Expert: Mark J. Markus- California Bankruptcy Attorney - 9/28/2009

Question
 I am representing myself in a CA chapter 7 bankruptcy. I had the trustee's meeting in December and made a follow up call to the court in January when I was told that everything was in order, my file was complete & that it could take up to 90 days for the discharge. I kept meaning to follow up after that 90 days passed, but got distracted until yesterday when I received a letter saying my case had been closed without discharge due to failure to file form 23. I have no excuse for not filing it, it just slipped through the cracks and I thought I had done my counseling (totally forgot about the second round).
 I see that I can file a motion to reopen my case in order to file the form - my question is whether I am in danger of the judge refusing to reopen the case if I don't have a good enough reason. I'm a little paranoid that anything that can go wrong will.
Thanks for your help.

Answer
That really depends on the Judge in the policies in your district.  In general, if you completed the post-filing debt management course before your discharge was entered, but just failed to file the form/certificate, there shouldn't be any reason why a judge would deny you on a motion to reopen to file the form.  In fact, in the Central Dist. of California we have a court form motion specifically for that.

http://www.bklaw.com/