What paperwork do we need to file your Bankruptcy

Peter Schneider
Dec 7
4 min read

Updated: 5 days ago

Often clients want to get their bankruptcy filed right away, but it is important that the information in your bankruptcy petition is complete and accurate. If it's not, you'll have to amend filings and that just makes your bankruptcy take longer.

Without an accurate look at your numbers we also would run the risk of the bankruptcy being rejected.

If you are using NWDR to prepare your bankruptcy, there is paperwork you must give us prior to filing. This is to ensure all the information in your bankruptcy petition is correct and things go smoothly.

Documents your attorney will need.

A filled out bankruptcy questionnaire. This does not go directly to the court, but it feeds a lot of information the court requires and for most people it determines if you are eligible to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Usually this is going to be the first document we want to see from you because it will save you money to know up front if you are Chapter 7 bankruptcy eligible. We don't charge you just to determine if you are eligible. This form might be difficult for you to fill out and save on your phone if you don't have access to a large screen device. One of our [included for the price] services is filling it out with you during a phone call. Usually this takes 45-60 minutes.

A clear color copy of your social security card and driver's license.
Your tax return from the previous year that is signed by you or your tax preparer.
Last 60 days of bank statements for every financial account (bank accounts, Venmo, Paypal, retirement accounts) you will list in the bankruptcy. Summaries or spreadsheets containing this information are not acceptable (most on this later). Copies of the original documents (monthly account statements) are required.
Payslips and retirement income statements for the past six months. If you don't receive monthly statements for retirement income, a yearly determination letter (showing how much you will be paid each month) will work.
Prior to filing the petition in court, petitioners [you] are required to take a two hour credit counseling class. Usually these are $20 for the class and take two hours. After successfully completing the class (everyone who tries passes) they will give you a code that feeds into your petition. We don't care what class you take because we don't get any kickback from the websites that offer them, but one such website is https://www.debtorcc.org/.

Where do these documents go?

All of these documents are given to the trustee (via a secure upload portal) of your bankruptcy case. This is why original copies are required. It is not that we don't want to look at summaries or spreadsheets containing the information needed for your petition, it is that the court requires original documents.

The trustee sets out what they will and won't accept and it won't bother them a bit to simply reject documentation that is blurry or incomplete or not copies of the original documents. You don't want this to happen because the trustee will then set a hard deadline to receive the correct documentation and if for some reason you can't provide it during the 1-2 week deadline they set, they might reject your filing. We want your ducks in a row before you file.

We do ask that you provide the documentation.

Clients will sometimes ask if we can look up their debt information if they give us the name of their creditors. We do run a bankruptcy centric credit report that usually gives us a pretty complete picture of a client’s creditors, but that's information coming from a third party we don't control and who might have inaccurate information themselves.

And your credit reports might not list everyone who potentially thinks you own them money. You need to review the creditor list we generate to make sure your petition doesn't miss a single potential creditor. A good way to accomplish this is to give us bills or letters or emails or text messages you received from a creditor. Ultimately you suffer the consequences of incorrect or incomplete information so you want to make sure for yourself not a single potential creditor is missed. There is no penalty for including creditors who it turns out are owed nothing, so be liberal in including them.

As the old saying goes, a bit of extra work on the front end does make things much easier on the back end. Because firm time deadlines are created the moment your bankruptcy is filed, you want to to gather the above-mentioned records and give them to your bankruptcy attorney before your case is filed even if that means a delay in filing your petition.

Knock on wood, we rarely have a hiccup in a petition when everything is filed the way the bankruptcy trustee asks for.

Time Marches On

One last note that frustrates some filers. Sometimes filers give us nearly all the documentation needed, say their pay stubs for the last six months, but then they need 3-4 weeks to get their signed tax return which holds up filing the petition. Then they get us the tax return, only to be frustrated when we ask for the pay stubs and bank statements issued during the 3-4 week delay.

Please keep in mind that we must submit the required documentation to the bankruptcy trustee when we file your petition, and if there is a filing delay while you get a specific document, we must also receive the new pay stubs and financial statements that were issued during the delay. The bankruptcy trustee isn't asking for 60 days / 6 months of documents, he/she is asking for the most recent 60 days / 6 months of documents prior to the date of the filing.