The 341 meeting is in essence your “court
date.” These meetings are usually not as formal as regular
court proceedings that actually take place in court rooms
with judges. Instead, they tend to be more casual, however,
you are under oath and subject to penalties of perjury, so
do not take it lightly. There is a basic question and
answer session where the trustee will ask you if you were
honest in everything you listed in your bankruptcy
petition. The trustee will ask you if you read through the
petition before you signed it and also ask if you
transferred or sold any property before you filed the
bankruptcy. The 341 meeting is called a meeting of
creditors but creditors rarely show up, if at all, because
they pretty much know that most chapter 7 filings are no
asset cases anyway, which means they won’t get anything out
of it. When creditors do show up they just ask how you
ended up being in the position that you are in so answering
them honestly and directly is the only way to go here. The
main points of questioning will be the following:
The value of your automobile or house
Whether you can sell something to pay off some creditors
Whether or not you are willing to pay the difference of
property that is over the exemption amount (for example you
are allowed $2,400 for your car but its worth $3000 = $600
difference)
Most 341 meetings end with a finding of no assets which
means you are going to be discharged, and you will never
hear from or see the trustee again.