Meeting of Creditors
A Section 341 Meeting of Creditors often is a debtor’s only interaction with the Bankruptcy system. During the meeting, the debtor will be placed under oath and the Trustee will examine the debtor by asking certain questions. Creditors and parties in interest will have the opportunity to briefly question the debtor. However, time for a Meeting of Creditors is limited. Therefore, lengthy examination should take place outside of the Meeting of Creditors process through a Motion for a 2004 Examination filed with the Court. Meeting of Creditors held on or after October 11, 2023 will be held remotely via Zoom. Failure to appear at the Meeting of Creditors hearing may result in the dismissal of a debtor’s case.
Providing Documents
Certain documents outlined in the letter to the debtor and their attorney must be provided to the Trustee no later than fourteen (14) days prior to the Meeting of Creditors. These include unredacted copies of the debtor’s identification documents and official documents showing the debtor’s full Social Security Number.
These documents by uploading them to our secure web document portal located at Bankruptcy Documents (https://bkdocs.us), delivering them to our mailing address listed on our Home Page or faxing them to (757) 961-3001. Please note that if you provide the documents through our secured document portal, you will have to register and be approved before you may submit the documents and that such documents must be in either PDF or JPEG format. Instructions for submitting documents through the secure document portal are linked on the right hand portion of this page.
Attending
To participate in a Zoom meeting, participants will need an electronic device (smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop) with a camera, speakers, microphone, and internet access. If they are using a smartphone the operating system (iOS or Android) will REQUIRE the Zoom application to be downloaded to the phone. If they are using a tablet, laptop, or desktop computer, they can either download the Zoom application or use the Zoom website, www.zoom.us.
To join the 341 meeting by video, the debtor and other participants must join through the Zoom application or go to www.zoom.us/join, as applicable, and enter the Meeting ID (797 201 4227) and Passcode (9470593022) when prompted. The Meeting ID and Passcode also are set out in section 7 of the Notice of Chapter 13 Bankruptcy Case (Official Form 309I) that is mailed to the debtor and creditors after the filing of the bankruptcy case. When prompted to enter a name, the debtor and other participants should enter their first and last name so each participant may be identified properly during the 341 meeting.
More detailed instructions for joining a Zoom 341 meeting can be found at https://www.justice.gov/ust/moc. Participants also should review the Instructions for Joining a Zoom § 341(a) Meeting of Creditors and the Best Practices for Debtors, Debtors' Attorneys, and Other Parties in Interest for Attending Virtual § 341 (a) Meetings of Creditors in Chapter 7, 12 and 13 Cases linked on the right hand portion of this page.
If a debtor is unable to appear at the virtual Meeting by video due to no access to internet or to an electronic device with a camera, they should join the Meeting by audio only and let the Trustee know they do not have the means necessary to join by video as the Trustee may permit a debtor to participate by telephone on a case-by-case basis if circumstances warrant. In the event a debtor is experiencing trouble connecting by video on the day of their Meeting, they should join the Meeting by audio only and let the trustee know they were unable to join by video. The dial-in telephone number is (757) 767-0782 and the passcode is 9470593022#. Please note that telephonic appearances by the debtor will likely result in the rescheduling of their Meeting to another date or time in order to appear by video.
