Legal Question in Bankruptcy in California

Re: Attorney forgot to list.........

Not to worry!! First, you need to verify that your bankruptcy was a "no-asset" case. You can do that either by calling your attorney or calling the court and asking them to look that up after you give them your case number. Please note that in Los Angeles, the clerks will not give out info over the phone so you'd have to go there in person. If your case was a "no-asset" case, which most Chapter 7's are, have your attorney or some other attorney send PG&E a letter telling them that by virtue of the case known as In Re Beasley, because your bankruptcy was a no-asset case, PG&E was not prejudiced by your failure to list them in your bankruptcy, thus there is no reason why you should re-open the case to list the debt; it's deemed discharged with all the other debts that were listed. If your case was an asset case, you can simply re-open the case and list the debt; the creditor is then given the statutory period of time to object to the discharge; if they don't it's discharged. The only exception to these rules that I am aware of is if a debt is incurred by fraud or is otherwise non-dischargable, failing to list the debt does not give the creditor proper notice in either a no-asset or an asset case and you will not be protected by the bankruptcy discharge from the ommitted creditor. Shaye Larkin, Attorney at Law for more information, you can email me at:

[email protected]

Re: Attorney forgot to list.........

If your case was a "no-asset case," meaning no money was available to pay the creditors, your failure to give notice still doesn't prejudice the creditor, because even if you had, they still would receive nothing. Send a copy of your petition and discharge to the creditor's BK department, noting it was a no-asset case, and their calls/letters should stop.