Commencing December 1, 2015, nearly all of the Official Bankruptcy Forms will be replaced with substantially revised, reformatted and renumbered versions. Having reviewed these forms thoroughly, I can only say that these changes will likely substantially increase both the cost and effort involved for potential bankruptcy filings. The changes will likely be a disaster for self-filers for two reasons. First, they may now have to complete an additional thirty pages of paperwork on their own. Second, while some of the sections appear to be easier to fill out, they force debtors to answer questions in such a way that every unprotected dime both real and imagined will be made much easier for a Trustee to discover.

The changes in the Bankruptcy Forms and Schedules appear to benefit both the Courts and Trustees, but I am not sure what the changes do for debtors. If you are contemplating filing bankruptcy or have already retained us and are in the process of getting ready to file, please contact me so that we can determine how these changes might impact you. The changes do not go into effect for another two months so lets get ahead of this issue.