Setting Up a New Case

Tutorial on how to create a new case in BkAssist®

Scope of Tutorial

• This tutorial describes the basic level of detail—information you should enter when you first setup a case for a new client– Basic detail is the minimum amount of information BkAssist will

need in order to fully support your preparation of the case.• Click on the Why button for each item to understand why BkAssist

needs that particular piece of information.

– Full detail is the information BkAssist will need to generate a complete bankruptcy petition. Refer to individual, topic-specific, tutorials.

• Who should view this tutorial: anyone who will use BkAssist to prepare a bankruptcy case.

Follow Along

• We recommend that you follow along by mimicking the steps in this tutorial.

• You can inspect the results of this tutorial by “receiving” the case file we created as we prepared the tutorial.– Download the case file for

Sarah & Sammy Sample into the BkAssist “Home” directory.

– Use the Receive command on the File menu to read the case file into BkAssist. The password is “BkAssist” (without the quotes).

Creating the Case (1)

• From the Client tab on the main window, click on the Add button, or type Alt + A

Creating the Case (2)• This is the “Client Property

Sheet,” which contains all the information about a client and their bankruptcy case.

• You’ll start on the “Debtor Page,” which contains information about the debtor.– In the pre-December-2013

world, the Debtor Page concerns the person known as “H” or “W”, depending on the gender you pick.

– In the post-December-2013 world, the Debtor Page concerns the person known as “Debtor 1”

Creating the Case (3)

• Start typing the debtor’s name in the Name blank.

• Note that the window caption changes as you type.

Creating the Case (4)• The very first time you begin

typing in the Name blank, BkAssist will pop up an informational message to tell you how to enter names.

• We recommend that you check the “Don’t tell me this again” box and click on OK after reading the message.

• There is more detail about “asked and answered” messages like this one in the tutorial on How to Use BkAssist.

Creating the Case (5)• For rapid data entry, train your

fingers to do this:

– Name, TAB

– File Number, TAB

– 1st line of address, TAB, TAB

- or -

– 1st line of address, TAB, 2d line of address, TAB

– Zipcode (or Zip + 4 with a hyphen), TAB

• Watch what happens when you TAB out of the zipcode field…

Creating the Case (6)• When you leave the zipcode field,

BkAssist will lookup the zipcode in its “places” database and fill in the city and state.

• Continue providing the basic information about the debtor and spouse (if any), as described on the next two slides.

Basic Detail About The Debtor

• Basic detail about the Debtor includes

– Full legal name

– Entity type

– Residence address

– Social Security Number

– Birthday

– Marital status

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why?

Basic Detail About The Spouse

• Basic detail about the Debtor’s spouse includes– Full legal name– Residence address

(note the “same address” check box)

– Whether this will be a joint petition or not

– Social Security Number– Birthday

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why?

Creating the Case (7)• When you finish with the basic

detail about the debtor and spouse, click on the Save button to save the case file to disk.

• Saving the case for the first time will:

– Create a client folder within the BkAssist “Home directory”. (Read the help page for “Dude, where are my documents?” to learn about the directory structure BkAssist uses.)

– Change the window caption—in this case from “Sarah Sample & Sammy Sample” to “Sample, Sarah & Sammy”.

Basic Detail About Dependents & Others

• Basic detail about dependents includes:– Relationship– Age– Where this person resides– Percentage of time this person

resides with one of the debtors

• Basic information about other persons who reside with the debtor(s) includes:– Name– Relationship– Which household they live in

Why?

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Basic Detail About The Case

• Basic information about the case includes– Filing chapter

– Attorney

Why?

Why?

Basic Schedules & Forms Detail

• Basic detail on the Schedules & Forms tab includes:– Anticipated filing date

– Fee status

– Prior/Pending Cases

– Assets & Exemptions

– Liabilities

– Current Monthly Income

Why?

Why?

Why?

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Why?

Prior/Pending Cases• To learn about prior cases filed by

these debtors, double-click on the “Prior/Pending Cases” item on the Schedules & Forms Page.

