The purpose of filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy is to immediately enact the automatic stay and eventually obtain the discharge of debt. What happens when you go through legal channels to obtain both these powerful protections through bankruptcy filing and creditors ignore their legal implications?
If you are being harassed by creditors in spite of the automatic stay and final discharge of your debt, you aren’t alone.
The first step is to verify that the creditor who is contacting you for payment was correctly listed in the schedule of creditors included in your bankruptcy case.
Once you’ve verified that the creditor and the debt associated with them was listed correctly in the schedule of creditors and was therefore included in the discharge of debt, you should advise the creditor that you filed bankruptcy and that the debt they are calling about was included in the discharge.
You may need to provide the creditor with your bankruptcy case number and/or your bankruptcy attorney’s name and number in order to allow them to verify the information. The majority of creditors will cease their attempts to collect once they have been provided with the bankruptcy information.
If the creditor that is ignoring the bankruptcy code preventing them from contacting you during bankruptcy or after the bankruptcy has discharged the debt refuses to accept the information regarding your bankruptcy filing or your receipt of discharge at the close of your case, you should contact your bankruptcy attorney to determine your next step.
If you have more questions about what you can and can’t do when creditors ignore bankruptcy code, please get in touch with one of the experienced southern California bankruptcy attorneys at Westgate Law.