (fraud; false statements of fact in a loan application; theft of goods, money or services, including embezzlement; or intentional injury to a person or their property)
  9. Discharge is granted! This is what it is all about.  Our clients debts are eliminated!  WARNING: If the client has not completed the second class, or the Certificate of Completion has not been filed, the discharge will not be entered at this time, and if the Trustee has filed a report of no distribution, the Case might be closed with no discharge granted.  It can be an expensive process to reopen the case, complete the class and file the certificate and close the case.

Events After Discharge

  1.   The trustee must complete administration of the estate.  If the trustee has decided that whatever property of the estate that could be collected (such as the family cat) is not worth collecting, then the Trustee will file a report to the Court that he will not administer the estate. If so then the case is closed shortly after the 60th day has passed since First Meeting of Creditors.
  2. If the trustee has collected property of the estate or thinks that he might collect property of the estate, the trustee will continue to administer the estate, meaning turning the property into cash and distributing the cash to the creditors.   One item in Wyoming that is not exempt that may delay the closing of the case is a Tax Refund that a debtor might be eligible for in the year of filing.   In Wyoming the trustee may take from a debtor a percentage of a tax refund that is equal to the percentage of the year that went by prior to filing (assuming that the debtor’s earnings are consistent through the full year).  This includes overpayment of taxes and credits such as earned income credits and child tax credits.  Unfortunately this usually harms the poorest of debtors, and is something that most states have eliminated.  Wyoming, no!!  Call your state senators and representatives about this horrible situation and encourage a change in the law. 

Most of all of the administration will go on without pour clients being aware of it, except they will be required to provide a copy of a tax return to the trustee.  The trustee will be able to intercept the refund and will send to the clients their portion of any refund.  They may get served a c copy of an Order allowing the Trustee some fees.  This is nothing the debtor has to pay, the fees come out of what the trustee has collected.  Eventually the case will be closed, but the clients are not notified of the closing date.