{"id":592,"date":"2012-06-10T20:10:37","date_gmt":"2012-06-10T20:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/?p=592"},"modified":"2012-09-12T06:15:46","modified_gmt":"2012-09-12T06:15:46","slug":"i-received-a-notice-of-possible-dividend-what-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/2012\/06\/i-received-a-notice-of-possible-dividend-what-now\/","title":{"rendered":"I Received A Notice of Possible Dividend, What Now?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ryan C. Wood<\/a><\/p>\n

The vast majority of Chapter 7 bankruptcy cases are no asset cases.\u00a0 This means that the person filing for bankruptcy protection does not own assets that cannot be protect and kept.\u00a0 California has two sets of exemptions that protect assets, or exempt them from the bankruptcy estate that is created when filing bankruptcy.\u00a0 But what if someone owns $75,000 in stock or bonds and has $150,000 in debt.\u00a0 There is no exemption to protect $75,000 in a normal stock trading account.\u00a0 If this person files for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy a portion of the stock can be protected depending upon the circumstances and the rest will be part of the bankruptcy estate to be paid to those who are owed money.<\/p>\n

This process is started by the Chapter 7 Trustee appointed to administer the bankruptcy estate filing a \u201cNotice of Possible Dividend\u201d (NPD) to all they creditors listed in the bankruptcy petition that are owed money.\u00a0 The NPD is filed to give notice to everyone that there could get some of their money back from the bankruptcy filer.\u00a0 The money or amount received is called a dividend.\u00a0 The NPD requests that creditors file proof of claims, or proof of the amount they believed they are owed by the bankruptcy filer.<\/p>\n

This may seem like a straightforward process, but there have been lawsuits proving that creditors have filed fraudulent claims to get paid more than they are actually owed.\u00a0 The claims process includes procedures for objecting to a claim for payment that is made.\u00a0 Proofs of claims are supposed to include documentation that proves the amount that is owed at the time the bankruptcy case was filed.\u00a0 Unfortunately many claims are filed will a simple summary of the accounting that proves nothing.\u00a0 Anyone can write numbers on a piece of paper and attach it to the claim.\u00a0 It proves nothing and should be objected to.\u00a0 If you believe a creditor in your bankruptcy case filed a fraudulent claim you need to tell your bankruptcy lawyer<\/a> to object to it.<\/p>\n

Sometimes a trustee files a NPD because the merely think there are assets available to creditors.\u00a0 Once they file the NPD they will then further investigate the value of the bankruptcy filers assets and determine if in fact creditors can or should receive a dividend.\u00a0 This is okay as long as the trustee actually does something after filing the NPD.\u00a0 What if a trustee files a NPD and then does nothing?\u00a0 This is a very troublesome occurrence and should never happen.\u00a0 When this happens creditors waste valuable time and money filing claims for nothing.\u00a0 The bankruptcy court cannot sign the order of discharge or close the bankruptcy case.\u00a0 If this has happened in your bankruptcy case you need to consult your bankruptcy attorney<\/a> regarding what can be done about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The vast majority of Chapter 7 bankruptcy cases are no asset cases. This means that the person filing for bankruptcy protection does not own assets that cannot be protect and kept. California has two sets of exemptions that protect assets, or exempt them from the bankruptcy estate that is created when filing bankruptcy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[55],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":691,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592\/revisions\/691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}