How to Talk to a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Trustee

A Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee acts as the liaison between your attorney and the bankruptcy court.  The trustee is responsible for approving your plan to repay your debt in a reasonable timeframe.  If you are filing for bankruptcy without the aid of an attorney, it is important to learn how to talk to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustee yourself.

• Locate your local bankruptcy trustee office.  Their office is usually located in the federal or the county courthouse.  Look up the telephone number for the courthouse information line and give them a call to get more information. They will be able to give you the contact information for the trustee’s office.


• If you have an attorney, use him.  Trustees will usually contact your lawyer and thus all correspondence will happen through them.  This doesn’t mean that you can’t contact your trustee yourself though. For example, you may have to contact the trustee directly if you are not receiving copies of the correspondence taking place.  


• Anyone who isn’t represented by an attorney will need to contact the trustee’s office before, during and after the bankruptcy.  Use the contact information you received from the courthouse to contact the trustee.  You will want to contact him if you spot any errors within your case.  It is also important to keep him updated with any changes that occur financially.  Both of these things will have a great impact upon your bankruptcy case so make sure that he knows about them just as soon as possible.


• Whenever you call your trustee make sure that you talk to him in a professional manner.  He is the one responsible for your bankruptcy going smoothly, so the last thing that you want to do is to make him upset.


• Before you call your trustee you will want to make sure that you have gathered together all of the information that you need and that you have it in front of you.  The information that you will need is any correspondence from him, as well as the initial paperwork that you had whenever you filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.  You will want to be able to easily and readily refer to these things whenever you are on the phone with your trustee.