Rescuing your bankruptcy case after it has been dismissed requires the strong hand of a professional bankruptcy lawyer, says James Kutkowski, who runs The Law Offices of J. Kutkowski, Esq., based in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. Not only will an attorney know the ropes better, but he could also have a closer relationship with the judge, as he explains here.
If your bankruptcy case has been dismissed, that means things aren’t going well. Okay, now that we’ve gotten the obvious out of the way, let me explain the process on how you can get your bankruptcy case back on track after a dismissal order has been entered.
With most dismissals, you have 14 days to request the court to reconsider the dismissal. This request is made in the form of a motion. The motion will have to state the track of the case from the time it was filed until the point of time it was dismissed, and then the reason why it was dismissed. It will also have to state the reason why, if the court grants your motion to vacate the dismissal order, the case is likely to be confirmed and go forward.
It’s a high bar to meet. Unless the case is dismissed because of a technical reason such as a document being filed improperly or not being filed on a timely basis, you’ll have to convince a judge that the reason that he thought dismissing your case was a good idea less than two weeks ago is now a bad idea.
No Set Rules
There are no set rules regarding reconsideration of dismissal, other than that the judge must look again at the reason why he dismissed the case, and the underlying laws behind his decision, and determine if the new information provided by the debtor and/or their attorney would have changed his decision on the day that he entered the order of dismissal. If not, he must see if the circumstances have changed to extent that the dismissal that was entered less than two weeks ago is now inappropriate.
Even if you have filed your case pro se, meaning you filed without the help of a bankruptcy attorney, you need a lawyer on this particular function in a bankruptcy case. While it is true that some bankruptcy judges — and I will repeat some — will show more sympathy to a person who has filed his case pro se, an attorney is more likely to convince the judge to reverse his decision.
Appeal to Sense of Fairness
An attorney who already knows the judge is going to be able to appeal to that judge’s sense of fairness and that judge’s sense of the law, and that attorney will know which cases in the past the judge will rely on more heavily in making his decision. A layman has no shot at knowing this information before the hearing, and could unintentionally offend the judge, therefore making the case worse.
If your case is dismissed, it’s not over until it’s closed. But hiring a competent professional is your best shot at getting your case back on track.
This article is for informational purposes only. You should not rely on this article as a legal opinion on any specific facts or circumstances, and you should not act upon this information without seeking professional counsel. Publication of this article and your receipt of this article does not create an attorney-client relationship.
