Golding and Associates Limited

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/10/27) */
An Assignment in Bankruptcy was filed on January 14, (***)Pursuant to *** the bankrupt's discharge was scheduled to be "on the expiry of months after the date of bankruptcy unless
an opposition to the discharge has been filed before the automatic discharge takes effect" - October 15, Form ** dated January 14, (***) shows these datesThese dates have never changed as the debtor is alleging, nor do we have any power to change them - this is the legislationThe debtor received all of this information in writing in the booklet called ***The signed *** (***) shows the debtor's acknowledgement of this
The allegation that we were changing dates in an "effort to collect more money" is completely as shown aboveThe discharge date was always scheduled to October 15, Furthermore, the amount bankrupts are required to contribute to their estate for the general benefit of their creditors is dictated by *** ***We have no control over that whatsoever - it is legislated by the federal governmentOur role is simply ensuring that people pay what they are required to pay by law
The Certificate of Discharge is a legal documentIt can only be signed by the Licensed Insolvency Trustee as an officer of the CourtIt is a document that must be filed with the Office of the ***As it is an important legal document, only certain parties can file this documentThere are policies and procedures in the issuance of legal documentsThe debtors received their Certificate of Discharge on the morning of October 18, This was only business days after their dischargeThe debtors were never told that the Certificate would be available on October 15th as that was a Saturday and Saturday is not a regular business day for usUnfortunately the person who normally prepares and files the Certificates of Discharge was involved in an accident and was not in the office on October 17th ((the first business day after the 15th) (***)There was no appointment scheduled as per the debtors allegation however, there was a conversation with the debtor who indicated he was going to be in to pick it upThis is not the course for handling a discharge so unfortunately no one else was aware that this was occurringI did apologize for the inconvenience, as we would have advised them to not come in had we known of the arrangementThis was not something anyone plannedThey were not advised to take time off of work to pick up the Discharge Certificate as alleged in the complaintIt is document that we normally mail to people
There are indeed multiple staff in our office - all of whom deal with the debtorsThis is not unlike any other officeAll parties are qualified to do the jobs that they doWe have licensed insolvency counsellors so yes, people can see any of them for their counselling sessionsIt was never guaranteed that they would meet with me personally for every meetingHowever, there was multiple emails to me, *** - so the debtor's dealt with whomever they wanted to at any given point
The debtor indicates that they wanted an evening appointment but could not get oneTheir second counselling session was conducted at 5:pm which is an evening appointment in our view
*** attached shows in excess of emails back and forth between the debtors and us*** is additional correspondenceThere has been no lack of communication as the debtor indicates
The debtor filing a complaint because her Certificate of Discharge was issued the morning of October 18th rather than on October 17th due to one of our staff members being off due to an accident is an extreme measureIt is a legal document that can only be issued if certain criteria have been met and has to be executed by an officer of the Court and must be filed with the federal government - which only certain parties are authorized to do - it is not a statement of account that anyone can print off any timeI can appreciate that coming into the office to pick up the Certificate of Discharge inconvenienced them - but it was beyond anyone's control that this happened and for that I apologizedThe fact that she is upset over the money she was required to pay to the estate for her creditors because of a final pay falling on October 14th is something outside of my control - it is the federal lawHer opinion that an appointment at 5:is not an "evening" appointment I suppose is a matter of difference of opinion because we consider that eveningOverall, I feel that the debtor does not understand the full extent of the legal side of the bankruptcy process and that as trustee, we do not make the rules, we simply follow themIt is a legal process and as such, everything we do and every document we issue is regulated and has policies and procedures to accompany it