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1. Form Information |
| a. Date form completed? |
Please complete the date or click on the calendar and pick one |
| b. Name of person filling out form? |
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| c. Name of your Company? |
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| d. Address of your Company? |
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| e. Telephone |
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| e. Fax |
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| f. Your email address? |
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| g. Website address? |
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2. Your business |
| a. Who at your company and who outside of your company has in depth knowledge of your company's receivables management, customer relations
pertaining to receivables and collections activity and can sign an affidavit or testify in connection thereto? |
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| b. Do you have any management level employees that have worked extensively for competitors? |
Yes
No
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| c. Are you willing to testify in court or have an employee testify in court? |
Yes
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| d. What is your SIC Code? |
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| e. If you do not know the SIC Code, how would you describe your particular industry? |
(For example, "wholesale sales of dry goods to retail stores.") |
| f. What is the name of the bank where you deposited checks from the Debtor? |
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| g. What kind of service or product did you supply to the Debtor, if any? |
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| h. Did your employees work full time or per project? |
Full Time
Per Project
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| i. Did you subcontract out work performed for the Debtor? |
Yes
No
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3. For the person indicated in answer to question 1(a) who will execute an affidavit and/or testify: |
| a. How long have you worked for this company? |
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| b. What is your position with this company? |
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| c. What exactly are your duties at this company? |
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| d. How would you describe your overall profession? |
(For example: "business manager" or "accountant".) |
| e. What was the last company you worked for and when did you leave that company? |
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| f. How long have you been in this business/profession? |
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| g. When and how did you first learn of the Debtor's bankruptcy filing? |
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| h. What hardship would it cause you to travel to the location of the Debtor's bankruptcy filing for a deposition (if any)? What kind of
disruption would your absence from work entail (if any)? Do you regularly travel to that location for business? |
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4. Length of relationship |
| a. How long have you had a business relationship with the debtor? |
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| b. When did you start doing business with debtor? |
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| c. Was the volume of business consistent over time? |
Yes
No
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| d. What was the gross yearly volume of business on average? |
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5. Stability of relationship |
| a. Did the debtor usually pay on time? |
Yes
No
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| b. Did the relationship change in the 12 months prior to the bankruptcy filing? |
Yes
No
For example, were payments much slower in the last 3 months? 6 months? 12 months? |
| c. Did the volume of business change over time? How? |
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6. Nature of relationship |
| a. What service or product did you supply to the Debtor? |
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| b. Did you have a special relationship with the debtor? |
For example, were you a prime supplier to the debtor? |
| c. How necessary were you to the debtor's business? |
For example, if you stopped doing business suddenly with the Debtor would you be immediately replaceable? (For example, would the Debtor have trouble doing
business on your terms with other another similar supplier? |
| d. Whom did you normally conduct business with when dealing with the Debtor? |
Name and title, please. |
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7. Terms of relationship |
| a. Was there a written contract? |
Yes
No
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| b. Were there written payment terms? |
Yes
No
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| c. Were the terms comparable to your terms with your other customers? |
Yes
No
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| d. Did the Debtor ever deviate from those terms? |
Yes
No
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| e. If yes, did the Debtor usually deviate from the terms? |
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| i. If yes, when? |
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| ii. If yes, by how much? |
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| iii. if yes, was the deviation accepted by you? |
Yes
No
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| iv. if yes, was the deviation similar to other customers of yours? |
Yes
No
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| v. If yes, why did you accept that deviation? |
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| f. Did the Debtor's lateness ever cause you to reduce your volume of business with the Debtor? |
Yes
No
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| g. Did you have other customers that paid late during this time? Who were they and how did they compare in their payment history to the
Debtor? We may need a spreadsheet or list of other customers to show that the Debtor’s timing was not extraordinary. |
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| h. Do your invoice forms indicate on the invoice the lateness of the amount owed? |
Yes
No
For example, is there a box for 30 days, 60 days and 90 days? |
| i. Were your terms similar to most other companies in your industry? |
Yes
No
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| j. If the Debtor deviated from your terms, was your acceptance of the deviation normal for your industry? |
Yes
No
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| k. What is the market share for your company in your industry, nationally and locally? |
For example, does your company represent more than 5% of the sales volume in this state? Nationally? |
| l. Did the Debtor indicate on its checks which invoices to which payments the checks were to be applied? |
Yes
No
If not on its checks, did it indicated how it wished its payments to be applied verbally or in any writing? |
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8. Collection attempts |
| a. Did you ever send "dunning" letters to the Debtor? |
