I know that title looks like I am complaining that most of my clients don’t bother to send me a card at Christmas, but that really isn’t what I am referring to.

What makes me really frustrated is when my Chapter 13 clients, in the middle of a confirmed plan, move and DON’T TELL ME. Sure, from their perspective, everything is done. They are just making their payments until they get to the end. Easy. They can forget all about me, and they do. Then they get to the end of the plan, and I discover that they have also forgotten to do the post-petition, debtor education class. You know, that silly little class that if you don’t take it, you don’t get your discharge – even if you’ve made all your plan payments? Yea, that class.

So, I start frantically trying to get a hold of the clients to remind them. That is when I discover that they’ve moved, and didn’t tell me. Of course, they have also abandoned their old email address, because it was getting too much spam. The address is still live, so nothing bounces, they just don’t check it anymore. So, the email didn’t reach them. They’ve disconnected the house phone, because they only use their cells; and they changed their cell numbers a few years back when they had a stolen phone.

Don’t do that. If you move while your Bankruptcy case is still open, be sure to let your lawyer know. For one thing, if the Court sends you anything, you will want to get it – who knows, it might be important. Your lawyer will do a change of address for you, so that the Court can reach you, the Chapter 13 Trustee can reach you; and this way your lawyer can reach you too.

Elaine