Expert: Terry Leeders - 9/15/2009

Question
My girlfriend filed Chap 13 within the past month. This consolidated her AES loan payment and we now pay into a trustee. The creditors meeting is next week. When we first spoke to a lawyer, she said that her aunt, who cosigned on the AES loans, could not be gone after. We did do the filing ourselves after that, but all has gone through okay. AES's collection agency keeps calling, though we have given them and AES the case number. Also, now they are calling her aunt, and telling us they can go after her. We are confused. If we had known that the Aunt could still be targeted, we probably would never have filed. We were told differently. What should we do?

Answer
There is cosigner protection during the case.  If AES refuses to stop after you give them the case #, you can bring a motion for automatic stay violation in bankruptcy court.  If the debt is paid 100% thru the case, then the cosigner is protected.  If not, once the case is done, AES can go after aunt for the difference. They are not allowed to collect or contact while the automatic stay is in place though.