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McLovin McLovin is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2009
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You cannot go forward with the trial tomorrow, now that you know of the bky. That would be a knowing and willful violation of the automatic stay and you will be in a world of hurt if you do that. You must advise the court tomorrow about the bky. The small claims court will stay (put on hold) your case.

Right now, all your remedies are in the bky court.

It sounds like the Trustee has already looked at the Ch 7 case and determined it is a "no asset" case. That's too bad, because there will be no assets to collect and pay to creditors. You could file a Proof of Claim in the Ch. 7, but that won't do you any good if it is a no asset case.

Your only hope is to try to get the discharge of the debt denied. There are basically 2 ways that can happen: (1) the Trustee files a complaint seeking to deny the discharge as to all creditors, or (2) you file a complaint seeking to deny the discharge of his debt to you.

(1) isn't going to happen, since there is no $$ in the estate to pay the trustee to hire a lawyer to do it.

(2) realistically sounds like it isn't going to happen because you don't have the $$ to do it, and for a $5K debt it isn't cost effective to do it. Plus, from what you have posted, it's not clear there are any grounds for it anyways.

There are plenty of bky lawyers, just do an Internet search and you'll find plenty in your area. Problem is, any of them are going to require a retainer (probably at least $1500).

Creditors get screwed in bky, that's what bky is all about. IMO you would be throwing good money after bad. The debt that he owes you is highly likely one that is properly discharged in a bky (it sounds like just a normal biz debt), and trying to get his entire discharge denied doesn't seem likely.

(One thing you can do is try contacting the United States Trustee's office, and the Chapter 7 Trustee's office, to complain that the filing is bogus because he intentionally didn't list the proper addresses of creditors. The upside to that is it won't cost you anything, except your own time. The downside is it is almost certainly a fruitless endeavor).
Old 07-29-2009, 01:58 PM
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