It isn't that difficult and there's a program online that will do all the schedules for you.
In California, the BK7 filing fee is $299.00. I believe that's the fee for all 50 states. You will need to call the court to ask what their filing requirements are, how to arrange your schedules, etc. In California, you only need two copies: one for the court and one for yourself. They will stamp both at no cost to you. Before, people had to file 6 copies with the court, but that's no longer necessary in CA since they do everything electronically.
But take note! There's that pre-BK filing course you have to take (thanks to Republicans and Democrats and signed into law by Bush) that's relatively inexpensive: $45. You can go online and do a search for pre-Bankruptcy courses in your area.This needs to be done before you file and you need to have completed and in receipt of the certificate (they will e-mail or fax it to you that same evening!) to be included with your filing otherwise it will be rejected.
There's another course you need to take, the post-BK course, but I would wait for the offers that come in after you've filed since there are some good deals out there. We paid $30 instead of $45! And both courses are simple to complete and you can take them online.
For the pre-BK course, we needed to speak with the credit counselor afterward, but that's really easy and there's really no pressure. They are actually kind! They basically want to know if you've completed the course yourself and if you had any questions.
I would do the post-BK course before the Creditors Meeting which happens about 4-6 weeks after filing. It has to be done before you receive your Discharge, so adding a copy of the post-BK7 certificate after you've filed, but before the Creditors Meeting (filing a copy is not necessary, but they like it) shows the Trustee that you're on top of things.
You can start filling out your petition and schedules using this online BK-7 program currently costs $89 (http://guaranteedbankruptcy.com/guaranteed/index.asp) and is very easy to use. It does everything for you, and it's comparable to the software used by BK attorneys. But remember that your file is only good for two weeks! You can make 20,000 changes and print out 20,000 copies within that time at no extra cost to you, but you only have two weeks to do it so please make sure you have all your paperwork together.
We've used this and our BK-7 sailed through and it was strange to see people represented by BK Attorneys were being turned away one after the other while we sailed through. This program WORKS! Also, when you have your Creditors Meeting (you get your appointment to appear via snail mail after you've filed), be sure to remember two very important things.
One, the creditors meeting is for your creditors. Thus, the Trustee (ours looked like Barbara Boxer!) is not there for you. They are there for your creditors since filing BK-7 puts you under the protection of the Federal government and creditors need to be represented, too.
Two, don't forget to bring two years of filed income tax returns! Some states only need one, but in California, the most difficult BK court in the union, btw, they required TWO. I've watched countless people being turned away at the Creditors Meeting because they forgot to bring copies of their income tax filings. I would take the last two years just in case. If you don't have copies of your filed income tax returns, you will be sent away. That isn't a big problem since they'll just ask that you make another date, but you want to do this right the first time.
All in all the whole process (if you take the onling Bk-7 special price of $89 dollars) will cost you less than $500, and you'll be doing it correctly the first time.
Hope this helps and you get your deserved fresh start!
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