Legal Question in Bankruptcy in Maryland

We recently filed chapter 7 bankruptcy in the State of MD due to tenants not paying rent, repairs and our daughter/grandchild returning home after she was layed off - we also had to support them for months. leaving us to survive and depend on credit cards a lot. All of our properties are extremely upside down. We tried to modify but couldn not because was told our debt ratio was too large.We filed everything under Chapter 7, including our mortgages. Our income is approx $150k. Our debts including 3 mortgages and the credit cards is approx $600k. We filed Pro Se due to limited funds. Our court date w/ the Trustee was mid Feb and our date for discharge was 04/18/11. We received a phone call from the trustee's office requesting further fnancial documents that we did provide and a letter yesterday from the Dept of Justice to requesting to dismiss the inital decision of the trustee for discharge and delay the decision for 60 days. I assume to investigate our affordability. Although our debts have not been discharged, we are currently in the process of a loan modification w/a mortgage attorney. The trustee who called me was not the same as the one who heard our case and had no knowledge of our plight, so she was quite amazed when we informed her we were in the process of a modification. After reading the above, can we request through the court some type of mediation to plead our case. Can you tell me what documents we must file in Maryland to do this?


Asked on 4/20/11, 4:37 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Daniel Press Chung & Press, P.C.

What you need, NOW, is a lawyer. The DoJ wants to dismiss your case for abuse, presumably (I assume it is not more than that, but they do criminally prosecute bankruptcy fraud). It may be possible to defeat that, but only if you have a lawyer. And it will probably now cost more to fix this than it would have had you done it right to begin with. Bankruptcy is a complex proceeding, particularly for someone with as much income as you have, and it is no place for amateurs.

Whether you call me or another lawyer, that's up to you, but DO NOT TRY TO DO ANY MORE OF THIS ALONE.

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Answered on 4/20/11, 5:46 pm


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