People are often anxious about their upcoming Salem, Oregon Chapter 13 Creditors Meeting. The real underlying cause of this nervousness stems from not knowing what to expect.

You will want to verify the address of where the hearing is held and understand directions before your hearing date. If you live in the Salem, Oregon metro area, your hearing will be easy to find: It is in a conference room in the basement of the Marion County Courthouse. You will get a notice from the bankruptcy court spelling out the exact address and time for your hearing about a week after your case is filed.

You should arrive about thirty minutes before your hearing so that you can hear other cases before yours. Present at the hearing is Fred Long, the Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Trustee for much of Oregon and an assistant.  Other individuals and their attorneys waiting for their hearings will be in the room as well. In Oregon, creditors rarely attend and if they do, they will be well behaved.

The Salem, Oregon Chapter 13 Bankruptcy trustee will conduct over twenty other meetings on the same day as yours. Your meeting should not last much longer than five minutes. In Oregon, the Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Trustee will almost always ask the following questions:

 

1.)               Have you repaid any money to family or friends in the last couple years?

2.)     How much money did you have in the bank on the day you filed bankruptcy? 

2.)                Have you paid any on creditor over six hundred dollars or so in the last few months?

4.)                Do you own a home and what do you think it would sell for now?

5.)                Have you been garnished in the last few months and, if so, how much did they get?

6.)                Have you sold anything (like real estate or cars) in the last couple of years prior to filing Chapter 13?

 

Remember that the filing date is listed on the notice the court sent you. 

Remember to bring COPIES and not ORIGINALS of the following information with you regardless of whether you have already provided them to your bankruptcy attorney:

 

  1.  Your last filed Tax Return
  2.   Copies of all your bank statement covering both the filing date and the day before it. Note: Online printouts are fine as long as they identify you as the account
    ho
    lder
  3. Your last three months of pay stubs
  4. A valuation for any real estate owned such as a CMA or a county tax assessmen statement.
  5. Copies of any divorce decrees

You will be required to prove your identity by presenting a photo identification as well as proof of social security number

Acceptable forms of photo ID include: (1) a drivers license, (2) a government ID, (3) a state picture ID, (4) a U.S. passport, (5) a military ID.  

Acceptable forms of proof of social security number include: (1) a social security card, (2) a medical insurance card, (3) a pay stub, (4) a W-2 form, (5) an IRS form 1099, and (6) a Social Security Administration report.  

Getting nervous about your Salem, Oregon Chapter 13 Creditors Meeting is understandable. However, you should  know that this is not a court proceeding in which you will be subjected to harsh treatment or browbeating tactics–no one is going to be shaking their fingers at you or asking you to justify why you are filing at al.

In the end, little will be determined with any real finality at your Salem, Oregon Chapter 13 Creditors Meeting other than the next steps for getting your Chapter 13 Plan confirmed. The hearing itself more than anything is the starting point of the dialogue between your, your attorney and the Chapter 13 Trustee to determine an appropriate payment plan. The Trustee wants your Chapter 13 Plan to succeed.

 

 

 

Tualatin bankruptcy, Tigard debt, salem, turner, eugene, chapter 13, marion county, lane county