Looking for an attorney?

[dadof3]

I am in eastern district genesse county in michigan, could anyone reccomend an attorney, i have been in my chpt 13 36mths and during the previous 12mths my wife lost her job so our income changed from 105000 to current 81000 including her unemployment which will run out in may. my income alone is 57000k and my payment is 2100 a month and my lawyer keeps stating that my income alone is enough to support the payment. when i filed i was protecting my home and 2 cars, but now i want to surrender everything and move to an apartment. i dont feel my attorney is fighting for us and after we loose the unemployment we will not be able to survive, after deductions i bring home 600 mth which just covers insurance and gas! what am i not understanding?

[lrprn]

I dont feel my attorney is fighting for us and after we loose the unemployment we will not be able to survive, after deductions i bring home 600 mth which just covers insurance and gas! what am i not understanding?

You are right....your attorney is not fighting for you.

Make an appointment for a face-to-face discussion as soon as humanly possible. Lay out your wife's income changes along with any expense changes, then insist that your attorney re-do your Means Test and Schedules that reflect those changes. Make sure he includes your income only and not your wife's unemployment. Also ask him to calculate what happens if you surrender the house and rent instead.

If your payment remains exactly the same, I'll be very surprised.

[BKDefender]

The "problem" is that attorneys get paid out of your plan payments before the plan begins paying creditors, so your attorney is fully paid up and probably doesn't want to spend any more time on your case. Most attorneys specifically exclude conversion ch 13 case to ch 7 case as being included in the ch 13 filing payments, but if your attorney didn't then that would explain his lack of interest.

You might take a look at converting from chapter 13 to chapter 7 liquidation. Look on BKForum, and see if there are any topics covering that. Your ability to do that will depend on if your gross income alone, after your wife's unemployment expires, is below the median income in your state.

If your income is too high to file a chapter 7, and you don't want to keep your house, you could also consider filing a Notice of Dismissal on your current chapter 13, then re-filing Chapter 13 listing that you're surrendering your house but keeping your car or cars. Since you have not received a discharge in the chapter 13 case, you're not limited in re-filing chapter 13 immediately after dismissing the current one.
To save the cost of re-filing, you could file an amended plan that calls for the surrender of the home, and if you don't want to keep the cars then calls for surrender of the cars as well, then with those out of the way, your payments shouldn't be too much.


Good luck,
--William

[dadof3]

Thanks for the replys, so could i amend current chapter 13 to liquidate both cars and home and if so would i just have the 24 mths left or would i have to start all over for 60 months? my payments are taken out of my paycheck so would i have to wait til may before i can do anything? i have scheduled a face to face meeting because my lawyer has been paid in full thourgh the plan as well as getting a cut of my monthly payment. my plan was 100% to secureds and 26% to unsecureds we cant afford maintainece on home and have found an apartment that will take us, if we just file a motion to surrender home and vehicles how long would that take before payments change on the paycheck? i have brought this issue up before when my wifes income went frm 45k to current last years 17k , all unemployment and she said my income alone still support no change in payment and if cars are surrenderd that the unsecureds would get the vehicle payment amount so i still would not see any additonal money back! what is it that i can do to get her to take a look at my case again or should i find another attorney becouse she just brushes me off?

[BKDefender]

If, after your reasonable and necessary expenses (both actual and permitted ones) support a payment that size, then you cannot reduce it. The rules are ALL of your disposable income after those calculations (which are often not enough for certain expenses sadly enough), must go to the plan. The amount of your disposable income and the amount of your claims determines the length of your plan. So it depends on way more data than you did, and more than you should, disclose here.
Hopefully your meeting will turn out positive.
If the plan is modified, it is either going to be shortened from the maximum 60 months or stay at 60 months, it cannot go longer.

--William

[oops123]

Best of luck to you Dadof3, I hope things get better for you soon.