The information contained in your petition, schedules, and statement of affairs is submitted under penalty of perjury. Therefore, you must be certain that it is correct when you sign these documents.

If, however, you later discover that something is inaccurate, the documents may be corrected by the filing of an amendment with the Clerk's Office. New schedules or statements must be filed showing the corrected information. All amendments must be signed by the debtor(s) with a declaration under penalty of perjury.

A filing fee is required to amend schedules when adding creditors, deleting creditors, changing the amount specified as being owed to a creditor, or changing the classificationof a debt on Schedules D/E, or F.  See Miscellaneous Fee Schedule. If additonal creditors are added, a separate additional page matrix is required to be filed, listing only the creditor(s) being added.

A new Form must be filed along with the amended schedule(s) : Form B106-Summary - A Summary of Your Assets and Liabilities and Certain Statistical Information (individuals) or Form B206-Summary -  A Summary of Your Assets and Liabilities (non-individuals).

All amendments must be served pursuant to Federal Bankruptcy Rules.

These documents provide information about the debtor’s assets and liabilities.  In these documents, the debtor describes the nature and value of his or her property and lists the nature and amount of debts, the names and addresses of creditors, and the debtor’s current income and expenditures.  The statement of financial affairs for bankruptcy requires the debtor to disclose certain historic information about his or her financial affairs.  These documents must be fully completed and are signed by the debtor under penalty of perjury.

If the creditor continues to attempt to collect a debt after the bankruptcy is filed, the creditor may be in violation of the automatic stay. If you have an attorney, you should immediately notify him or her of the creditor’s collection efforts.  If you are not represented, you may provide notice to the creditor that you have filed bankruptcy including documents such as the bankruptcy petition and Notice of Filing; these documents may assist the creditor in determining your status as a debtor in bankruptcy who may be protected by the automatic stay.  If the creditor continues an attempt to collect, you may be entitled to take legal action against the creditor.  Any such legal action brought against the creditor may be complex and will normally require representation by a qualified bankruptcy attorney.

A Notice of Appeal may be filed after an Order or Judgment has been entered in a case. In a Notice of Appeal, the party filing the Appeal, the appellant, wishes to reverse the Order or Judgment granted in favor of the other party, the appellee. When an Appeal is filed in the Northern District of Iowa, the matter may be elected to the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (BAP) or District Court by the appellant at the time of filing the Notice of Appeal and Statement of Election. 

Click here for more information on filing an appeal.

The "Certification About a Financial Management Course" in Chapters 7 and 13 must be completed before a discharge is entered, unless the debtor qualifies for a temporary waiver or exemption from the requirement under 11 U.S.C. § 109(h).
 
Chapter 7:     If you have filed a Chapter 7 petition, you must complete a course in personal financial management and file your certification with the Court within 45 days of the first date set for the Meeting of Creditors or your case will be closed without a discharge. See Fed. R. Bankr. P. 1007

Chapter 13:     If you have filed a Chapter 13 petition, you must complete a course in personal financial management and file your certification with the Court no later than the last payment made as required by the plan or the filing of a motion for entry of discharge under § 1328(b), or your case will be closed without a discharge.  See Fed. R. Bankr. P. 1007(b)(7).

The U.S. Trustee's Office provides a list of Approved Financial Management Course Providers.

A bankruptcy petition is a form that a debtor files to commence a case before the Bankruptcy Court.  The debtor elects in the document the bankruptcy chapter under which he or she will proceed and provides certain other required identifying information.  The document is signed by the debtor under penalty of perjury.  Married individuals are allowed to file a joint petition whereby a single bankruptcy case is commenced for the two married individuals. 

The Meeting of Creditors, also known as a 341 Meeting (so-called after § 341 of the Bankruptcy Code), is a meeting that a debtor is required to attend after filing for bankruptcy. The meeting is conducted by the case trustee or the U.S. Trustee. The bankruptcy judge does not attend this meeting. The debtor must appear at this meeting and testify under oath about his or her financial condition, assets, and liabilities. The debtor will be asked questions about the information contained in the bankruptcy paperwork filed with the Court. Creditors may also attend this meeting and may question the debtor about his or her financial affairs. If a debtor fails to attend this required meeting, the case trustee may seek to dismiss the bankruptcy case. A debtor typically cannot receive a discharge in bankruptcy without attending this meeting.

The Meeting of Creditors is held within a certain time period after the bankruptcy case is commenced. Within about a week after the bankruptcy case is filed, the debtor will receive notice by mail of the date and time of the Meeting of Creditors, which will be contained in the Notice of Bankruptcy Case. The debtor is required to bring certain identification information to this meeting and the trustee may request further information about the debtor’s financial affairs.

A reaffirmation agreement is an agreement by which a Chapter 7 debtor becomes legally obligated to pay all or a portion of an otherwise dischargeable debt. Such an agreement must generally be entered into within sixty (60) days after the first date set for the meeting of creditors. The agreement must be filed with the court. A reaffirmation agreement must be filed on (Form B2400) and be accompanied by a Reaffirmation Agreement Cover Sheet (Form B427).

If the reaffirming debtor is represented by an attorney, and the agreement complies with 11 United States Code § 524(c), no hearing for approval of such an agreement is generally necessary. If the reaffirming debtor is not represented by an attorney or the attorney has not signed the agreement, the court will schedule a hearing. You must appear in person at the hearing. The judge will ask questions to determine whether the reaffirmation agreement imposes an undue hardship on you or your dependents and whether it is in your best interests. Since reaffirmed debts are not discharged, the bankruptcy court will normally approve reaffirmation agreements only when the debt is secured by collateral that is important to your daily activities. Reaffirmation agreements are strictly voluntary. They are not required by the Bankruptcy Code or other state or federal law.

An “exemption” is a statutory right that an individual debtor may exercise to exempt the equity in certain real and personal property from certain creditors.  If there is no non-exempt equity in your property, after considering its value, consensual liens, and the amount of the exemption, then your trustee may determine that the property should not be sold for the benefit of your creditors or that such property should not be considered in determining the amount of your payment under a Chapter 13 plan.  An exemption has no effect on the rights of a creditor with a consensual lien, such as a mortgage creditor or a creditor that financed the purchase of a vehicle. 

A debtor takes an exemption by completing Schedule C.

Individual debtors with primarily consumer debts who file a petition for bankruptcy under Chapter 7, 11, or 13 must complete an income-based “means test.”  The means test calculates the difference between a debtor’s current monthly income (“CMI”) and his or her allowed expenses.  The means test is intended to determine whether a debtor has the “means” to repay some percentage of his or her non-priority unsecured debts.  In order to report and calculate a debtor’s CMI and allowed expenses for the completion of the means test, official forms B122A-1, B122A-1SUPP, and B122A-2 have been created for Chapter 7 debtors, B122B for individual 11 debtors, and B122C-1 and B122C-2 for Chapter 13 debtors.  In a Chapter 7, the means test may determine whether there is a presumption of abuse by the debtor in seeking relief under Chapter 7.  Forms B122B, B122C-1 and B122C-2 can be used to determine the appropriate payment plan for debtors in Chapters 11 and 13.