Date Debts Were Incurred

One of the most difficult questions clients have to answer in their pleadings relates to the date a debt was incurred. The bankruptcy pleadings, and the local chapter 7 trustees, require the disclosure of this imformation.

It is a difficult disclosure because clients want to be careful with their disclosures, but don't know these dates with precision. The important thing to remember for this disclosure is that the client will certify that the dates are accurate to the best of the person's information, knowledge, and belief.

So, precision is not exactly what is required. Absent remarkable record keeping, all we may need is an estimate of the approximate date the account balance was last zero (or if it's a one time event, when that event took place), and, approximately the last date a purchase was charged to the account. So, for a car loan there would be one date. And for a credit card account there would be two.

The more time that has passed since the starting date of a credit card balance the more general the estimate may be. For example, if a Visa debt started to accumulate 5 years ago we wouldn't expect an estimate of the month, and day. Conversely, we would expect more details on an account balance that were incurred within the last few months. (I.e., started 2005, ended 7/29/2011).