Company I Worked for Filed for Bankruptcy and Closed--Owes Me Rest of Contract

[KelsieG]

I live in Kentucky and used to work for a small college as a teacher.

In the middle of the night, the school was shut down by the Dept. of Education for all sorts of fun violations having to do with the way the administration was handling (or not handling) their fiscal responsibilities.

I lost my job in that instant, and the school filed for Chapter 11.

I was told by the administration that I was owed the remainder of my one year contract (which would be roughly 3-4 months of pay).

Shortly after they filed for Chapter 11, I started receiving letters from the United States Bankruptcy Court naming me as a possible creditor owed money by the school.

Today, I received a letter telling me that I need to file a claim no later than January 15th.

So here are my questions:

-I thought with Chapter 11, creditors didn't have to file claims, but maybe I'm wrong.
-I am unable to contact anyone from the school, and the copy of my contract is in my school e-mail, which has been disabled. Obviously, there's a physical copy in the administrative offices on campus, but no one is working there and I'm unable to get into the building. If I need to file a claim for the amount I'm owed, how the heck am I supposed to find out what that amount is?
-Is there someone I can call to find out if I'm already on the list of creditors owed money?

This is very frustrating to me because I have no legal representation and no one is giving me any information other than the legal-ese letters I keep receiving. I certainly want to be paid the remainder of my contract, and I'm feeling panicky that I'm going to screw something up. Has anyone else been through something similar?

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[Dave1952]

Do not allow the deadline to go by. File a claim. I'm puzzled that you can't pull a figure out of your old pay stubs to guesstimate your claim. A lawyer might be a great help but you are likely to see very little of your pay. Thus it may not be worth it. Consider calling your colleagues and pooling your resources to hire a lawyer to lecture the group on general procedures and to answer some questions.
Good luck with your job search.

 

[LdiJ]

Do not allow the deadline to go by. File a claim. I'm puzzled that you can't pull a figure out of your old pay stubs to guesstimate your claim. A lawyer might be a great help but you are likely to see very little of your pay. Thus it may not be worth it. Consider calling your colleagues and pooling your resources to hire a lawyer to lecture the group on general procedures and to answer some questions.
Good luck with your job search.

Actually, whether or not he sees any of the money depends a great deal on whether he was an employee or a contractor. I agree with you if he was a contractor. If he was an employee however, they are much higher on the bankruptcy food chain.

 

[Dave1952]

I'm sorry, I did not express myself well. I think that the OP is in the "gray zone" where legal advice would be wise but the cost of the legal advice would eat up much of any recovered funds. That's why I devoted some time to suggesting a pooling of resources.

 

[latigo]

I live in Kentucky and used to work for a small college as a teacher.

In the middle of the night, the school was shut down by the Dept. of Education for all sorts of fun violations having to do with the way the administration was handling (or not handling) their fiscal responsibilities.

I lost my job in that instant, and the school filed for Chapter 11. I was told by the administration that I was owed the remainder of my one year contract (which would be roughly 3-4 months of pay (?) ).

Shortly after they filed for Chapter 11, I started receiving letters from the United States Bankruptcy Court naming me as a possible creditor owed money by the school.

Today, I received a letter telling me that I need to file a claim no later than January 15th.
So here are my questions:

-I thought with Chapter 11, creditors didn't have to file claims, but maybe I'm wrong.

-I am unable to contact anyone from the school, and the copy of my contract is in my school e-mail, which has been disabled. Obviously, there's a physical copy in the administrative offices on campus, but no one is working there and I'm unable to get into the building. If I need to file a claim for the amount I'm owed, how the heck am I supposed to find out what that amount is?(?)


-Is there someone I can call to find out if I'm already on the list of creditors owed money?

This is very frustrating to me because I have no legal representation and no one is giving me any information other than the legal-ese (sic)letters I keep receiving. I certainly want to be paid the remainder of my contract, and I'm feeling panicky that I'm going to screw something up. Has anyone else been through something similar?

Any advice would be appreciated.

You have received official notification from the bankruptcy court that your former employer has filed a case under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code notifying you that all creditors' claims must be filed no latter than a given date AND you still don't know whether you are required to do so?!

(Do you think that the bankruptcy clerk has nothing better to do than send out meaningless notices?)

You admit knowing the date that the school was forced to close its doors YET you don't know how much further remuneration you would have received had the school continued to function and your one year employment contract ran its course?!

(Just what were you hired to teach?)