How is a bankruptcy trustee appointed
What is a Bankruptcy Trustee and what does he or she do?
hi I'm Steve Richardson whether you file
a chapter 7 or a chapter 13 bankruptcy
here in New Jersey a trustee is going to
be assigned to your case now you might
ask yourself what's a trustee and what
does a trustee do well if the trustees
duties are different depending upon
whether you file a chapter 7 or chapter
13 if you'd file a chapter 7 the trustee
is the representative of the creditors
he or she acts on behalf of creditors at
looking at your bankrupt estate or the
pot of assets that you have in your
bankruptcy and in a chapter 7 the
trustee looks to see if there are any
assets that could be sold to raise money
to pay your creditors that's their main
job because the chapter 7 is in effect a
liquidation bankruptcy now before you
get too worried most bankruptcies I
would say about 95% of them in Chapter 7
in here in New Jersey do not result in a
liquidation because people that file
don't have assets of enough value to
exceed the exemptions that protect those
assets you're allowed to keep assets
when you file bankruptcy up to a certain
value so in the vast majority of chapter
7 cases here in New Jersey especially
here in southern New Jersey there are no
liquidations so the trustee just make
sure all the pomp and paperwork is
correct verifies the values and the
exemptions make sure that it is not an
asset case and then will close this file
sometimes they'll see assets that'll be
what's called an asset case and then
they'll administer the estate to sell
the assets but that's where the chapter
7 trustee does if you file a chapter 13
there's a trustee again acting on behalf
of creditors and they review your
bankruptcy all of your financial
situation income and expenses debts
things like that and their job is to
make sure that your plan of repayment
meets all the requirements of the
bankrupt
code and that it's feasible in other
words that you can afford to make a
payment that would pass muster under the
law and they also administer those
payments you make all your payments to
the trustee you'll make one monthly
payment to the trustee and then that
trustee will make all those payments out
to all the different creditors they'll
take care of the paperwork after that
once your plan is approved by the
Bankruptcy Court so the important thing
to bear in mind whether it's a chapter 7
or chapter 13 is that the trustee is
acting on behalf of creditors they're
not on your side and that's what they do
they administer your bankruptcy so if
you live here in southern New Jersey and
you're thinking about filing bankruptcy
and you may have some questions please
feel free to give my office a call I'll
be happy to set up an appointment in my
Woodbury office sit down with you go
over your situation and see whether
bankruptcy is right for you
