What will a bankruptcy lawyer ask me about?
Five subjects, every time: your debts, your income, what you own, your household, and what's moved lately — recent payments, transfers, and anything urgent bearing down. None of it is judgment; all of it maps to specific legal rules. Knowing the questions in advance turns an interrogation into a conversation.
In this answer
The five subjects
Your debts. Who you owe, roughly how much, and what kind — cards and medical, taxes, student loans, support, anything with collateral behind it, anything already in lawsuit or judgment form. The kinds matter more than the amounts, because the law treats each kind differently: the which-debts-erase answer is the why behind every question in this cluster.
Your income. All sources, for the household, for the past six months — because eligibility runs on a six-month average, not this week’s paycheck. This is why the lawyer asks about the bonus in March and your spouse’s job even if your spouse isn’t filing. The what-counts-as-income answer in this section explains the lookback and why the month you file can change the answer.
What you own. House, vehicles, accounts, retirement, and the ordinary contents of a life — asked not because it’s at risk (most of it isn’t) but because exemption law protects things by category and amount, and the lawyer is checking your life against your state’s list. Expect value questions to mean garage-sale value, not what you paid.
Your household and history. Who depends on you, marriages and divorces (decrees create debts with special rules), prior bankruptcies (they start clocks), and where you’ve lived for the past couple of years (recent movers can be pointed at a former state’s exemptions).
What’s moved, and what’s coming. Payments to relatives in the last year, anything sold, given away, or retitled, big recent purchases or cash advances, expected tax refunds or inheritances, and anything urgent — a garnishment running, a sale date set. These get asked carefully because they’re the subjects trustees examine; the what-gets-cases-in-trouble answer explains each one. Answer them completely even when embarrassing. Especially when embarrassing — disclosed history has procedures, discovered history has consequences.
How to be good at this
Bring the rough numbers and whatever paper you have (the documents answer lists it), answer what’s asked without spin, and say “I don’t know, but I can find out” freely — it’s a fine answer and a common one. The one bad move is curating: leaving out the loan from Mom or the side income to make the picture tidier. The lawyer isn’t grading you; they’re load-bearing on your facts.
The bottom line
The intake is the lawyer learning your case in an hour. Everything in this chapter — the numbers, the documents, the standstill rule — exists to make that hour count. Walk in with the five subjects already straight in your head and you’ll spend the time on what your options are, which is the conversation you came for.
Sources
This is general information, not legal advice. The right answer for you depends on details a website cannot see, and rules vary by state and by court.
More in Before you hire a lawyer or back to the Library.