Almost done wanting to voluntarily dismiss

[erikj1974]

[SMinGA]

Sounds like you need to have a face to face meeting with your atty, to possibly convert to a ch. 7. Dismissal is NOT what you want. All interest gets added back for the 3 1/2 years past, you owe all balances in full and they can pursue full collection activities. If your finances have changed so much, conversion may be in your best interest.

[momofthree]

Agreed! Do not dismiss, convert to a ch.7.

[Pandora]

I have been paying steadily over 550 a week for the past 3 1/2 years on a CH 13 and a few months prior. The trustee (that !) excuse me for my outburst. Has been trying to raise my weekly payments I contact my lawyer no response, and again contact my lawyer no response, so I wrote a letter of termination. So what is my next step? My wife doesn't work but attends college to have a career change. I am making barely a 100 a week and no other income is coming into the household. I want to do a Volunteer Dismissal, obviously I will not be having an attorney or at least my old one write the letter, so is there a form letter that I can use to write the court or do I have to have someone do it for me?

I dont understand something - in the 3.5 years you've been paying, did you not amend your plan if you went from having to pay $2200 a month (according to you, 550 a week to trustee) to fund your Ch. 13 plan - to then making barely $100 a week? Did you lose your job suddenly or something along those lines? Something doesnt sound right there. You could afford the plan to begin with, but now cannot..due to..???? If your lawyer and/or trustee put you in a plan you couldnt afford, then you were bound to fail, that makes no sense and the trustee shouldnt of approved it, and certainly shouldnt be upping the payment if you arent making any money.

Your lawyer should be doing all of this for the fee you paid him/her; or at least I know ours will be until we are discharged, so the lawyer is at our beckoning for the full 60 months at our disposal.

[erikj1974]

I haven't lost my job, the problem I am facing now is that my wife was at least receiving unemployment benefits that did supplement our income she has reached the end of her available extensions. When I first filed I wasn't thrilled about the amount but she was working and making good money. The problem with my lawyer is that I don't have a regular quitting time only start time by the time I am finished with work his office is closed or closing. When I try to call it seems he's always to busy

[Pandora]

Ok - so your wife was working when you filed..but lost her job, so then went on umemployment? Am I getting that right? If you are only bringing home $100 a week yourself - I'm going to assume you're not working M-F for that little amount of money - minimum wage is more than that a week; there has to be some time for you to meet with the lawyer or your wife can given she's not working isnt there? Someone has to at this point, you're in a pickle

Why on earth did you not notify the trustee and lawyer at that time that there was going to be a massive change in your income and circumstances? Unemployment income doesnt count as "regular income" -you have to have an actual job with steady pay checks - didnt your lawyer tell you that? They can count the income received from UI in the lookback period, but it doesnt count as income for future earnings to fund a Ch. 13 plan. Thats what happend with us - hubby lost his job and given I dont work, things got pretty hairy there -and we had to wait to file until he actually had a job since we were doing a 13 and not a 7.

Sounds like there's some major miscommunication between you and your attorney.

I'd do as the others said and not dismiss your case but convert it to a 7.

[newbie2]

I haven't lost my job, the problem I am facing now is that my wife was at least receiving unemployment benefits that did supplement our income she has reached the end of her available extensions. When I first filed I wasn't thrilled about the amount but she was working and making good money. The problem with my lawyer is that I don't have a regular quitting time only start time by the time I am finished with work his office is closed or closing. When I try to call it seems he's always to busy

This is far too important of an issue to be playing phone tag with your attorney. Talk to your employer and get an hour or two off of work and see the attorney in person. Or, have your wife go in for you with a written list of questions and concerns to address. You really need to convert if you can, and not dismiss.

[erikj1974]

Thank you

I want to thank everyone for their help, I'm looking into getting a new attorney soon, my company has a legal service that I'm going to use. I didn't know about all the options I had out there... Good Luck everyone and I will be keeping in the loop with things.

[erikj1974]

Had the talk with the attorney, found out my opinion of the trustee is very much shared among attorney's. I really didn't have much owed on the house or vehicle calling them tomorrow about getting my payments in check and officially dismissed the case decided after a good talk with my attorney that I should keep the chapter 7 under my belt instead of wasting it on something that it's not worth, and only had two creditors to deal with so I am not worried to much. Thanks everyone for the support hope all goes well with your situations.

[Pandora]

so your attorney told you to dismiss your CH. 13 instead of converting it? Wow.... I've never heard of that, especially given you were paying $2200 a month in your Ch. 13 plan.

Good luck to you.

[justbroke]

Dismiss a Chapter 13 when 3.5 years into it? I have never heard of anyone ever recommending that. It seems like most attorneys, including yours, just don't want to fight with the Trustee. Perhaps the Trustee needs someone to challenge them.

[starr4law]

Another issue that may be at play here is that the OP filed a Ch 13 to protect non-exempt assets. If he dismisses or converts, and hasn't paid enough into the plan to protects those assets, they are back "at risk" so to speak.

You will have to let us know what the new lawyer says.

[erikj1974]

Volutntary dismissal

I don't have much debt after he shown me what was left, only my car and 2500 behind on the house I am contacting the mortgage company and the car company to renegotiate my interest rates. If the car company doesn't want to work with me I am going to get rid of it. I can find something different, because of the payments and the trustee I couldn't do anything. I felt and so did he if things got worse he'll setup the 7 for me.

[NowImDownInIt]

You do realize that if you don't convert and you dismiss you Chapter 13 you will not receive discharge for any of the debts not fully paid through your plan, right?

I don't think that it's the best idea to dismiss your case while you are behind on your mortgage.

[erikj1974]

Volutntary dismissal

Thanks for the info everyone, had my cased dismissed without prejudice, which after talking to my attorney I can redo a chapter 13 or 7. With the total amount of debt that I have it's not worth wasting a 7 and the trustee wasn't willing to work out any other option. So what I'm planning on doing is talking to my mortgage company because they can only modify the loan during bankruptcy and that's it I can renegotiate and then file a 13 with a much lower payment, technically I have been on time with my mortgage for over 3 1/2 years and the same with the car if they don't want to work with me the loss for them would be tremendous then I would protect myself with the 7. I appreciate everything but I've noticed with all the replies everyone has a very long time on their particular case with the 13 I had only a 1 1/2 and with the payments I was stuck with and no other income sometimes it's better to do it this way. And like I said I can refile later. Remember everyone's state is different.
And I hate doing this because I know that everyone is trying to look out for each other but how many are actual attorney's?