by Hearthstone Legal Group | Feb 7, 2026 | bankruptcy, BANKRUPTCY LAW, creditors, debt relief, Real Estate
About 4 to 6 weeks after the debtor has submitted his / her / there / its Chapter 7 bankruptcy Petition, the debtor will appear in what is known as the 341 meeting. The 341 meeting is named for that section of the Bankruptcy Code, 11 USC section 341, which states, among other things, the following:
“(a)Within a reasonable time after the order for relief in a case under this title, the United States trustee shall convene and preside at a meeting of creditors.
“(b) The United States trustee may convene a meeting of any equity security holders.
“(c) The court may not preside at, and may not attend, any meeting under this section including any final meeting of creditors. . . . “
For most debtors, this is as close as they will ever get to a courtroom. It is also as close as they will get to the judge. Interestingly, the hearing does not take place in a courtroom, and the judge is not present.
The meeting is done in a conference room, with the debtor, the debtor’s attorney, if any, and the assistant United States Trustee. The debtor is under oath and the meeting is recorded on audiotape. There is no judge, no jury, and if the meeting goes well, the debtor will see none of these.
The Sec. 341 meeting is the debtor’s opportunity to confirm the accuracy of the information that she has submitted for consideration by the Bankruptcy Court, via the United States trustees office. The assistant United States trustee will ask if the bankruptcy forms, largely known as “schedules,” are complete and correct, whether there has been a change in the status of any asset or debt, whether any property has recently been transferred, and whether there are any pending lawsuits filed by or against the debtor, among other things. The trustee will ask about changes in title to any property within recent months. In other words, the trustee wants to know if there’s anything that would raise a red flag as property or debt that has not been disclosed, that has changed hands, or that has otherwise been wasted, destroyed, transferred, lost, or is not available for the bankruptcy trustee to seize or sell, if either is indicated by the bankruptcy petition and schedules.
The meeting, which is the culmination of many hours of compiling documents, usually lasts only 5 to 10 minutes. That is the best case scenario. If a debtor finds himself or herself coming back over and over again to give more information, that’s usually an indicator that the trustee feels that the documents are incomplete.
Creditors can also attend, to ask if property that they loaned to Plaintiff has gone missing, or to contest the amount of the debt disclosed by the debtor. It is very rare for creditors to appear at the garden variety Chapter 7 Sec. 341 meeting.
Assuming that the Section 341 meeting goes well, then the next steps are for the trustee to file a “report of no distribution”, stating that he or she did not find any assets to seize and sell, and then it will be up to the Clerk of the court to close the case. The whole process, from the 341 meeting ’til the closure of the case, could take a little as a week or so, or as long as a few months.
THIS POST DOES NOT CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE, AND DOES NOT CREATE AN ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP; PLEASE CONSULT AN ATTORNEY!!!
by Hearthstone Legal Group | Jun 9, 2024 | BANKRUPTCY LAW, constitution, debt relief
The Great Recession, the economic downtown that spanned 2008 to 2012, was the worst economic crisis in the United States since the depression of 1929 to 1939. Federal Reserve History, The Great Recession and its Aftermath.
One of the outgrowths of the Great Recession was the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which sought to protect consumers from unfair, predatory, or illegal conduct by financial institutions:
Title 12, Chapter 53, Subchapter V of the U.S. Code contains the legislation that created and regulates the Bureau. Legal Information Institute, Cornell University School of Law.
In or about 2020, the Community Financial Services Association of America, Limited, and others brought suit in the 5th Circuit (located in the South, and known to be quite conservative), to have the funding source of the CFPB declared unconstitutional, and thus force Congress back to the drawing board with regard to funding the organization. The underlying goal was seemingly to deny funding to the CFPB and thereby defang it as a regulatory body. The 5th Circuit held that the CFPB’s funding was unconstitutional.
However, the federal government appealed the 5th Circuit ruling, and the US Supreme Court issued his ruling in May 2024, upholding the funding of the CFPB, and thus granting a lifeline to the agency itself.
