Trustee-Client Privilege?
Can a debtor expect any “privilege”, with respect to the information they disclose to a Trustee? (Similar to lawyer-client privilege). A lot of individuals believe that because they are paying the Trustee’s fees, the Trustee is “working” for them. Please explain some of the additional obligations a trustee has not only to the debtor, but to the creditors, court, and the Office of the Supt. of Bankruptcy.
Good question – it doesn’t come up often enough.
Trustees are NOT lawyers and therefore the concept of “privlidge” does not apply.
When you go to a trustee for assistance you need to understand that once you file for bankruptcy (or a proposal) the trustee’s role is to see that the rules and regulations for bankruptcy are enforced.
Your trustee cannot tell you how to organize your affairs to minimize your payments or to protect the things that you own – you can’t tell your trustee something “off the record”.
The analogy I usually use for our clients is to think of your trustee as a referee. The referee’s job is to ensure fair play, keep the game moving and to penalize anyone that breaks the rules. You wouldn’t ask a referee to ignore a slashing penalty – you shouldn’t expect your trustee to turn a blind eye to anything inappropriate that you may do.
That being said, most trustees have a genuine interest in helping you to solve your financial problems. The goal in our practice is to clean up your financial mess and (hopefully) provide you with the tools to ensure you don’t get into trouble again.