resinding chapter 13 filing

[RustyPeanut]

We had our 1st hearing today for our chapter 13. The mediator wants us to pay more based on our income. They are going by income for 2008 which contained overtime which my husband on longer makes & in fact may be getting laid off in the next 3 - 6 months. We don't think we can make the payments & are considering not filing because we are afraid of not being able to make the payments. We are wondering if credit card companies will work with us to lower the amount we owe since they are aware of the filing. One of our problems over the past 2 years has been Am Express. Does anyone have any suggestions or opinions?

Rusty

[justbroke]

Did you file pro se? I ask, because your lawyer should be willing to fight for you based on your current income. (This is a common fight over whether Form B22C is controlling as to what is in your Plan. The majority believes is that it is NOT. THe majority believes that the disposable monthly income (DMI) on Form B22C is based on the lookback period, and that Congress intended a Chapter 13 debtor (post BAPCPA) to dedicate his projected DMI to the Plan. That means it's not simply your DMI times your Applicable Commitment Period (ACP). It has been well argued, especially in the 11th Circuit (Georgia, Alabama, Florida), that projected DMI is not simply your DMI multiplied by your ACP.

If you voluntarily dismiss your case, you won't be able to file again for 180 days.

You may think about speaking with your lawyer and coming up with a strategy. One of which could be that you figure out what your total exposure is should you dismiss. American Express (AMEX) is very aggressive at collections. Were you alerady being sued by AMEX or other creditors?

What was your primary reason to file anyhow?

[RustyPeanut]

primary reason for filing

Our Atty says we have 2 options, pay what they want or resinc. Our primary reason for filing was because Am Exp would not work with us & I was sending them so much money that I was getting behind on everything else including our utility bills. We were always getting termination notices & Am Exp was charging us so much interest & penelty fees. Our credit balances are almost double now from not paying for the last 6 months. I got some bad advice in Sept from a Debt Releif Options to stop making payments & join there organization which I did & then realized how stupid it was so I got out of it. Then the paper work for filing bankruptcy took about 4 months from start to finish. My Atty finally got things rolling because Am Exp had served us papers & were sueing us.

Rusty