Advice on after bankruptcy claims?Ok, to try and make a long story short as possible...back 2 years ago I was involved in a really bad car accident that landed me in the hospital for over 2 weeks. No one else was involved, just me. Sadly I didn't have medical insurance at the time, so the whole $350,000+ bill was all on me. My car insurance... | |
Per 11 USC sec. 541(a)(1), the filing of your case created a bankruptcy estate; that bankruptcy estate is comprised of all of your legal and equitable interests in property as of the date of your case. It appears that as of the date of your case, you had a legal interest in an insurance claim. Your bankruptcy attorney should have listed that on your schedule B (perhaps with an unknown value) and exempted it (i.e., protected it) on schedule C. If this was done, the trustee in your case should have asked you some questions regarding the insurance claim at your meeting of creditors (aka 341 hearing) and may have asked that you provide him or her with information regarding the insurance claim - this may be what you are referring to when you said "but I remember that after bankruptcy anything claimed portraying to the accident belongs to the bank/state." However, your bankruptcy attorney at the time may not have listed the interest at all, in which case the trustee would have been completely unaware of the situation.
Regardless of whether the insurance interest was properly listed on your bankruptcy schedules, you are expected to update the trustee with this money received after the bankruptcy - because your legal right to receive the money existed on the date your bankruptcy case was filed. You should contact your bankruptcy attorney with the update and not spend any of the money until your attorney contacts the trustee to determine how much of the funds are property of the bankruptcy estate. To make that determination depends on the exemptions you used in your bankruptcy case. As an IL resident, you must use the IL state exemptions. I am not familiar with the IL state exemptions, but would guess that you cannot exempt (protect) the full amount of your insurance claim proceeds. You stated that the hospital received money for its liens. The medical debt should have been discharged by your bankruptcy filing: unless 1) these medical debts arose after your case was filed; or 2) the hospital perfected its liens on your property prior to your bankruptcy being filed. If neither, 1 nor 2 were met, then the hospital should not have received any of the funds and the full amount should go to the bankruptcy estate to be distributed pro rata amongst all of your creditors.
Call your bankruptcy attorney and inform him or her of the situation. If you did not use an attorney to file your case, contact the trustee assigned to your case. If you still have the notice of case filing, the trustee's name and contact information should be on it. If not, you can contact the bankruptcy court, and they can provide you with the name and contact info for the trustee assigned to your case.
If you fail to report this money received for the insurance claim, the trustee could reopen your case and ask that the court revoke your discharge for fraud, meaning that your bankruptcy would lose its effect and your creditors could continue their collection efforts. You could also be charged with criminal fraud. Avoid those problems. Call your attorney.
Mike Sheridan is a Minneapolis bankruptcy attorney serving the Twin Cities metro area. If you would like more information regarding what happens when you go bankrupt, go to: bkymn.com
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RE Advice on after bankruptcy claims?
Ok, to try and make a long story short as possible...back 2 years ago I was involved in a really bad car accident that landed me in the hospital for over 2 weeks. No one else was involved, just me. Sadly I didn't have medical insurance at the time, so the whole $350,000+ bill was all on me. My car insurance was supposed to cover 100,000 for injuries sustained etc...because that's the coverage I had. They never paid up...they beat around the bush. So because I couldn't return to work, or even begin to pay off such a bill...I wound up claiming chapter 7 bankruptcy to clear my debt. After all that went through I was cleared. But this year, a new agent looked through my old file wondering why we left them. (I am no longer with that car insurance) The agent realized that we never got our fair share of anything and reopened the file...I wound up with the 100,000 claim money...about a third of it went to hospital liens..the remaining 66,000 is still in my name...but I remember that after bankruptcy anything claimed portraying to the accident belongs to the bank/state. The hospitals are satisfied with their share, and haven't heard anything else...I don't know what the next step is?!?! any advice on the laws or what to do? Please help me on this, for I don't want any trouble from banks if they decide to. ( I live in Illinois)
Thank you
Hello Samantha! While I personally know nothing about BK laws, I know a group of people that can help you. This is no scam, it is straight from the myFICO forums. That site helped me tremendously when I was going through the repair process of my bad credit. The forums are owned by the Fair Isaac corp, the makers of the FICO scoring system. The forums have a special separate section dealing with nothing but bankruptcy issues. There are many well informed folks there & it is highly monitored for accurate content. This is all free. No one wants your money. they all simply are there to help folks with credit issues.
Read a few posts, create a user acct if you want to post your question. I think you need a little specialized info & that is the best place I know to go. Been a member there for over 4 years myself..
http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Bankrupt...
Those folks have collectively been through it all.
You need an attorney. Either call the one that handled your bankruptcy, or get one, now.
Nearly all consumer bankruptcy attorneys offer free consultations. Take advantage of this to meet with one and get advice based on all of the details of your particular situation. You can find a referral at NACBA.org (National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys).
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RE:Advice on after bankruptcy claims?
Best way to reduce debt is to know how much is incoming and how much is outgoing. If you have more outgoing than is coming in then you will find it very hard to reduce your debt. Trying writing down all your expenses and try to figure out how much you can afford to pay off each and how long it will take.
