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The question is, what can happen if I don't tell my attorney about everything? Well, bad things can happen, is the short answer. If your attorney doesn't have all of the information, your attorney can't adequately advise you on what's going to happen about whatever asset that you failed to tell him about.

For example, there was a guy that filed bankruptcy and he didn't tell his attorney about his mother's house that just happened to be titled in both his mother's name and his name. He thought it was a harmless mistake because he didn't live in the house and, as far as he was concerned, it was his mother's house.

However, because he was on title, he had a legal claim to the house. His trustee ended up finding out about this house that was titled in both his mother's name and his name and he ended up losing his interest in the house, meaning the house was sold, forcibly sold, and his interests in the house was liquidated and the proceeds from that sale were distributed to his creditors.

That's the type of disastrous that can happen if you don't tell your attorney about everything. So, please, if you're thinking about filing bankruptcy it's really important to think about everything that you might need to disclose to your attorney so that he or she can adequately advise you on how best to proceed.

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Question is, do I have to tell my attorney about all of my assets in a bankruptcy? The simple answer is yes. You want to tell your attorney about all of your assets. The bankruptcy laws require that you disclose all of your assets, all of your income, all of your expenses and all of your debt.

Now, in order for your attorney to give you proper and adequate advice, your attorney is going to need to know about all of the assets because it's going to be required that your attorney include all of that information in your bankruptcy paperwork. So err on the side of disclosure and tell your attorney about everything, probably more than he or she wants to hear, and you'll be in good hands.

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The question is: What if my name is on someone else's bank account? Is that a required piece of information to disclose to the court? Yes, the answer is simply yes. If your name is on a bank account that you judge not to be a bank account that you use primarily even though it's not an account that you're  using, your name is on it so there is some legal interest in the bank account.

Now, an experienced attorney can help you plan for this and advise you of the ramification of this type of account and the particular circumstances. However, you need to err on the side of disclosure. You don't want to run afoul of failing to disclose a required piece of information and having it come back to haunt you and prevent you from getting a discharge.

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The question is: When do you get a discharge order entered in a Chapter 13 case? Chapter 13 cases vary in their time length. There's three year plans and there's five year plans, and in some cases you can submit plans that are in between that time frame. In order to receive a discharge in a Chapter 13 case, you have to have completed all payments required under your Chapter 13 plan.

Now, depending on whatever time length you've decided upon with your attorney, that will dictate when the discharge order can be entered. Once you've completed all the plan payments whether it be three years or five years or somewhere in between, the Chapter 13 trustee that has appointed over your case will do a final accounting of your case and it will typically be entered within a short time frame thereafter, usually about three months after you've completed plan payments.

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The question is what is a discharge in bankruptcy? A discharge in bankruptcy is simply a fancy way of referring to the order that the court enters that wipes out the debt that a person owes at the time that they file bankruptcy. Now a discharge order is pretty powerful. A discharge order prevents creditors from taking any further action to collect against that particular debt. That includes phone calls, it includes legal action, it includes letters. Any of these harassing types of actions are prohibited once the discharge order is entered. The discharge order is entered at the end of a successful bankruptcy.

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The question is, when does a discharge occur in a chapter 7 bankruptcy? The answer to this question is pretty simple.  When you file a chapter 7 bankruptcy, what’s called the 341 meeting the creditors is set at approximately 30 to 40 days after the filing date.  Now, after that hearing there’s a 60 day timeframe in which creditors can file an objection to your discharge order.  That’s where creditors can make some sort of complaint with the court saying that you’re not entitled to have their particular debt wiped out.

If they’re doing the math with me the 30 to 40 day timeframe plus the 60 days after your 341 date would 90 to 100 days as a typical timeframe in which discharge orders entered in a chapter 7 case.  Assuming that you’ve completed all of your obligations as a debtor in the chapter 7 bankruptcy case you can anticipate that the discharge order will be entered around that time.

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The question is: Are all of my debts discharged in bankruptcy or are only some of them discharged? The answer is, it depends on what kind of debts you have. There are certain cases in which certain types of debt are considered non-dischargeable in your bankruptcy case. That's a fancy way of saying that those debts can't be eliminated or wiped out. Types of non-dischargeable debt often include recent taxes that are owed to the IRS or other governmental agencies. Student loans are often non-dischargeable.

Now in certain circumstances, those types of debts can be dischargeable so it's important you speak with an experience bankruptcy attorney that can advise you whether or not your type of debt is dischargeable but generally speaking, credit cards, payday loans, common types of consumer debt will be dischargeable in your bankruptcy case.