Chapter 13 Lawyer issue-- missed key law change

[4DogsandDone]

How long does it take for your lawyer to file your case? I had basic chapter 13 and it took my lawyer almost 4 months to file my case. In January, the 2nd car allowance rule was changed so now if car was paid in full you couldn't claim the allowance. My lawyer wasn't aware of change and we filed a month later and now I don't qualify which means higher payment now.

Can I hold my lawyer accountable for missing a law change or not doing my case in a timiely fashion. 3 months would have made before the law change-- he took 4 so now I missed out.

Not sure what I should do -- Part of me figures just eat the extra cost but part of me is really ticked that I pay a lawyer to know the law and "he"missed it or dragged his feet when filing my case and he cost me the extra cash from my family for the next 60 months.

[Pandora]

welcome to the forums.

I guess the first question I have is was your lawyer paid in full prior or were fees to be placed in your plan? If he was paid in full and just didnt file, I'd be asking why it took so long to file. Did you question him at all during this timeframe?

As to the car allowance - you can still claim ownership expenses (maintenance, upkeep, etc), just not the payment since its paid off. As to the higher payment, did you go back and try to eat that extra money up in your schedules / budget? Dont know how much it is, however I'm sure you can make it "go away" some how or another through budgeting.

[4DogsandDone]

Thanks Pandora.

Yes, my lawyer was paid in full and all paperwork was sbmitted in early Nov.. So he had atleast 2 months to get everything filed and would have beat the new allowance rule that took place on Jan. 11th. Its been hard getting him to call me back as I asked how things were going and if we were ready to file. His secretary even told me we were within minutes of filing when I called in January to check. After no return calls for about a week or so I called back and long behold it wasn't ready and it ended up going to mid February when it was filed.

His mistake is basically costing me about 6k or 100/month. Which drives me crazy because 6k will pay for a lot of needed things.

But the more i stress about it the more I wonder what my options are at this point and think I may have to just take it.

To dismiss the case and then re-file later on -- just thinking he'll run into another issue which will cause something to go wrong.

I just look at it as if I hired a tax accountant I would hold him to a level of professionalism that he would know the tax laws-- so with this lawyer he should be aware of pending changes or that fact that a law was just changed. If he atleast knew after the fact we could have made a change before filing in Feb.

Just very frustrated that you pay a lawyer good money and becuase they have things going on in their personal lives that gives them the right to push me off and ultimately cost me 6k.

I am considering filing a complaint but not sure what that will really do.