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INSTRUCTIONS FOR FILLING OUT THE CLIENT INTAKE FORMS

In order to save you time and prevent any unnecessary delay in the processing of your bankruptcy petition, we have included the instructions below to help you complete the forms property. It is very important to be as detailed as possible in your answers to the questions. More information is much better than less.

 

Will The Court Take My Stuff?

When you are filling out the forms, do not be afraid to list items simply because you are afraid the court will take that item away from you. This is a common fear most people have; however, a bankruptcy petition is a complete overview of your current financial situation. If you are in danger of losing any items, we will point these out to you before completing your petition.

Complete Names and Mailing Addresses are Essential on the Debt Forms

Providing the complete names and addresses for every debt you owe (as well as the company collecting for this debt [if applicable]) is extremely important. Without this crucial information, the court cannot properly notify the company you owe money to and the debt may not be eligible for discharge. In other words, you may have to pay the bill simply because you did not provide the court with an address to mail a notice to -- which then did not allow that company an opportunity to respond. In some instances, it can even be considered as "fraud" because some people filing bankruptcy may want to intentionally disallow a creditor the right to file a Proof of Claim or Motion for Relief from Stay, which is against the law to deny them their creditor's rights.

What if you don't know the address of a creditor?

If you requested a credit report before filling out the Client Intake Forms, the credit report may or may not contain all the addresses you need. Often, credit reports will only contain the address of the collection agency, and only reference the original creditors name without an address.

In this case, you will have to do a little work on your own to obtain the missing address. The best place to start in trying to find an address of a creditor is to call the toll-free national information line at 1-800-555-1212 and see if a toll-free number is listed under the company's name. If not, you may have to look in your phone directory or do an online search of the yellow pages. Once you obtain the telephone number of the creditor, simply call them and ask for their mailing address. It is not necessary that you tell them you are filing bankruptcy.

Listing the address of the original company you owe money to as well as the collection agency is also just as important. By doing this, all parties concerned with the debt are notified by the court and it will greatly aide in ceasing all collection phone calls you may be currently receiving.

Other Areas to Pay Attention to on Debt Sheets:

Make sure all company names are spelled out. (for example, instead of writing "HSB" for a company name, write out the words "Home Secure Bank" or whatever the case may be.)

Make sure the street address is readable and any abbreviations are spelled out.

Make sure the city, state, and ZIP are included for all addresses. If the zip code is not known, it can be obtained online: http://www.usps.com.

Make sure all the information requested for each creditor is completely filled in. Every piece of this information is important in preparing a detailed bankruptcy petition for you. If you do not know the exact date you made a debt, or charged on the account, a "year" is sufficient. The "year" can also be within a 2-year time frame. Not providing dates or years will delay the processing of your petition as we will have to call or email you to obtain the information.

For the "last date charged on this account", do not provide the last date you received a statement. We are only interested in the last date you actually made a purchase using this particular charge account -- not the last time they added interest or fees.

Income Page

An often overlooked piece of vital information we need is your present year-to-date income, plus the income you made in the previous two years. This question appears right below your name on the "Income History" page. Your year-to-date income should appear on your recent paycheck stub or paycheck stubs (if you have worked for more than one employer this year).

Other income such as child support, social security, pension, food stamps, self-employment, etc. needs to be separated and reported separately. These questions are listed on Page 4 of the Question forms.

Question Forms

Make sure that every box on the question forms are answered with either a "yes" or "no". These questions serve as a written statement concerning your current financial condition. If a box is left unanswered, you will need to provide a written statement that specifically answers this question before your petition can be finalized so make sure you answer EVERY single question.

In addition, if any question on the question pages is answered "yes," make sure you fill in ALL the information needed to answer that question in the boxes provided. For instance, some people check "yes" to the item on the question pages referring to previous addresses; however, they forget to include the city, state and zip code of the address they lived at. Or, if a car has been repossessed, don't just call it a "car" but provide the make, model and year. Be as detailed as possible when answering any question with a "yes" response. The detail you provide at this stage will greatly increase the turnaround time for completing your petition and help with the smoothness of the entire bankruptcy process.

Motor Vehicles

Please remember to ALWAYS provide the make, model and year of your motor vehicle. We must obtain market values of all motor vehicles from the Kelly Blue Book for the bankruptcy court and we need all the information on the vehicle, including the mileage to obtain the correct market value. Example: 1997 Ford should be 1997 Ford Mustang, or 1997 Ford F-150 Super Cab, or whatever the case may be. Simply typing the word "car" does not tell us anything.

Summary

Thank you for taking the time to properly complete the Client Intake Forms before sending them to us. You will find that your efforts will save you a lot of time and money in long distance calls, which results in the delay of the processing of your bankruptcy petition.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions whatsoever concerning your Client Intake Forms. Thank you for your continued trust in our services. We sincerely hope you are happy with our services and will want to recommend us to others.

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