Advice badly needed/in a panic!!!

[sheilaE]

Oh my gosh...I absolutely agree!!!

[Floridagail]

Great, happy the new attorney is on the ball.

[Floridagail]

Did they allow your life insurance as expense, did they limit the amount? My friend is filing and considering buying life insurance.

[sheilaE]

The paralegal was very surprised that the other atty told us it wouldn't be allowed...doesn't matter that we have an very small policy through my husbands previous employment, and by small I mean it's just burial...for my husband only. The other is for both of us and for a larger amount. She said it would definitely be allowed-that no BK cases that she knew of had ever had to cancel life insurance, even if the filers had more then 1 policy. I seriously think the other atty was trying to kill us with an anxiety attack.

[Floridagail]

The first attorney my hubby went to, told him he would be 13 , that was 3 yrs ago. We are now hoping he can go with a 7 , He will be filing soon by first week of feb. We are letting our house go, too upside down to keep. It seem a shame to do a 13 in our case and drag out the 3-5 yrs.

[gnarfle]

Years ago I talked to 3 different attorneys. 2 had told me that there is no way I'd get a household size bigger than 2 (I have half time custody of 3 kids) and would be stuck in a chapter 13 with a high payment. The third told me we could fight for a household of 4 with a good shot and if we got that we could probably get me into a Chapter 7.

So yeah I'd say it's pretty common to get very different opinions. The real question is, who is right and which one knows the trustee best to know what you can actually get...

[TheBajan]

It's very common to get different opinions. I'm glad things are looking up for you. We spoke to several atty's and at first we thought we would loose everything. By that I mean our home, one of our cars, and a rental property that we count on as part of our income. We were told our payment would be in the $1300 range by several atty's. That was devastating to us as we simply could not afford that. The last atty we talked to was the only one who knew enough about the Bk state law that would allow us to keep our assets and lower our payment to less than $300 a month. We are in a 3 year plan. We stripped our second. Chin up.... keep us informed.

The Bajan

[gnarfle]

So what is wrong with some lawyers? I mean, I know the bankruptcy rules and laws are complex, but any lawyer who has been practicing for a few years should have a pretty good idea of how the local trustee and courts operates. Do some of them just not care? I guess as they charge, generally, a fixed rate maybe some of them have the goal of getting you in and out of there as fast as possible?

[sheilaE]

I don't know, but why even be a BK atty if you're not going to give it 100% and try to help your client? The rules are the rules...you would think they should ALL be working out of the same book! I think maybe our other atty just didn't want to put the effort in. I think he wanted to make sure it got confirmed so he didn't have to look at it again and at OUR expense! But like you said...which one is right? Time will tell for sure.
Sheila

[SMinGA2]

I'm just now finding this thread - but congrats!

The difference (IMO) is that attorney 1 didn't want to put the time & effort into a ch. 13 case, nor was he willing to work for YOU for a ch. 7. I think (again, my opinion) there are many BK attorneys who only want the easy cases and they'll never make good 13 attorneys.

Many of the expenses you discussed in your original thread - life insurance, vehicle & home maintenance, etc. - are reasonable and necessary. Some on the other hand need some 'belt tightening' such as the big cable/internet. And I can see how the age of your older 2 kids might be a problem for a diligent trustee. But that doesn't mean you roll over and agree to an impossible plan.