Legal Question in Bankruptcy in California

Re: American Debts; Foreign Assets

Our law recognizes In Rem and In Ra Jurisdiction. This is simply jurisdiction of the person or over the thing. The bankruptcy court will have jurisdiction over you even though the U. S. sanctioned B. K. Court has any jurisdiction over your Canadian property. It may never become an issue. Since the exemptions may cover all of the real and personal property you have anywhere in the world. Especially if you're filing in California. Although the problem of property in another country doesn't occur that often there are frequent occurrences of debtors owning property in other States. In these instances the local Chapter 7 Trustee normally abandons the property if it isn't very valuable. Remember in any sale of real or personal property there are costs that the bankruptcy estate managed by the Chapter 7 Trustee will endure. So in the end the trustee does a lot of work and gets little or no money to pay any of the creditors. The U. S. Bankruptcy court would have jurisdiction over U. S. Companies operating in other countries. However, the B. K. Court would not have any jurisdiction over Canadian debts involving purely Canadian companies. These debts would be discharged as far as a Canadian company assigning to some one or company in the U. S. that might attempt to collect them. for that reason I'd recommend that you list all your debts. Canadian or otherwise. However, you might want to discuss the consequences of that action within Canada. This notice of your U. S. filing of a Chapter 7 might trigger a collection process in Canada by a Canadian creditor. So listing your Canadian debts needs some thought before you file here. And the questions are going to have to be read carefully to determine if they cover debts owed to entities outside of the U. S. The last thing you want to do is perjure yourself on the filing of the B. K. Petition. There's always ways to get around these complications. That do not involve criminal acts.