Your financial situation, and your debt problems, are personal, and private. If you need to file an assignment in bankruptcy, or a consumer proposal, it is not surprising that there would be concerns about confidentiality.
Most Trustees will do their best to maintain your confidentiality. They will refrain from discussing your bankruptcy from people outside of their practice. Once you file your assignment, there are certainly some people that need to be notified about your bankruptcy as part of the administration process.
The first party that is notified is the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy (“OSB”). This is the federal agency in Canada that maintains all bankruptcy records. All individuals that file an assignment in bankruptcy, or file a consumer proposal are issued a unique file number through this government agency. Your paperwork and your file number are stored with the OSB indefinitely.
Once your bankruptcy has been issued a file number, the information that you have filed a bankruptcy is shared with both the Canada Revenue Agency (“CRA”) and the Credit Bureaux, Equifax and Transunion.
The CRA is notified as there are some things that are done differently the year of your bankruptcy in terms of filing your individual income tax return, and your income tax credits.
The credit bureaux are reporting agencies that keep track of your credit history. The fact that you filed a bankruptcy will be on your credit record for a period of time. Therefore after you complete your bankruptcy, anyone that you authorize to perform a credit check on yourself will become aware that you filed for bankruptcy.
The Trustee also has a responsibility to notify all of your creditors that you filed for bankruptcy. In the greater majority of cases, this is done through fax, email or regular mail. In some cases, generally when there are significant assets, an ad is published in the newspaper. A newspaper ad is not needed in most bankruptcy filings.
If you have a wage garnishment prior to filing your bankruptcy, the Trustee must also notify your employer. Remember that your payroll administrator must also practice confidentiality when dealing with your information and should not discuss your issues with anyone else at your work place.
In most scenarios, the general public will not be made aware of your bankruptcy filing. Bankruptcy is a matter of public record. So, if a person wanted to find out if you have filed for bankruptcy, they could do a search and find your file. However, in general they will not find out about your bankruptcy through any public means. They would have to take the initiative to seek out this information on their own.
From the time you attend your consultation until the time you complete your bankruptcy or consumer proposal your Trustee will do their best to respect your privacy and will practice confidentiality with any parties that are not legally required to be served notice of your bankruptcy filing.