• Click on Refresh to automatically query the PACER case locator (pcl.uscourts.gov) for cases filed using these social security numbers.

• We gave Sarah & Sammy bogus SSNs. As you can see, in 2005 someone filed a real case using one of these SSNs by mistake. Go figure!

• If you want to learn more about one of the prior cases, double-click on a case within the list. BkAssist will login to that court’s PACER site and initiate a query.

Basic Asset Detail• You should enter asset descriptions for

– The debtors’ home (if they own it)– All automobiles– All leased personal property

• Start by opening the Assets Screen (double-click on the “Assets and Exemptions” item on the Schedules & Forms Page), then click on Insert.

Why?

Basic Residence Detail• Fill out an asset dialog for the debtors’

principal residence, including this basic information:

– Asset category “Primary residence”

– Description (ad lib.)

– Value

– Who owns

• If you wish, you can also add these full detail items

– Nature of interest (will be used on Schedule A eventually)

– Location (ditto)

Why?

Why?

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More About Asset Ownership• When the debtor(s) own(s) a partial interest in an asset with someone who is

not a debtor (e.g., with a sibling or a non-filing spouse):– Compute the asset value so as to divide the equity equally amongst the owners.– Indicate that the debtor(s) own(s) 100% of the asset. In the Sarah and Sammie

example, they each really own 1/3. But we indicate that Sarah owns 50% because we are concerned here only with apportioning ownership between the people who are filing this petition.

– Use the “plus size” button (the “+” next to the description) to enter a multi-line description explaining what you’ve done.

– The full description appears on Schedule A. Just the first line appears everyplace else.

• When the debtor is a trustee or a lessee:– Select “Another” from the drop-down “Who owns” list.– Start typing the name of the actual owner in the Owner blank. This will pop-up a

dialog where you can enter the name and address of the actual owner. Refer to the tutorial on entering creditor names for the mechanics of this process.

– BkAssist will list an asset owned by “Another” in the answer to Question 14 (Property held for another person) of the Statement of Financial Affairs.

Debtor's residence

Value computed to share equity equally between all owners: $300,000 total value, liens $150,000 = $50,000 equity per owner, plus liens = $250,000 effective value

Basic Owned Automobile Detail• Fill out an asset dialog for each of the

debtors’ cars, including this basic information:

– Asset category “Motor vehicles”

– Description (ad lib.)

– Value

– Who owns

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why?

Basic Leased Automobile Detail• Fill out an asset dialog for each of the

debtors’ cars, including this basic information:

– Asset category “Motor vehicles”

– Description (ad lib.)

– Who owns—Another

– Owner—Name/address of lessor

• If you like, you can also specify the value of the car, which BkAssist will use in the answer to Question 14 (Property held for another person) on the Statement of Financial Affairs

Why?

Basic Liability Detail• All the information that BkAssist needs about liabilities comes from the Liabilities

Screen—double-click the Liabilities entry on the Schedules & Forms Page.

• Basic detail includes information about priority debts and all secured debts and unexpired leases—BkAssist needs that information to calculate means-test expense allowances.

• Click on Insert (or type Alt + I) to enter information about one liability.

The Liability Dialog• The Liability Dialog captures a lot of information, and all of it will be needed to completely prepare the petition. There is

a separate tutorial that explains this dialog in complete detail. This tutorial concerns just the minimum (basic) detail needed. There is a separate slide for each of the highlighted areas in this picture:

• If all of the liability dialog won’t fit on your screen, you can use the scroll bars on the right and bottom edges to scroll the missing portion into view. BkAssist will automatically scroll the dialog as needed when you TAB or Shift+TAB from one field to the next.

Really Basic Liability Detail• This is a portion of the Liability

Dialog illustrating the most basic of the basic detail:– Creditor Name (see the tutorial on

creditor names to learn about the mechanics of filling in this blank)

– Description—pick from the drop-down list if you can.

