Notify your bankruptcy lawyer if there’s even a remote possibility that you did.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\nIf this is the case, the bankruptcy court may be convinced to start or keep your automatic stay, but only if your attorney is aware of the problem and assesses if your case qualifies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/span>Do Prior Bankruptcy Cases Have An Impact On Your Automatic Stay?<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\nThe length of your automatic stay is determined by how often the debtor has filed bankruptcy in the previous year:<\/span><\/p>\n\n- 30-day stay<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The stay will be in effect for 30 days if another bankruptcy case has been filed by the debtor during the prior year.<\/span><\/p>\n\n- No stay<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The court order will not impose an automatic stay if 2 or more bankruptcy cases have been filed by the debtor in the previous year.<\/span><\/p>\nNonetheless, the debtor may petition the court judge to enforce or extend the stay outside the 30-day timeframe. If the motion is successful, it will show that the borrower is not abusing the system.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/span>Can The Duration Of An Automatic Stay Be Extended?<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<\/span>You must do the following steps before the court can grant your automatic stay request:<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n\n- Prepare your motion in which you explain why your bankruptcy filing is not a fraudulent misrepresentation.<\/span><\/li>\n
- Set the date of the bankruptcy hearing no later than 30 days following the date of your filing bankruptcy.<\/span><\/li>\n
- As soon as possible, serve your motion on the lenders, trustee, and the United States Trustee.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
If you are pressed for time, your attorney may well be able to get an “Order Shortening Time,” that allows you to give less notice than is normally necessary.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/span>How Can I Make A Request For An Automatic Stay?<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\nWhen deciding whether to approve or prolong the stay in a bankruptcy, the court will first presume that the bankruptcy was filed in bad faith. In\u00a0 order to win, you must convince the court that the case was dismissed for reasons other than your own fault.<\/span><\/p>\nFor example, the court rejected your bankruptcy petition because you did not amend your petition for bankruptcy just after the bankruptcy trustee realized that the name on your petition did not match the name on your valid identification. You’d probably win the motion if you updated the information but your attorney failed to file it. The failure was not caused by you. However, if you failed to do the amendment while representing yourself, the court might scrutinize your reasons, and he might suspect that identity theft was committed. You will not be able to fulfill the good-faith criterion.<\/span><\/p>\nA court judge might be sympathetic to your case if your dismissal was the result of an uncontrollable event. You’ll want to demonstrate in your motion that you missed filing paperwork or showing up at the 341 meeting of creditors due to an unanticipated circumstance, such as a severe sickness or natural disaster.<\/span><\/p>\nAnother example is, supposing the court rejected your case because you failed to attend the 341 creditors’ meeting. You add a declaration from your doctor with your motion, stating that you were brought to the emergency room the night before and remained in the hospital for a lengthy amount of time. The court would most likely think you had no means of informing the trustee in bankruptcy that you were unable to attend and approve your motion. If, on the other hand, you had a conflict of schedule or just forgot, you’d be less likely to succeed.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/span>Natural Disasters Have Their Own Special Rules<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\nNatural disasters have their own set of rules. If you are unable to provide the trustee with 521 papers due to a flood, fire, or storm, or if you are unable to attend the 341 meeting of creditors due to impassable roads, alert the trustee. The trustee is required to make accommodations as a result of natural disasters, but cannot do so unless the trustee is aware of the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/span>What Exactly Will Constitute “Bad Faith”?<\/span><\/span><\/h2>\nThe judge will not grant your motion if your filing behavior seems to be an effort to exploit the bankruptcy system. Debtors who use repeated filings to frustrate valid creditor actions are frowned upon by the court.<\/span><\/p>\nDeclaring bankruptcy, for example, effectively stops foreclosure, eviction, and other forms of collector actions that may cause undue hardship. Some filers have been known to repeatedly file and dismiss bankruptcy cases for the sole purpose of delaying such proceedings. This is not a correct use of the bankruptcy system, and the court watches out for cases like this.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/span>Here’s an example of a bad-faith case.<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\nIn a prior bankruptcy case, a creditor filed a motion to lift the automatic stay in order to continue with a foreclosure, repossession, lawsuit, or eviction, but the debtor dismissed the case before the judge could consider the creditor’s motion. When the foreclosure or other action is about to begin anew, the debtor files a new case to halt it. Delays can cause serious harm to a creditor, particularly if the debtor is utilizing additional delaying tactics in between bankruptcy filings.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/span>Learn How To File For Bankruptcy Protection<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\nBankruptcy law firm <\/span>Michael D. O’Brien & Associates, P.C.<\/i><\/b> has been providing affordable bankruptcy protection and asset protection strategies to people and families who are having debt problems in Bend, Clackamas, Portland, Tigard, and surrounding Oregon areas for more than 20 years. Talk to one of our bankruptcy attorneys to help you get a fresh start.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How Can You Lose Your Automatic Stay Protection Under The Bankruptcy Laws? When you file for personal bankruptcy or business bankruptcy, an automatic stay takes effect immediately, restricting your debt collectors from harassing phone calls, writing, or trying to collect debts from you. The automatic stay is in effect throughout your bankruptcy proceeding. However, can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":36858,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[76],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdxlegal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36855"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdxlegal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdxlegal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdxlegal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdxlegal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36855"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pdxlegal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36860,"href":"https:\/\/pdxlegal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36855\/revisions\/36860"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdxlegal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pdxlegal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdxlegal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pdxlegal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}