Getting Somewhere!

Ok, so we did get a letter of Plan Confirmation from the Trustee, but there was some confusing info pertaining to the amount we've already paid toward the plan. The letter stated $0 had been paid, but that couldn't be correct, else our case would have been dismissed a long time ago.

I sent an e-mail to the paralegal and addressed my concerns:

We received Confirmation papers from the trustee, but some of the language leaves us with questions.

*It would appear the Trustee is saying that $0 has been paid on our Plan
*There was also something in reference to $#### for attorney's fees and $#### for filing fees or something of that nature - I do not have the papers with me at the moment, so I'm probably not relaying my concerns 100% clearly - we thought our Payment Plan covered both of these costs.
*You left us a message prior to receiving the confirmation papers and you said we were all paid.

Can you help to explain some of the above concerns, and also give us an idea as to where we stand at this point in time? How many more Plan Payments do we have?

She e-mailed back:

Everything is fine. It is just a standard letter confirming the terms. You are correct attorney fees are going to be paid through the plan. That is a good thing that the case is confirmed. Nothing for you to do. Just put to file.

Okay, so how much do we really owe? When we last heard from the paralegal, she said we were all paid and our case would be ready for discharge. We went around and around for a few days and finally, on Friday, I called because we got a letter in the mail stating there was a hearing scheduled for the Plan Confirmation with very short notice, and I needed to speak with someone to make sure we did not have to be there. She told us we didn't need to go to the hearing. While I had her on the phone, I asked about our account balance, and we finally got the information we were looking for.

We are not all paid, but that's fine. It was kind of surprising to us that we could have been all paid, so we didn't immediately get our hopes up. Technically, we still have 6 more plan payments, but now that the plan has been confirmed, we are free to make a lump sum of the remaining balance. And that is what we will do. When the next plan payment is due, we will make a payment in full and then we will be on the way to discharge!

If all goes as planned, the next post should be something about the case being closer to discharge.

March Update

So, it's been several weeks since we've received any documentation from the Trustee and we were starting to get a little bit worried. No news is usually good news, right? We were hoping so, at least. Last we heard, they had dropped the motion to dismiss, but we hadn't heard anything in regard to the Trustee confirming our payment plan, which we thought was supposed to be the next step in the process.

Mr. America contacted the paralegal - a different one, again. This makes Paralegal #3 that has worked on our case, and the second time we were given no notification that, should we need to contact someone, the contact info had changed. I can't say for certain how I feel about the customer service/client relations we've received, but as long as we don't run into any more issues, I won't do much complaining. But, we probably won't use them for Bankruptcy representation in the future. ;-)

But, where was I? Oh yes, the paralegal didn't show anything in the file concerning confirmation of the plan, so she said she'd contact the Trustee and call us back with any information. Mr. America got a voicemail from the paralegal yesterday and she said the Trustee has confirmed the plan and will be sending out a letter this week. And she also said that we have already fulfilled our payment plan, so once the confirmation letter has been received, they can file the official Bankruptcy Discharge! That means we will be done!

Of course, I'm not getting my hopes up (yeah, right!), because I know anything can happen, but if all goes well, we should be done with all of this Bankruptcy business by the end of March. Wow. Officially Done? I'll believe it when I see it... We have so many plans!