Yes
No
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| b. Did you ever put a credit limit on the Debtor? |
Yes
No
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| c. Did you ever raise prices for the Debtor and not for other customers? |
Yes
No
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| d. Did you ever charge interest on late payments by the Debtor? |
Yes
No
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| e. Did you ever demand COD payments from the Debtor? |
Yes
No
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| f. Did you ever turn your account with the Debtor over to a collection agency? |
Yes
No
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| g. Did you discuss internally any "game plan" to obtain payment from the Debtor? |
Yes
No
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| h. Did the Debtor ever bounce any checks? |
Yes
No
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| i. Did you ever threaten to sue the Debtor? |
Yes
No
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| j. Did you ever threaten to hold back product from the Debtor? |
Yes
No
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| k. Did you ever have an attorney call the Debtor? |
Yes
No
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| l. Did any of your collection attempts with the Debtor differ dramatically from attempts to collect late payments from your other
customers? |
Yes
No
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| m. Would most other companies in your industry act similarly? How do you know that? |
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9. Knowledge of Debtor |
| a. Did you know that the Debtor would file for bankruptcy? |
Yes
No
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| b. Did you have any indication that the Debtor would file for bankruptcy? |
Yes
No
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| c. When did you first learn of the Debtor's bankruptcy and how? |
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| d. What action did you take, if any, upon learning of the bankruptcy? |
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| e. Did you have any personal knowledge of the Debtor's balance sheet or cash flow prior to the bankruptcy filing? |
Yes
No
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| f. Did the Debtor mislead you prior to the bankruptcy filing as to its financial condition? |
Yes
No
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| g. Do you have any reason to believe that the Debtor was solvent (had assets greater than liabilities) prior to the bankruptcy
filing? |
Yes
No
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| h. Do you have any belief or information that fraudulent activity caused this bankruptcy and/or your losses in this case? |
Yes
No
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10. Workouts |
| a. Did the Debtor ever into a workout arrangement with your company to pay past debt over time? |
Yes
No
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| b. If yes, when was the last time you entered into a workout agreement with the Debtor? |
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| c. If yes, was that workout initiated by the Debtor or by your company? |
Debtor
My Company
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| d. If yes, how was the workout finalized? Was there a letter or other contract? |
Yes
No
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| e. If yes, were the payments made pursuant to the workout agreement? |
Yes
No
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| f. If yes, were any of the alleged preference payments part of that workout agreement? |
Yes
No
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| g. If yes, how long was the workout? For example, how many payments over how many months? |
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| h. If yes, how many payments were actually made? |
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11. Landlord issues |
| a. The questions in this section apply to landlords only: |
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| b. How important to the Debtor was the space. For example, without the space would the Debtor be forced to halt operations? |
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| c. Did the Debtor assume a lease with you after the bankruptcy filing? |
Yes
No
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| d. Did you enter into any written stipulations with the Debtor in the year prior to or after the bankruptcy filing? |
Yes
No
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| e. Did the Debtor continue to use the space after the bankruptcy filing? |
Yes
No
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| i. If yes, did the Debtor pay for that use? |
Yes
No
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| ii. If yes, did you make any motions in bankruptcy court compelling payment? |
Yes
No
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12. Security interests |
| a. Are you aware of any security interest that your company possesses against any property controlled by the Debtor? |
Yes
No
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| b. Did you provide services that involve warehousing or repairing to the Debtor? |
Yes
No
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| c. Did you ever voluntarily relinquish a security interest in property you sold to the Debtor? When? |
Yes
No
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| d. Did you lease any property to the Debtor? |
Yes
No
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| e. Did you fix any property of the Debtor? |
Yes
No
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| f. Did you warehouse any property of the Debtor? |
Yes
No
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| g. Did you transport any property of the Debtor? |
Yes
No
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| h. Did you lend any money to the Debtor? |
Yes
No
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| i. Did you give any property to the Debtor to sell on consignment? |
Yes
No
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| j. Would you have had the right to place a mechanic's lien on the debtor's property had you NOT been paid? |
Yes
No
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13. Claims against the Debtor |
| a. Was your company owed money prior to the bankruptcy filing? |
Yes
No
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| b. Did you file a proof of claim in this bankruptcy case? |
Yes
No
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| c. Did your company supply goods or services to the Debtor after the bankruptcy filing? |
Yes
No
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| i. If yes, have you been paid? |
Yes
No
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| ii. If yes, did you file for, or are listed on the Debtor's schedules as having, administrative claim? |
Yes
No
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| d. Did your company supply goods or services to the Debtor during the 3 months prior to the bankruptcy filing? |
Yes
No
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14. Alleged Preferential Payments by Debtor |
| How was the alleged preferential payment received? |
For example, was the payment by check or by other means? (For the questions that follow we assume you were paid by check.) |
