You compile a client's schedules and creditor matrix from a stack of bills and pay stubs, prep clients for what to expect at the 341 meeting, and chase down the one missing document that's holding up a filing. These prompts are written for that work — copy one into ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, or Gemini, or practice it with step-by-step feedback and keep the ones you reuse.
Not everything — but these four come up every week, and they are all writing tasks, which is where today's tools are strongest.
Write the summary explaining which assets a client's exemptions protect
Draft the walkthrough of what happens at a client's 341 meeting
Compile a stack of bills into a clean list for the creditor matrix
Draft the note explaining what's holding up a client's filing
Before you paste anything
What never goes into a chatbot in this job
Never paste a client's actual account numbers, social security number, or full asset and income detail from their schedules — bankruptcy filings carry real financial numbers tied to a real person, and none of that belongs in a general AI tool. Work from the document category, like 'secured debt' or 'exempt asset,' instead of real figures.
Which tool: Consumer bankruptcy practices run at high volume on thin staff, so free ChatGPT or Gemini is the realistic tool for most paralegals rather than a firm-licensed product — the case management software you use for the actual filing is a separate, more locked-down system.
Plain-language summary
Summarize a policy excerpt in plain language without adding legal advice.
Copy this prompt
I work in bankruptcy paralegal work. Help me create one plain-language summary that I can review and edit before use.
Relevant context:
- Role: Bankruptcy Paralegal
- Work context: You compile a client's schedules and creditor matrix from a stack of bills and pay stubs, prep clients for what to expect at the 341 meeting, and chase down the one missing document that's holding up a filing.
Task:
Create a plain-language summary that separates what the policy text literally says from any interpretation of what it means.
Source material:
"Marcus from Support pinged me again about the AI-tools clause -- his team keeps asking what it actually means and getting a different answer from whoever they ask. Here's the piece everyone's stuck on: 'Employees may use approved communication tools for business purposes. Confidential information must not be shared with external systems unless authorized by policy and management.' Can you turn that into something his team can read in two minutes flat, split into what it literally says versus what people keep assuming it means? Last quarter somebody told his team it meant no ChatGPT ever, full stop, and that wasn't right, so I don't want another guess dressed up as an answer. Need it before his 9am standup Thursday."
Return only the finished work:
plain-language summary
Boundaries:
- Do not invent facts. Label missing information clearly.
- If information is missing, label it as missing instead of guessing.
- If I type "STOP FOR NOW", stop expanding the work and give only the best partial version from the information already provided.
Open in your agent
Copies the prompt and opens your tool in a new tab — paste it into the chat box (Ctrl or ⌘ + V), then fill in your own details. Remove private or sensitive information before using AI for workplace tasks.
Policy plain-language summary
Summarize an internal policy into plain do and don't points — no legal advice.
Copy this prompt
I work in bankruptcy paralegal work. Help me create one plain-language do points that I can review and edit before use.
Relevant context:
- Role: Bankruptcy Paralegal
- Work context: You compile a client's schedules and creditor matrix from a stack of bills and pay stubs, prep clients for what to expect at the 341 meeting, and chase down the one missing document that's holding up a filing.
Task:
Turn a policy excerpt into plain-language do/don't points and a short 'ask a person if' list. Do not give legal advice.
Source material:
"Hey -- new AI-use policy just dropped from Legal and half of engineering already has questions in the Slack channel. Section 4.2 is the part that matters: 'Employees may use approved AI tools for non-confidential drafting work; no confidential, regulated, or client data may be entered into any AI tool absent written authorization from the Compliance Office; where classification is uncertain, the requestor shall escalate to the designated policy owner prior to use.' Renata in HR already asked if she can use it to draft an offer letter that references a candidate's visa status, and Owen on the vendor team wants to paste a supplier's SOC 2 report into ChatGPT to summarize it. I need something the whole team can actually read before Tuesday's town hall."
Return only the finished work:
1. plain-language do points
2. don't points
3. 'ask first if' list
Boundaries:
- Do not invent facts. Label missing information clearly.
- If information is missing, label it as missing instead of guessing.
- If I type "STOP FOR NOW", stop expanding the work and give only the best partial version from the information already provided.
Open in your agent
Copies the prompt and opens your tool in a new tab — paste it into the chat box (Ctrl or ⌘ + V), then fill in your own details. Remove private or sensitive information before using AI for workplace tasks.
Question list builder
Generate clarifying questions for a legal or compliance review request.
Copy this prompt
I work in bankruptcy paralegal work. Help me create one clarifying question list that I can review and edit before use.
Relevant context:
- Role: Bankruptcy Paralegal
- Work context: You compile a client's schedules and creditor matrix from a stack of bills and pay stubs, prep clients for what to expect at the 341 meeting, and chase down the one missing document that's holding up a filing.
Task:
Build a review-intake question list for this addendum request without answering whether Section 4.2 is legally acceptable.
Source material:
"Hey — can you take a look at this before Friday? Corrigan Fulfillment sent over an updated data-sharing addendum for the Warehouse Ops contract, matter #LC-2291. Section 4.2 says they can share our inventory data with a subcontractor we've never worked with — no name, just 'an affiliate.' Procurement wants to sign this week so the shipping integration doesn't slip. Can you just tell me if Section 4.2 is okay to sign as-is?" — Dana, Procurement
Return only the finished work:
clarifying question list
Boundaries:
- Do not invent facts. Label missing information clearly.
- If information is missing, label it as missing instead of guessing.
- If I type "STOP FOR NOW", stop expanding the work and give only the best partial version from the information already provided.
Open in your agent
Copies the prompt and opens your tool in a new tab — paste it into the chat box (Ctrl or ⌘ + V), then fill in your own details. Remove private or sensitive information before using AI for workplace tasks.
How to use ChatGPT or Copilot for bankruptcy paralegals work
Start from your own rough version. Type or dictate what you would have written anyway, however messy. A prompt built on your real note beats a blank-page request every time.
Say who it is for and how long it should be. "Two sentences for a supervisor" and "a checklist a new hire can follow" produce completely different output from the same facts.
Strip the identifying details first. A client's actual account numbers, social security number, or full asset and income detail from their schedules — bankruptcy filings carry real financial numbers tied to a real person, and none of that belongs in a general AI tool. Work from the document category, like 'secured debt' or 'exempt asset,' instead of real figures.
Read every specific it produces. AI fills gaps with plausible invention — dates, amounts, names, policy numbers. If you did not supply it, do not trust it.
Keep the ones that work. The value compounds when you stop rewriting the same prompt. Save it with a note about when to use it.
Practice, don't just copy
Get better at these — free
Copying a prompt is a start. AI Lunchroom walks you through the task step by step with your own work, checks what your AI tool gives back, and saves the prompts you will reuse. Free to start, no credit card.
can a bankruptcy paralegal use AI to fill out the means test
No — the means test runs off exact income and expense figures from real documents, and that calculation, plus the actual petition and schedules, is attorney-supervised work done in guided practice with review, not something for open AI prompts. What's safe here is the surrounding communication: client checklists, explaining the 341 meeting, drafting reminders — not the numbers themselves.
why does AI keep miscounting the days until my client's filing deadline
Because date math involving court holidays, mailing rules, and jurisdiction-specific deadlines is exactly where general AI tools guess instead of calculate correctly. Never trust an AI-generated deadline — calculate it yourself from the actual filing date and your court's rules, and use AI only to draft the reminder email once you have the correct date.
