The bankruptcy client intake form: what to collect and why

A bankruptcy client intake form is the questionnaire a consumer debtor completes before petition prep begins: identity, household, income, expenses, property, debts, recent transfers, and prior filings. Every answer has a destination on an Official Form, and how well the questionnaire is built decides how much of the petition a paralegal can draft without calling the client back.

The right test is not whether the form looks thorough. It is whether each answer maps cleanly onto Form 101, Schedules 106A/B through 106J, the Statement of Financial Affairs (Form 107), Form 121, and Form 122A-1 — and whether a client can answer it accurately at a kitchen table. A form that fails either test produces amendments, continued meetings, and rework.

Why the intake form is the source document for the petition

Nothing in a consumer case is drafted from scratch. The schedules are a reorganization of facts the client supplied, signed under penalty of perjury. If a fact never reaches the intake form it will not reach the schedules, and the first person to notice is usually the trustee — under oath, in front of the client, at the 341 meeting.

The sections a complete intake form needs

Identity and case basics

• Full legal name as printed on a government ID, plus every other name used in the last 8 years — maiden, married, nicknames used on credit accounts, any DBA
• Full Social Security number or ITIN in a shaded box; only the last four digits appear on the petition, and the full number goes on Form 121
• Date of birth, current and mailing address, and county — the county drives district and division
• Every address occupied in the last 3 years; marital status, spouse’s name, whether the case will be joint, and how to reach the client

Household and dependents

• Everyone living in the home, with relationship, age, and whether they contribute to expenses
• Dependents living elsewhere, and whether a non-filing spouse is in the household — that affects both the means test and Schedule I

Employment and income

• Employer, job title, hire date, pay frequency, and gross pay per period for each spouse
• Every employer held in the last 6 full calendar months, since the means-test window looks backward rather than at today’s job
• Self-employment, gig, and cash income, with gross receipts on a separate line from business expenses
• Non-wage income — Social Security, unemployment, pension, disability, rent, support received — and any recent or expected change in earnings

Monthly expenses

• Rent or mortgage, whether taxes and insurance are escrowed, and utilities broken out by type rather than a lump figure
• Food, clothing, personal care, transportation, childcare, and insurance listed by type
• Medical costs not covered by insurance, court-ordered support paid, and payroll deductions that are not taxes

Real and personal property

• Each parcel of real property with address, how title is held, estimated value, and the basis for that value
• Vehicles with year, make, model, mileage, and lienholder; bank, retirement, and brokerage accounts with institution and balance
• Household goods, jewelry, firearms, collectibles, pets, and any business interest
• The intangibles clients rarely volunteer: unreceived tax refunds, deposits, lawsuit and insurance claims, expected inheritances, unpaid wages

Debts

• Secured debts with creditor, collateral, balance, monthly payment, and any arrears
• Priority debts — taxes by year and agency, and domestic support obligations
• Unsecured debts: cards, medical bills, personal loans, deficiency balances, payday loans, plus every collection agency and creditor law firm writing about them
• Judgments, garnishments, pending lawsuits, co-signed debts either direction, and every lease or ongoing contract

Financial history and prior filings

• Property sold, transferred, or given away in the last 2 years, including transfers to family
• Payments to a relative or insider in the last year, unusually large payments to one creditor, repossessions, foreclosures, and recently closed accounts
• Prior filings by either spouse within the last 8 years with district, case number, and outcome, plus the credit counseling briefing date

That mapping is why the Statement of Financial Affairs needs its own block of questions rather than a catch-all “anything else?” line. Form 107 asks about conduct — what the client did with money and property — and clients rarely volunteer that history unless prompted.

Design principles that separate a usable form from a long one

• One fact, one field. A box labeled “vehicle information” produces a paragraph someone has to decode. Separate boxes for year, make, model, mileage, lienholder, balance, and payment produce data.
• Checkboxes wherever the answer set is closed. Pay frequency, how title is held, account type, and every yes/no history question should be a box, never a write-in.
• Two columns for joint cases. A Debtor 1 / Debtor 2 pair on every income and account line prevents the most common intake defect: a joint case where the second spouse’s facts ended up in the margins.
• Ask for the number and the document. A checkbox beside each balance for the statement supporting it makes the form double as the document checklist.
• Collect naturally, classify internally. Clients can list their bills; they cannot sort them into priority and nonpriority. Leave an office-use strip for initials, verification date, and the schedule line fed.

The omissions that surface at the 341 meeting

Trustees ask predictable questions, and a short list of intake gaps accounts for most trouble. Build a specific prompt for each:

• Tax refunds for the current year that have not arrived — an asset on the filing date whether or not the return is prepared
• Transfers to relatives, such as a car signed over to a child or a parent added to a deed
• Side income from rideshare, resale, cash work, or 1099 contracts the client does not think of as a job
• Business interests, co-signed debts carried for adult children, property stored elsewhere, and cash value life insurance
• Personal injury or employment claims and pending inheritances, including matters only discussed with another lawyer

One more question earns its place: why current income differs from the recent average. The means test looks back at the 6 full calendar months before filing, while Schedules I and J describe income as of the filing date — a client laid off two months ago is truthful on both. Current form versions are published at uscourts.gov; the layout work that follows is covered in the intake form template.

This guide is general information for law-firm staff, not legal advice for any particular case.