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We met with our attorney for what will be the last time before the big date. This time it wasn’t in his office, it was in the conference room with a woman that worked for him, a huge stack of papers and two pens. This was it. When we’re done in here we’re only a few weeks away from completing this bankruptcy. It was almost as bad as closing on our house. We signed and signed and signed… It becomes monotonous after awhile. If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably try a joke or two to alleviate the situation, let me tell you that is not a good idea. If you miss something in these papers it could cost you thousands of dollars in fixing it. Pay close attention, bring sugar, drink caffeine, do what you need to do to stay awake, focused and constantly asking questions.

Your attorney will (or should) go over everything you’re signing. We had a few changes to be made:

· 401k value was listed as $9,000. That was removed from the account a few months prior and got us caught up on the mortgage payment. No problems in changing it and no problems with us doing that.

· Value of my wife’s car was listed at $13,000 instead of $3,000. That’s a big mistake and one that would have hurt us in the courtroom. I’m told that I gave that number to them, but I have a hard time believing that I would ever estimate the 4-door Chevy @ thirteen thousand dollars. Never the less, it was fixed.

Be sure you look over the papers that show which loans or assets you’ll be keeping. For us, it was my car and our house. The auto loan will need to be reaffirmed, which just means you’re promising to keep repaying the car loan, on time and they promise not to reposes it.

I carefully thought about the car situation for a few days and the thought of just giving it back to the bank and including it in my bankruptcy was certainly an option. An attractive one at that. I really owe a lot of money on this car and will most likely have to put in $1,000 or so when it comes time to get a new car and pay off this loan. I kept it because every website and auto ad that I read that specializes in bad credit auto loans or car loans for people in bankruptcy all say it’s no problem as long as your bankruptcy is discharged and you have not had repossession in the last 12 months. My car is not in a good place, so this would certainly hurt me and my plans for a more reliable car this year.

So we’re all paid now. The attorney, the courts, it’s almost all done. Our court date is a few weeks away. All that we need to do now is complete a class online before our court date and show up at court. The attorney made it very clear that he doesn’t like to wait. We were told to be at the courthouse 45 minutes early and to look for him outside the courtroom. He told us which papers to bring and me what not to say, which was pretty much everything. See, I have a tendency to over-explain. Keep It Simple Stupid is the term he used and one I swore to for that day.

As we left I shook his hand and thanked him for everything. I joked that I enjoyed working with him but hope to never be in this office again. He reminded me that he doesn’t just handle bankruptcies and suggested that once we’re back on track he’s always here to help with businesses, real estate, etc. Thanks for the smile, good wishes and high hopes. I hope that’s the case too.

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