Will my bankruptcy be audited?

Probably not, but possibly. 

The United States Trustee audits a lmiited number of cases.  Audit is a scary term.  The official story is that the audits are part of an effort to find and discourage bankruptcy fraud and inaccuracy.  This program was implemented as part of the sweeping 2005 bankruptcy amendments commonly known as BAPCPA.  My view is that the threat of the audits combined with the potential penalties for bankruptcy attorneys drive up the costs to consumers and create additional stress on people who are already under severe economic stress--without any meaningful benefit. 

The Executive Office of the US Trustees just published its report for 2009 and there is some interesting news for Maine.  Nationally, 1 out of 1,000 cases were selected for random audits.  In cases where a Debtor's income or expenses are outside the norms, there are more frequent audits. You can read the report for yourself here.

In Maine, there were just eight reported audits and those audits disclosed no material misstatements.  The national average rate of "material misstatements" was 22%.  In Wyoming, the Virgin Island and the Western District of Oklahoma the rate of "material misstatements" was 50%.  The report does not really indicate how significant the "material misstatements" were also it suggest that many are corrected and were, I suspect, honest errors.

I can't claim that the report supports my view, but it certainly doesn't change it--except in Wyoming, VI and Oklahoma.