Debtors who file for bankruptcy are often concerned that employers, family members, friends or others will find out that they have filed for bankruptcy. The reality is that outside of notifying all of your creditors so that you can discharge your debts, most others will never find out about your bankruptcy filing. Your creditors will be notified of your bankruptcy filing within a few days of your filing and will receive a notice of your 341 meeting of creditors date. This is usually the only time you have to go to court and will happen within 30-45 days of your case filing in most situations. Usually these creditors do no show up to this meeting as they do not intend to object to your case filing unless they are trying to prove some kind of fraudulent behavior in most cases. For most people this meeting goes by very fast.
Your employers payroll department will be notified only if you wish to stop a garnishment on your paycheck. As for family and friends they will only be notified if you tell them about your filing, owe them money, or they are savvy enough to figure out how to use an online searchable database called the Public Access to Court Electronic Records or PACER as it is usually known as, which is usually only utilized by attorneys. Pacer requires registering with the system and providing credit card information as you must pay a small fee for using the system where you can look up all federal cases filed across the country. Although you will file your bankruptcy case locally, bankruptcy is based off of the Federal law and your case will be filed in the Federal bankruptcy court.
If you have additional questions regarding what to expect when you filed for bankruptcy in Washington state give Symmes Law Group a call at 206-682-7975.
