7 Things your Credit Counseling
and Debtor Education Agency
Wants you To Know
By CC Advising, Inc. (www.ccadvising.com) and BE
Adviser, LLC (www.beadviser.com)*
T
he following is not presented
as legal advice, it does
not necessarily represent
the official position of the UST,
and please contact the UST (or
Bankruptcy Administrator in NC
or AL) directly with any questions
regarding compliance.
(Credit
Counseling:
ust.cc.help@usdoj.
gov or 202-514-4100, Debtor
Education: [email protected]
or 202-514-4100).
1.
Attorneys
(or
other
individuals) are not permitted to
register accounts on behalf of
their clients, unless they have
valid Power of Attorney.
Yes,
clients routinely provide incorrect
information during registration
(including incorrect case numbers,
districts, and so forth), and yes the
temptation to reduce those errors
by having your staff create the
registrations is tempting.
Alternatively, you may be thinking
about using the courses built into
your bankruptcy software that
automatically register clients for
you. This is a no-no. Permitting
attorney registration runs afoul of
28 CFR 58.20(h)(2). It is important
that the client does the registration
so they can agree to the mandatory
50
CONSUMER BANKRUPTCY JOURNAL
disclosures and/or the terms and
conditions of the course, as well as
to ensure the person going through
the entire process is the individual
debtor and not an Attorney. Protect
yourself and your practice by
requiring that clients register for the
course themselves.
2.
Attorneys
(or
other
individuals) may not take the
courses for debtors. Each debtor
needs to take their own course.
One spouse cannot take the course
on behalf of both spouses. While
this may seem obvious, issues
such as trying to stop a foreclosure
or a case th