Attorney Keeps Canceling

[tincan2]

I'm not sure where to post this, so I apologize in advance if this is the wrong forum. I'd like to thank everyone for their contributions--this forum has provided me with a wealth of information.

I found an attorney, online, who I spoke with for the first time 1/15/17. On 1/20/17 I forwarded all necessary information. 1/24/17 I paid the retainer. This will likely be a chapter 13. After a week with no response I emailed--after several days the paralegal responded that she would put us on the calendar for 2/28/17. I emailed with a couple of questions which were not responded to. On 2/15 I emailed and simply asked for an idea of how the process would work--timelines, what would happen etc, and to let them know that my husband received a summons, so I felt filing in a timely fashion was prudent. On 2/20 I received an email indicating she would need to reschedule for 3/7 at 7 PM. I replied ok. After putting thought into it i emailed again on 2/22 asking why my case was taking so long, whether this was typical, if there were problems, etc., and asking specifically again about the summons. On 2/25 I recieve an email from the attorney providing me with some general information on the summons, and indicating that things were going on behind the scenes and they had several emergency filings that needed their attention. Tonight I receive a text message from the paralegal 30 minutes before our schedule appointment saying they will need to reschedule.

Is this typical attorney behavior? I am beginning to think this attorney is a fluke, but all reviews online indicate he is fantastic. My first interaction via phone was great--so I'm really confused at this point.

Any advice?

Thank you.

[justbroke]

Bankruptcy, especially a Chapter 13, is a marathon and not a sprint. Things move slowly through the process and an attorney can be inundated with calls, emails, preparing cases for filing (with their assistants), appearing in court and actually meeting with clients. Every time that you send an email you may likely be charged for 6 minutes of the attorney's time. In some larger offices there may be a staff of paralegals that can handle the emails and answer "general" questions without getting into any legal answers. A smaller office will have lots of trouble fielding questions.

If you have an appointment for March 7 and it's a face-to-face, write all the questions down and save them for that meeting. I don't think there is anything that would need to be done immediately (what they would deem an emergency) so waiting for the meeting is the perfect time. In fact, I always recommend that all the questions are not done through email because the entire chain-of-thought can be confusing and you may get conflicting information (because while you may have a thought process in your head, the attorney or paralegal is answering a "specific" email at the time and perhaps without looking at the entire email chain).

When I read your topic, it read as though the cancellations were more than a few Your sit-down-meeting seems to have been rescheduled twice. It could also just be bad circumstances and the attorney had personal commitments or other bankruptcy emergency hearings which they can't avoid. Just too much to speculate that it's an attorney issue related to them ignoring you.

Adding that: I missed the part where you stated that the attorney had emergency hearings. This would certainly put them behind schedule. Additionally, attorneys may have certain days that they are always in court or 341 Meetings (typically Tuesday-Thursday). So most appointments would be rescheduled 7 days later.

[LadyInTheRed]

A Chap 13 petition takes some time. The last thing you want is your attorney to rush to get your petition done and make mistakes. The timing does not seem extreme for a busy firm. Canceling a meeting 30 minutes in advance is disconcerting, but hopefully they had a good reason. You may never know for sure. Do you have a new meeting date yet? If not, call them and remind them that your husband was served with a summons on 2/15 (or whatever date it was) and that you would like to reschedule ASAP. A phone call may get better results than email.