The Bankruptcy Code and the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure provide many avenues through which a creditor can investigate a debtor’s conduct. For example, Rule 2004 authorizes the bankruptcy court to order the examination of any entity, including the debtor, involved in a bankruptcy case. Similarly, a debtor who is a party to an adversary proceeding may be deposed pursuant to Bankruptcy Rule 7030. Additionally, Section 343 of the Bankruptcy Code provides that a “debtor shall appear and submit to examination under oath at the meeting of creditors under Section 341(a)” held at the outset of a bankruptcy case.

This final example—that the debtor appear and submit to examination at the Section 341 meeting—is a routine and fundamental process that affords creditors an opportunity to question the debtor on a range of issues. Indeed, courts have expressly recognized that the Section 341 meeting “is a fishing expedition allowed, even encouraged, by the statutes and the rules so long as the subject of the questioning related to the bankruptcy case,” as in Clippard v. Russell (In re Russell), 392 B.R. 315, 359 (Bankr. E.D. Tenn. 2008). Yet, while Sections 341 and 343 together permit creditors to conduct a broad investigation of a debtor under oath, the ultimate utility of that examination may be of limited effect, because a court may well decline to treat the Section 341 meeting record as reliable testimony.

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