My question involves business law in the state of: New York, Delaware

Sorry if this should go in the bankruptcy forum, but that looked like it was for individuals who are filing.

New York-based parent company of my client firm has filed for C 11 in Delaware court. I am in Illinois.

My invoices prior to their filing total just over $7,000.

My contacts say I don't have to worry about invoices submitted after filing. They will be paid on schedule set by court (maybe 30, 45 or 60 days, but this decision hasn't been made). My contacts said they couldn't even comment on the pre-filing invoices. All they would say is I might receive a letter about it.

The only other information I do have is a pre-filing e-mail from the accounting department from a few weeks ago telling me they would pay my invoices by the end of the month. Obviously, they filed C 11 instead. I followed up on this yesterday with the naive glimmer of hope that they cut my check before they filed, but I haven't heard back and my expectations are pretty low.

I've never been in this situation before, so I'm a little lost.

As an unpaid vendor, will I get an official notice from the court, or do I need to take the initiative and contact them first?

Is it standard practice that any payment of pre-filing invoices comes after the company emerges from the C 11, or are those payments an ongoing process during the bankruptcy?

Does a small vendor like me have any hope of negotiating, or does the court just set the payment rate (e.g., $0.50 on the dollar) and I have no choice but to take it?

Would a typical attorney be overkill and too expensive for me to hire to deal with this?

I do value my relationship with this company and easily anticipate additional business from them that surpasses the $7,000 they owe me, so I don't want to jeopardize that, but I also don't want to just sit back and let them skirt on the debt IF there's something I can do to help prevent that.

Thanks!