A typical chapter 7 bankruptcy case in Oakland Bankruptcy Court takes about 3-4 months.

If you file your bankruptcy case in the Oakland Bankruptcy court, you have to jump through a bunch of hoops in order to get your bankruptcy discharge order and to wipe out your debts. If you do things right, the whole process takes somewhere between three and four months.

Why this amount of time? There are certain things that have to happen. Here’s a short, basic timeline for chapter 7 in the Oakland Bankruptcy Court:
Day 1: File the petition. This starts the clocks running.
Day 5 (approx.): Court sends out a notice of case filing and date for the first meeting of creditors (actually a meeting between the debtor and the trustee).
Day 30 (approx.): Debtor and attorney meet with trustee for a short and usually painless review of documents and information in the case. Although this is referred to as a meeting of creditors, creditors rarely show up.
Another thing that happens on this day is that a 60-day clock starts ticking. Creditors have that long to object to the debtor’s discharge generally or the discharge of one particular debt.
The last clock that also starts ticking on this date is 60-day period for the debtor to finish that second educational course, the one on personal financial management.
Day 90 (approx): If no creditor objects to discharge and the debtor has completed the financial management course, the court issues a discharge order meaning that all debts that can be wiped out have been wiped out. Then the court closes the case file, you’re done and can move on to your new debt-free life.

Bankruptcy attorney James Pixton meets with clients at his appointment-only office in Oakland. Here’s the address, but remember to call (510) 451-6200 first to make an appointment.

Pixton Bankruptcy Law
1300 Clay Street, Suite 600
Oakland, CA
(This is not a staffed office; by appointment only)

If you live in Emeryville, you will file your bankruptcy case in Oakland, California.
If you live in El Cerrito, you will also file your bankruptcy case in Oakland, California.
If you live in Albany, you will–yep, you guessed it–file your bankruptcy case in Oakland, California.

Author: James Pixton

James Pixton is a bankruptcy attorney in Alameda, California. He saves clients' home from foreclosure. He helps them wipe out tax debts, credit card bills and catastrophic medical bills through Chapter 7. He is an expert at eliminating second mortgages and lines of credit on underwater homes. When he isn't helping clients, he can be found playing water polo with his kids. Speaking of which, he is the father of four gregarious children, two of whom are also very serious water polo players. The other two are prolific readers and writers. View all posts by James Pixton