What are typical Lawyer's fees?

[dragondad]

Forgive me if this is asked a lot, or if it is not allowed, but I have nothing to base this on.

The Lawyer we went to a consultation with stated for ch13 his fee was $5k. $4k was his standard and an extra $1k because my wife has sporadic income from a family run business adding complexity. $3k plus court fee and class fee would need to be paid before filing, and $2k would come out of the plan.

Is this pretty par for the course? The only other referance was a quick phone call with a large firm I was refered to by employer's assistance program. They stated with plan discount it would be $2600 plus court fee and class fee. I am sure they would also add on for the added complexity of my wife's income, and I think they were talking up front money, and not including what would be paid back through the plan.

The referal literally spent 5 minutes on the phone with me, and it was not even a lawyer. They would not even do a face to face consult without a retainer

The Lawyer we actually consulted with was a smaller 2 office practice. He said he would be the one doing our case start to finish, he would be the one at all court appearances, he is the one who interacts with the trustee on behalf of his clients. He seemed upfront, gave us some possibilities based on our goals, and spent over an hour with us for our 1/2 hour consultation. I could find nothing bad at all googleing him. I am inclined to go with him, even though he seems a little high, becaused of the level a personal service it appears he provides.

Ugh, this is all so confusing. I didn't think it would cost so much to file BK, but will the number of accounts we have, and since we want to keep the house and car I don't dare do this myself.

Thanks

[TheBajan]

Hello and welcome!

First, let me just say that IMO this is pricey (not typical). I'm sure others will chime in but I'll give you my own experience. We spoke to several attorneys. We didn't discuss payment with many of them but the few that we did all gave us quotes in the $2500 to $3000 range with most of it being paid in the plan. The attorney we hired charged $3000 and added $500 for a lien strip. We had to pay $1000 up front and the rest we pay in the plan.

We also have a small business that brings sporadic income and we have rental property as well as investment income. None of our consultations based their fees on the type of income we had but that may be different in your area. I'm in Michigan and things do differ state to state.

Spend some time here reading the stickies and asking questions. There is a ton of great info that will help you so much! The preparation you do now will make all the difference in your bk.

Most important, let me encourage you in the very strongest terms to consult with several attorneys before retaining one. Even if you really like this guy, it's not going to hurt and you will learn a bunch by doing it. In our case, we liked and considered retaining two attorneys before going with the very last one we consulted. It would have been a disaster for us if we had. You can read more about that by digging into some of my past posts.

Best regards,

The Bajan

[despritfreya]

Fees vary from State to State, district to district and attny to attny. The only way for you to determine if the fee charged is "typical" is for you to interview numerous attnys in your area. I can tell you that in AZ Chapter 13s go for $4k with about half up front. That is if you use an attny who charges a fixed fee and there is nothing unusual about the case. Hourly rate attnys charge time and the overall cost depends upon what needs to be done in a particular case.

Des.

[LadyInTheRed]

To further despritfreya's point, my attorney fees totaled $6300: $4800 for the Chap 13, plus $1500 for the lien strip. That is the maximum "no-look" fee allowed by the local court. To charge more, the attorney has to get court authorization. The other 2 attorneys I consulted with quoted the same fees. Surprise surprise!

It is reasonable that your wife's family business might make your case more complicated and justify a higher fee.

My attorney let me choose how much of a retainer to pay and how much to include in the plan, which I think is probably unusual. But, if I had named a number that was too low for the retainer, I'm sure he would have said so.

Attorney fees in my area tend to be among the highest in the country.

[lillymarlene]

Hi, welcome. I filed October 2010, and ended up paying about $4,000. I could have paid about $250 less, but I ended up having to add another creditor right after filing. ( The price for adding creditors, seems to vary from state to state.) Anyway, I paid the first $2,000 down, and the rest was in the plan. I also have a small business, and my income varies.

Like others have said here, it is probably best to check out several different attorneys before retaining one.

[TheBajan]

To further despritfreya's point, my attorney fees totaled $6300: $4800 for the Chap 13, plus $1500 for the lien strip. That is the maximum "no-look" fee allowed by the local court. To charge more, the attorney has to get court authorization. The other 2 attorneys I consulted with quoted the same fees. Surprise surprise!

It is reasonable that your wife's family business might make your case more complicated and justify a higher fee.