| b. When exactly (date and time) did the alleged preferential payment to you by the Debtor actually clear the bank? |
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| c. When exactly did you receive the alleged preferential payments? |
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| d. Did you receive any payments from the Debtor after the bankruptcy filing? |
Yes
No
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| e. Were the alleged preferential payments larger than usual? |
Yes
No
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| f. Did the check(s) match the amount on the invoice(s)? |
Yes
No
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| g. Did the check(s) reference the invoice(s)? |
Yes
No
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| h. How much time elapsed for each payment between the date on the applicable invoice and the time the alleged preferential payments were
actually received by you? |
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| i. Did you commence the work or deliver the product prior to receiving the alleged preferential payments? |
Yes
No
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15. Generally |
| a. Do you have copies of invoices sent to the Debtor for the 1 year prior to the bankruptcy filing? |
Yes
No
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| b. Do you have a computerized record of your collection history with the Debtor. |
Yes
No
For example, can you print out a spreadsheet of when the Debtor was invoiced and when the Debtor paid for every transaction during the year prior to the
bankruptcy filing? |
| i. Can this record be exported to Microsoft Excel? |
Yes
No
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| ii. This data will have to be analyzed in depth by our firm. Are you willing to input the data into Microsoft Excel? |
Yes
No
Or would you prefer that we do that? (We charge $75 per hour for paralegal time.) |
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16. Conduit Defense |
| a. Did your company act as a broker for the Debtor? |
Yes
No
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| b. Did your company pay invoices on behalf of the Debtor? |
Yes
No
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17. Property of the Debtor |
| a. Were the funds paid to you by the Debtor, which the Debtor claim are preferential, return to you of a deposit that you or others placed
with the Debtor? |
Yes
No
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| b. Were the funds held by the Debtor on your behalf for any reason? |
Yes
No
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| c. Were the funds held by the Debtor on the behalf of any third party? |
Yes
No
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| d. Were the funds transferred to you rightfully the property of the Debtor or did the Debtor obtain these funds by fraud (if you
know)? |
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18. Setoff |
| Were the funds paid to you by the Debtor, which the Debtor claim are preferential, setoff by your company against funds owed to your company
by the Debtor? |
Yes
No
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19. Subsequent Advances? |
| Did your company transfer any goods or services to the Debtor after the date of the alleged preferential payment. |
If there is more than one preferential payment, please list services or goods transferred to the Debtor after each alleged preferential payment. |
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20. Contemporaneous Exchange |
| a. Did you charge the Debtor interest on the alleged preferential payments? Did you have the right by contract to charge interest? |
Yes
No
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| b. Did both you and the Debtor intend that payment would be simultaneous with purchase? |
Yes
No
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| c. Was the payment simultaneous? |
Yes
No
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21. Counterclaims |
| a. Did the Debtor breach any contracts that you know of? |
Yes
No
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| b. For example, did the Debtor place an order for goods and then rescind the order? |
Yes
No
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| c. Did you suffer any damages as a result of a breach of contract by the Debtor? |
Yes
No
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| d. For example, did you have to dispose of custom merchandise ordered for the Debtor at a loss? |
Yes
No
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22. Did your company have credit insurance covering the invoices rendered during the preference period? |
Yes
No
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23. Was payment of the invoices rendered during the preference period guaranteed by a 3rd party? |
Yes
No
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24. Did your company have an executory contract that was assumed by the debtor after the bankruptcy case? |
Yes
No
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Documents Needed for Review
The first 5 documents listed are necessary to the analysis of the case. If this information cannot be provided, please contact us immediately to discuss.
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| 1. Copies of all invoices to the Debtor for 18 months prior to the Debtor's bankruptcy filing. |
(The date of the bankruptcy filing is stated in the Complaint. Please feel free to email or call our office with any questions as to the date.) |
| 2. Copies of all invoices rendered during the preference period. |
(the preference period is the 90 days prior to the bankruptcy filing). |
| 3. Document showing the date payment was received on each invoice. |
(the preference period is the 90 days prior to the bankruptcy filing). |
| 4. Document showing when the payment for each invoiced cleared the bank. |
(the preference period is the 90 days prior to the bankruptcy filing). |
| 5. Spreadsheet showing (a) each invoice amount, (b) the date the invoice was rendered, and (c) the date payment was made on the
invoice. |
(the preference period is the 90 days prior to the bankruptcy filing). |
| 6. Any proofs of claim filed in the case. |
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| 7. Brochure or website address for your company. |
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| 8. Copies of proof of delivery showing date of delivery of goods shipped during the preference period, if any. |
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| 9. Copies of detailed description of goods or services rendered during the preference period. |
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| 10. Any correspondence with the Plaintiff regarding payment terms. |
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| 11. Any correspondence with the Plaintiff regarding a payment plan. |
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| 12. Any contracts between you and the Debtor. |
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| 13. Any correspondence regarding collection activity with respect to the Plaintiff. |
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| 14. Copies of all motions related to your company filed after the commencement of the case. |
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