– Amount– Cure Amount– Monthly Payment– Maturity Date

• You can also specify this additional information, which is part of the full detail that will eventually be needed:– Account No. (used on Sch. D)– Who owes (ditto)– Origination date (ditto)– Interest rate (used in computing

chapter 13 plans)

Why?

Why?Why?Why?

Why?

Secured Debts and Leases• If the debt is secured by estate property or is for an unexpired lease, check the appropriate

box and select the collateral (or leased property asset) from the drop-down list.• The reason you enter assets first is so you can more easily correlate secured debts and

leases with assets. (If you haven’t yet defined the collateral asset, click on the New button. That will pop-up an asset dialog where you can provide the description.)

• BkAssist initially ranks debts based on the order in which you enter them.– E.g., enter the first mortgage first, then the second mortgage, etc.– You can reorder the debts on the asset dialog if you need to.

• BkAssist currently has no way to indicate that more than one asset secures a single debt.– So, for example, there is currently no way to directly indicate that a tax lien encumbers all of a

debtor’s property other than by noting that fact in the description of the debt.– In some situations, you can simply define a single asset whose description includes more than one

item of property. This is the appropriate way to deal with a loan that is cross-collateralized by a few discrete items that are not collateral for any other lender’s debts.

Debt and Lease Treatment• Many of the decisions BkAssist makes about debts depend on the treatment you

specify on the Liability Dialog. For example, if you are stripping off a junior lien in chapter 13, BkAssist will not include the monthly payments toward that debt on Schedule J. Exhaustively enumerating the way debt treatment influences petition generation is beyond the scope of this tutorial.

• The treatment choices depend on which chapter you’ve chosen, the district where the case will be filed, and whether the debt is priority, secured, unsecured, or for an unexpired lease.

• You can change the treatment any time you wish, but you will then need to redo the means test, Schedule J, and the Chapter 13 plan.

Collateral Necessary for Support• You are entitled to deduct the 60-month average of the cure payments for a

secured debt if the collateral is necessary for the support of the debtor or the debtor’s dependents.

• Be sure to check the “necessary for support” box if the statement is true. (Otherwise, BkAssist will not include the arrearage deduction in the means test.)

Priority Claims• If an unsecured debt is entitled to priority, so indicate on the Liability Dialog.

• Also be sure to indicate how much of the debt is entitled to priority.

• BkAssist uses this information to compute the priority-debt expense allowance on the means test, among other purposes.

Current Monthly Income• Scroll to the entry for “Current Monthly

Income (Form B22x)” on the Schedules & Forms Page. Double-click to bring up the CMI worksheet.

• Select your preferred method of entering CMI data. Hints:

– The first method (6-month grid) is best for debtors who have irregular income that differs from the Schedule I projections.

– The second method (YTD) is best for debtors with one job when you have at least 2 paystubs bracketing the 6-month lookback period (or 3 paystubs including year-end).

– The third method is best when you simply want to estimate the effect of the means test or when past and future income are the same AND you’ve already filled in the Schedule I data on the “Income” screen.

• Click on the Calculate buttons to enter CMI data for both debtors.

• Use the “?” button to refer to the extensive help about how to enter CMI.

Basic Check List Detail (1)

• We recommend that you now visit the Check Lists page. Click on the Generate button to create a pre-filing checklist tailored to the state where you’ll file the case and some of the details BkAssist now knows.

• Click on the Generate button to create the checklist.

Why?

Basic Check List Detail (2)

• This is the initial checklist for Sarah & Sammy, with some of the items checked.

Checking Your Work (1)

• The Schedules & Forms Page has a Check button that will perform a number of consistency and completeness checks on the case.

Checking Your Work (2)• At this early stage, “Check” discloses a great many issues…• You can double-click on an item to go directly to the place where you can fix it.• We don’t actually recommend using “Check” right away. Instead, enter the basic

detail information we’ve outlined in this tutorial and run the means test. Then work methodically through the screens listed on the Schedules & Forms Page to complete your case preparation.