I spent most of the day yesterday watching the first meeting of creditors at the local Bankruptcy court. I found some of the fact just amazing,

About two in every 10 people did not have an attorney, they filed their own.

Of the ones that had an attorney almost a third did not have their filings complete, there was some form, some information from tax return to proof of income not filed.

About 1/2 of those that filed their own did not have all the needed info.

There was one that has used a para legal and it was done completely wrong and they were told to refile all amended forms and set a new date.

I was actually felt sorry for one attorney, he actually asked the trustee how he was suppose to file a certain form.
And to make it worst, I guess this happens so often the trustee had several pre-printed papers telling them what they needed to do, the trustee would hand this to them if needed.

So I guess more of a discussion for you that have went to bankruptcy courts, what have you seen.

I found the trustee really trying to help people, but found so often the attorneys not having everything they needed, and not having filed them on time.

I have seen much the same as you describe.

The biggest problem is the number of these that are being filed now days.

I think once people see wall street companies filing for BK at the billions of dollars level, it makes them feel at ease to go file their insignificant little cases.

You are going to see more and more as the days pass.

If it had taken me a few more weeks to find a job, I'd probably be one of them.

Yes, it was sort of in and out, they were running about 10 to 12 a hour though the trustee. And I understand they had two other rooms going that day, so if that was so, that was about 30 a hour that were doing their first meeting of creditors.

The funniest one was the person who was still keeping his Jag and had to explain why he was single and spent over 900 dollars a month on food.
But it went though,