My attorney let me choose how much of a retainer to pay and how much to include in the plan, which I think is probably unusual. But, if I had named a number that was too low for the retainer, I'm sure he would have said so.

Attorney fees in my area tend to be among the highest in the country.

Hi, welcome. I filed October 2010, and ended up paying about $4,000. I could have paid about $250 less, but I ended up having to add another creditor right after filing. ( The price for adding creditors, seems to vary from state to state.) Anyway, I paid the first $2,000 down, and the rest was in the plan. I also have a small business, and my income varies.

Like others have said here, it is probably best to check out several different attorneys before retaining one.

Thank you both... I feel like I got a pretty good deal. Once again, I count my blessings.

[AngelinaCat]

We paid about 2K for our attorney. We initially tried for a CH13, but long story short, conditions changed and we had to do a CH7. Our attorney did not do a very good job of educating us in the BK process, and it IS a process. Consequently, we made many costly mistakes that we need not have, had she educated us properly--AND had her office staff answer our questions instead of continually being 'unavailable' when something important came up.

Also we did not find this forum with all of its valuable information until well after we had filed, and made all our mistakes.

I will echo what others have said before: go and talk with several different attorneys in your area. Read all of the 'stickies' in the CH13, CH7, and General Bankruptcy Boards, and arm yourself with knowledge, and then go talk to several attorneys. You will have a better 'feel' for what you are being told.

Good luck to you!

[dragondad]

doing some googling brought me to the US Bankruptcy court for Northern CA region web page that listed the maximum allowable standard fees. Los Angeles region did not have the same list, but I can guess it would be similar. Basic fee is $3500, and there are lots of add ons, half of which apply, so it sounds like the quote was in line.

[LadyInTheRed]

( The price for adding creditors, seems to vary from state to state.)

As far as court guidelines go, it varies by district or division. It also varies by attorney as long as they stay within local guidelines, if there are any.

doing some googling brought me to the US Bankruptcy court for Northern CA region web page that listed the maximum allowable standard fees. Los Angeles region did not have the same list, but I can guess it would be similar. Basic fee is $3500, and there are lots of add ons, half of which apply, so it sounds like the quote was in line.

That's for the San Francisco Division. There are 4 divisions in the Northern District of California. The Central District of California, which includes Los Angeles, has 5 divisions. So, you would need to also the correct division within your district. But, I agree that the SF guidelines can help determine if the quote is reasonable.

The fee should not be your only consideration. This is not a place to bargain shop. Hire the person you think is best for the job. As long as the attorney will agree to include most of the fee in your plan and you aren't paying 100% to unsecured creditors, a higher fee to your attorney will just reduce what you pay to unsecured creditors.

[AngelinaCat]

The fee should not be your only consideration. This is not a place to bargain shop. Hire the person you think is best for the job.

That is what I was trying to say in my post, only Lady did it much better; i.e. you get what you pay for.

[keepsmiling]

You will be in bed (so to speak) with this person for a long time.
Make sure you feel comfy with him/her. There is a huge trust factor involved.

[Sammie]

Our Attorney is $3,000 which is in our plan. We paid $500 up front for the retainer and filing fees. sammie

[ksgirl38]

I think I paid $1600 which I still felt was high considering that my case was extremely simple and I was very organized with my paperwork so I basically felt like I was just paying to have someone else fill out the paperwork. Not to mention that as soon as my case was closed my attorney stopped answering emails and didn't seem to know as much as I thought. I went to 5 consultations and I didn't find an attorney charging over $2000, but as someone else mentioned, it varies from state to state.

[MarkCantaur]

At least you had communication until your case was closed. Many complaints here are that the attorney stops communicating once the full fee is paid.

[ksgirl38]

At least you had communication until your case was closed. Many complaints here are that the attorney stops communicating once the full fee is paid.

I can understand that. To be honest, I consider bankruptcy lawyers one of the biggest ripoffs. Considering what we pay them they really don't do much. At least mine didn't. I know that my attorney filled out the petition using some type of software. How hard is it to fill in a blank? She didn't even show up when I went to court. Her partner showed up instead. Supposedly she had a death in the family. Outside of answering a few emails from me and meeting with me a couple of times I can't see where she was worth $1600. Of course my case was really simple so maybe in a more complicated case it's different. Not to mention that most of us didn't really have that extra money to pay an attorney to begin with.