The key argument in the Supreme Court was “source and purpose” form of funding of the CFPB, by which Congress grants an appropriation of up to $600 million for enforcement of the agency’s regulations, was unconstitutionally vague, and a breach of the Appropriations Clause, Art. I, §9, cl. 7. The Community Financial Services Association of America, Limited, argued that such funding would place no restrictions on CFPB’s funding authority, and represented an abdication of funding authority by Congress, in favor of the executive branch.
At oral argument and in its written opinion, the Supreme Court pushed back, pointing out that the Customs Service, from its beginning, and the US Postal Service, had funding that either was not subject to a fixed annual limit, or had the discretion to spend within specific bounds to effect their statutory mission.
Associate Justice Thomas, writing for the majority, said that:
“In short, the origins of the Appropriations Clause confirm that appropriations needed to designate particular revenues for identified purposes. Beyond that, however, early legislative bodies exercised a wide range of discretion. Some appropriations required expenditure of a particular amount, while others allowed the recipient of the appropriated money to spend up to a cap. Some appropriations were time limited, others were not. And, the specificity with which appropriations designated the objects of the expenditures varied greatly.”
. . .
“[The CFPB’s] funding statute contains the requisite features of a congressional appropriation. The statute authorizes the Bureau to draw public funds from a particular source—“the combined earnings of the Federal Reserve System,” in an amount not exceeding an inflation-adjusted cap. 12 U. S. C. §§5497(a)(1), (2)(A)–(B). And, it specifies the objects for which the Bureau can use those funds–to “pay the expenses of the Bureau in carrying out its duties and responsibilities.” §5497(c)(1).
“[Para.] Further, the Bureau’s funding mechanism fits comfortably with the First Congress’ appropriations practice . . .
“[Para.] For these reasons, we conclude that the statute that authorizes the Bureau to draw funds from the combined earnings of the Federal Reserve System is an “Appropriatio[n] made by Law.” We therefore hold that the requirements of the Appropriations Clause are satisfied.”
[Bold and italics added]
Applying this reasoning to the CFPB, the SCOTUS held at the term “appropriation,” as understood at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, did not require Congress to a fixed figure every year. And appropriation may validly be based upon a combination of both fees generated and Congressional grant, and moreover, need not be fixed as a required expenditure every fiscal year.
In the end, the legal questions were 1) does the Appropriations Clause of the Constitution bar Congress from giving an agency an upper limit budget appropriation, stating that the agency may spend no more than $XX in the fiscal year, rather than a fixed a dollar amount, and 2) does such funding violate separation of powers, by abdicating to the executive branch the decision or the extent of funding granted to the regulatory agency.
The Supreme Court answered “no” to both questions.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association of America, Limited, Docket No. 22-448, Decided May 16, 2024
The CFPB will live to fight another day.
THIS POST DOES NOT CONSTITUTE LEGAL ADVICE; PLEASE CONSULT AN ATTORNEY
by Hearthstone Legal Group | Dec 3, 2021 | bankruptcy, creditors, debt relief, mortage, Real Estate
As of January 2021, California’s Homestead Exemption increases from a minimum of $300,000, to a maximum of $600,000. This means that many more homeowners in liquidation, Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings can keep their homes.
The California Civil Code will be amended as follows:
Sec. 704.730. (a) The amount of the homestead exemption is the greater of the following:
(1) The countywide median sale price for a single-family home in the calendar year prior to the calendar year in which the judgment debtor claims the exemption, not to exceed six hundred thousand dollars ($600,000).
(2) Three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000).
(b) The amounts specified in this section shall adjust annually for inflation, beginning on January 1, 2022, based on the change in the annual California Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers for the prior fiscal year, published by the Department of Industrial Relations.
