I forgot to put a creditor on my bankruptcy forms that I filed. What should I do?

It’s always better to be sure that all of your creditors are listed in your bankruptcy paperwork that is filed with the Bankruptcy Court. But no matter how careful you are when completing your bankruptcy forms, mistakes like forgetting to list a debt can happen.

The good news is that, in most states, if you forget to list a debt by mistake and there’s no property to give to creditors in your Chapter 7 case, the forgotten debt is erased anyway. The reasoning is that, even if you had properly listed the debt, there would have been no funds available to pay the debt. It’s a “no harm, no foul” rule.

Unfortunately, a few states in the 1st Circuit - Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Puerto Rico, and Rhode Island, don’t follow the “no harm, no foul” approach. If you omitted a debt from your bankruptcy forms in one of these states, the debt is not erased (unless the creditor otherwise knew about the bankruptcy). So you would need to amend your bankruptcy forms to add the creditor in order to get it erased. Adding creditors involves filing extra paperwork with the court, along with a $32 filing fee.  Your can contact your local bankruptcy court for details. Upsolve can’t help with this.