Simple English definitions for legal terms
Read a random definition: compellativus
A debtor's examination is a meeting between someone who owes money (called a debtor) and the people they owe money to (called creditors). The creditors ask the debtor questions to find out where their money and things they own are, and if they can use those things to pay back the money they owe. This meeting can happen when someone files for bankruptcy or at any other time when a creditor wants to ask questions. The meeting is sometimes run by a person called a bankruptcy trustee, but other times it is run by the creditor who asked for the meeting.
A debtor's examination is a meeting between a person who owes money (the debtor) and their creditors. The creditors ask the debtor questions to find out where their assets are and how much they owe. This meeting can happen during a bankruptcy case or outside of it.
In the first example, John is going through a bankruptcy case and has to attend a debtor's examination as part of the process. The creditors want to know if he has any assets they can use to pay off his debts.
In the second example, Mary is not in bankruptcy but the bank wants to find out if she has any assets they can take to pay off her debt. They request a debtor's examination to get this information.