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The Confirmation Hearing

About a month after the creditors’ meeting, you may be required to attend a confirmation hearing in the bankruptcy court. Despite its religious connotation, the confirmation hearing is where the bankruptcy judge decides whether or not to approve your latest proposed plan. If there is a problem with your plan—for example, you don’t show enough income to make the mandatory payments—the judge or trustee may shoot it down.

But unless the judge decides that you’ll never be able to submit a feasible plan, you will have an opportunity to change it so that it will conform to the judge’s view of the federal bankruptcy code requirements. If you are given the chance to amend, another confirmation hearing will be scheduled, usually about 30 days later.

If your amendment doesn’t satisfy the judge, or you have not properly notified your creditors of the amendment, you could either allow your Chapter 13 case to be dismissed or convert it to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. If you do convert your case to Chapter 7 bankruptcy, you would have another two to three months in court even if the lender managed to get court permission to go ahead with the foreclosure before your Chapter 7 discharge. (See Ch. 6.)