How Can I Reopen A Closed Bankruptcy Case?

You can reopen your closed bankruptcy case by filing a relatively simple motion with the court requesting that the case be reopened and stating the reasons. The court does charge a filing fee for a motion to reopen and, depending on the situation, your attorney may also charge additional fees to prepare and file the motion. There are a few reasons why would want your case to be reopened after it has been closed:

You failed to complete or file the certificate for your personal financial management (debtor’s education) course, and your case was closed without the discharge being granted. To file your certificate and have your discharge issued you will need to reopen the case.
Your case has been discharged but now you would like to file an adversary proceeding. This is common for student loan discharge adversaries. In these cases, the fee for reopening the case is waived.
You have discovered a new asset that you need to add to your petition. This has become more common with the expansion of mass tort litigation, where your injury occurred before bankruptcy, but you were not aware of the injury or your right to recover in a lawsuit until after the bankruptcy has been closed.
You can reopen the case to add a creditor who was not originally scheduled. Most jurisdictions have case law on the books that says, in essence, that as long as it was an honest error in not listing the creditor, the debt is still discharged, and you do not need to reopen the case and amend the schedules. Certainly, verify that this is true in your jurisdiction with your attorney.

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