Chapter 7 Trustee Jason Gold

Jason Gold is one of the four Chapter 7 trustees in the Alexandria Virginia Bankruptcy court. When you file a bankruptcy case in Alexandria, the computer assigns you to one of the four trustees.  

Being a Chapter 7 Trustee is a part time job for lawyers. Gold is a partner in the Nelson Mullins law firm, where he heads up the bankruptcy and financial restructuring group.  That means he does complicated business and real estate bankruptcy work.

Chapter 7 Trustee Jason Gold

As a Chapter 7 Trustee, he has two sets of bosses.  The US Justice Department, through the Office of the United States Trustee.  And the two Bankruptcy Judges here, Judge Brian F. Kenney and Judge Klinette H. Kindred.  

Out of the $335.00 filing fee that you paid to the court when we filed your case, $60.00 of that went to Trustee Gold.  Since his regular hourly rate is $580.00 an hour, that $60.00 would be his fee for 6 minutes 12 seconds.  (A recent study suggested $120.00 for Chapter 7 trustees would be better.)

As your Chapter 7 Trustee, Jason Gold is in charge of your bankruptcy hearing, which is called the “meeting of creditors.” There are very, very rarely any creditors at the meeting of creditors.  So the Chapter 7 Trustee asks the questions. (Because the trustee is not a judge, he should be called “sir” not “your honor.”)

NOTE The bankruptcy hearings are now by Zoom. The Zoom number for the Gold hearings is:  Meeting ID 774 319 1984, Passcode 7299037886.   

Here it is again:  Go to Zoom.us/join, Enter Meeting ID 774 319 1984, and Passcode 7299037886

The court’s computer here schedules fourteen hearings an hour.  That’s just over four minutes per case.  

The fast schedule, and the low fees, give the  Chapter 7 trustees an incentive to move through the cases quickly. To keep his cases moving, Gold has a form we fill out before your hearing.  If there’s nothing unusual about your case, he asks his questions straight from his form.  Here it is.

To Keep his Cases Moving, Jason Gold uses this form.

Notice here he asks specifically about the Order to Debtor. Besides telling you to show up for your hearing, the Order to Debtor says that if someone dies and leave you money in the next six months, you have to tell the court.

UPDATE  The Bankruptcy trustees get their raise.

The Chapter 7 bankruptcy trustees did get their fee increase from $60.00 to $120.00 per case.  Congress passed it in December and the President signed January 12, 2021.  

It was the first raise for Bankruptcy Trustees in nearly 30 years.