The statute does not say whether this will apply in bankruptcy as the “automatic homestead,” or whether the debtor must file a Declaration of Homestead. Based thereon, the debtor should strongly consider filing the Declaration with the County Recorder.
by Hearthstone Legal Group | Nov 26, 2021 | bankruptcy, creditors, debt relief
The primary purpose of the bankruptcy stay [11 USC Sec. 362] is to protect the debtor. (In re Fuel Oil Supply and Terminaling, Inc., 30 BR 360, 362 (Bankr.N.D.Tex.1983), cited in In re Globe Investment & Loan Co., Inc., 867 F.2d 556 (1989)). By stopping all collection actions against the debtor, the bankruptcy stay acts 1) as an injunction to preserve the estate, and 2) to prevent the creditors from trying to go around the bankruptcy process to collect.
Once the debtor receive the discharge (11 USC Sec. 727), creditors are no longer able to collect the discharged debts. A creditor who, despite the discharge, seeks to collect a pre-bankruptcy debt, runs the risk of a contempt citation and punishment by the federal court.
And so it was held recently by the US Supreme Court which held that a business dispute with the debtor, that had begun prior to the debtor’s filing for bankruptcy, was discharged by the bankruptcy, and no further collection activity would be allowed.
Writing for a unanimous US Supreme Court, Associate Justice Breyer opined that the business creditors, who had initiated the lawsuit against the debtor (Mr. Taggart) had no reasonable basis to believe that the bankruptcy stay, and the subsequent discharge would not act to bar the continued litigation against the debtor. The debt was considered wiped away, and the creditors actions, seen objectively, were not only impermissible, but gave rise to contempt sanctions:
“Under the fair ground of doubt standard, civil contempt therefore may be appropriate when the creditor violates a discharge order based on an objectively unreasonable understanding of the discharge order or the statutes that govern its scope.”
Taggart v. Lorenzen, ___ U.S. ___, 139 S.Ct. 1795, 1801, 204 L.Ed.2d 129 (2019).
The facts showed that the creditors had a working knowledge of the effects of bankruptcy law, and objectively should have realized that the pre-bankruptcy debt was no longer collectible. Therefore, the Supreme Court remanded the matter back to the 9th Circuit, to impose appropriate sanctions:
“We conclude that the Court of Appeals erred in applying a subjective standard for civil contempt. Based on the traditional principles that govern civil contempt, the proper standard is an objective one. A court may hold a creditor in civil contempt for violating a discharge order where there is not a “fair ground of doubt” as to whether the creditor’s conduct might be lawful under the discharge order.”
The Takeaway: Creditors Who Know that a Debtor has Filed for Bankruptcy Should Take No Action Against the Discharged Debtor, without First Having a Very Detailed, Careful Conversation with an Attorney, Lest Those Creditors End Up Held in Contempt!!
by Hearthstone Legal Group | Nov 12, 2021 | automatic stay, bankruptcy, creditors, debt relief
BANKRUPTCY LAW (Importance of Automatic Stay); When a debtor files for bankruptcy, 11 USC Section 362(a)(1) automatically stays any other judicial proceeding involving the debtor. The automatic stay “plays a vital role in bankruptcy. The automatic stay aids the debtor in getting a financial fresh start. The automatic stay is “one of the fundamental debtor protections provided by the bankruptcy laws.” The stay promotes stability of the bankruptcy estate for both the debtor and creditors. In re Schwartz, 954 F.2d 569, 571 (9th Cir.1992), cited in FAR OUT PRODUCTIONS, INC. v. OSKAR, 247 F.3d 986, 994-995 (2001)
by Hearthstone Legal Group | Nov 4, 2021 | bankruptcy, creditors, debt relief
Telecom provider violated automatic stat of 11 USC § 362(a)(6) by calling the debtors after they filed their bankruptcy petition and mailing a copy to the provider; and then, three months after the petition date writing to the debtors demanding immediate payment. This conduct justified actual damages, including emotional distress, punitive damages, and contempt sanctions.
IN RE FREELAND, Bankruptcy Case No. 19-32309-pcm7, US Bankruptcy Court, District of Oregon, filed 8/12/2020.
