Legal Question in Business Law in California

The police "allowed this person to file bankruptcy"? They "failed to investigate"? The police owe you no duty to investigate anything, or to prevent other citizens from accessing the court system. Instead of whining about the cops, what you should be doing is pursuing her in the bankruptcy court, if the legal time limit hasn't yet run out. Fraud debts are excepted from being discharged in bankruptcy, but you have to do something about it by filing a timely claim with the bankruptcy court followed by an adversary complaint to have the debt declared non-dischargeable. You will need to hire a lawyer to do this work for you. For your sake I hope you are talking about a bankruptcy case that was very recently filed, not something from months or years ago. While I think any lawsuit you might bring against the police would be totally bogus, I mean legally frivolous, I am constrained to tell you that the legal time limits for suing public entities are very short and the procedural requirements are very complicated -- just as are adversary complaints in bankruptcy court. Do not call or write to the person who owes you, except through your own lawyer, while her bankruptcy case is pending.

Stone is completely right. I would add that your time limit for filing an adversary proceeding to have the fraud exempted from the bankruptcy discharge is 60 days after the first meeting of creditors, which is usually 30 days after the petition for bankruptcy is filed. So if she filed her petition more than 90 days ago, you are probably entirely out of luck.

I agree with Mr. Stone and Mr. McCormick. Please understand that the police could not have prevented this woman from filing a bankruptcy petition even if they had arrested her and thrown her in jail. And whoever told you that you could not pursue her after she filed bankruptcy was wrong. Debts incurred through fraud are not dischargeable in bankruptcy. The particular agency you were dealing with might have been unable or unwilling to represent you in such a case, but that doesn't mean you were out of options.

No. Governmental immunity fully protects them from any legal action. Police 'owe' you no obligation to protect or take action, such as responding to 911 calls or crime reports. That's the law.