Bankruptcy Process

Weiland Legal Services provides legal services to clients who have a need to file either Chapter 7 or chapter 13 Bankruptcy. We are able to provide these services in the Western District of Wisconsin for the counties of Wood, Portage, Marathon, Adams and Clark, and in the Eastern District of Wisconsin for the counties of Waupaca and Waushara.

We provide a free initial consultation to those who might be considering bankrupty. Typically the process is as follows.

Free Initial Consultation Meeting

Clients who might be interested in considering bankruptcy meet with Attorney William Weiland for a free initial consultation meeting. At this meeting clients' questions are answered, clients are provided a questionaire to assist in determining their bankrupty options, clients are given information regarding the bankruptcy process and clients are shown the various bankrupty options.

Preparing and Filing the Petition and Schedules

If a client decides to pursue a bankruptcy, a second meeting is set up for the client to return the questionaire with the information necessary to develop the bankruptcy petition and schedules. Attorney William Weiland will personally develop the necessary paperwork for filing a client's bankruptcy petition and will meet again with the client to review and explain the petition and schedules and to obtain the client's signature on the petition and schedules.

After the petition and schedules are signed, Attorney Weiland files the documents with the Bankruptcy Court. In the Western District of Wisconsin the filing of the petition, schedules and filing fee is done electronically over the internet. This allows the client access to immediate information regarding the case number, appointed trustee and the date and time of the Creditors Meeting.

Attending the Creditors Meeting

After the petition and schedules are filed, a Creditors Meeting is held within 30 days. This meeting is an opportunity for creditors to ask questions regarding the client's assets, liabilities, income and expenses. Typically very few, if any creditors show up to ask questions. Typically only the bankruptcy trustee is at the meeting and, as a representative of the interests of the creditors, he/she asks a series of questions. Attorney Weiland will personally accompany clients to the Creditors Meeting. It is common that the only proceeding that a client must attend is the Creditors Meeting. Creditors have 60 days from the date of the Creditors Meeting to object. While there is NO guarantee that a creditor will not object, the vast majority of cases handled by Attorney Weiland do not result in objections from creditors.

Notice of Discharge

Assuming that there are no objections, a client should receive a Notice of Discharge within 2 weeks of the final date for creditor objections. Assuming everything goes normally, the process is typically 4 months in duration.

During the entire process, clients are assured that Attorney William Weiland will be personally involved in every aspect of their bankruptcy.