Filing Fee

[jthom]

Okay my attorney is preparing the filing for me. I have made a mistake I read the disclosure and my attorney offers a $0 down to file for chapter 7. I read the agreement and it looks like I am responsible for the filing fee I have a job where I make 1700 dollars per month but I don't get my next paycheck tell after July 4 and I was wondering if I could make payment arrangements with the court with my income level do you think I would be able to pay in installments?

[justbroke]

Something seems wrong and I hope someone like despritfreya can correct me if I'm wrong. If you're paying an attorney for a Chapter 7, you need to pay the attorney in full prior to filing. I believe that only a Chapter 13 allows the attorney fee to be paid in "installments" over the term of the Chapter 13 Plan. Additionally, I don't believe that the Court would allow you to pay an attorney when you have to pay outstanding filing fees. In other words, you need to pay the attorney first. It can be a catch-22 for Chapter 7 cases. (A Chapter 13 also doesn't allow payment of an attorney before the outstanding filing fees are due, but the attorney can be paid through installments in the plan.)

[despritfreya]

I am not sure if a court will allow installments if there is an attny of record. As far as I know, if the petition is electronically filed, the filing fee will be automatically charged to the credit card the attny has on file. As a result, the fee is paid in full or the attny's ECF filing access can be taken away. OP needs to see if the attny will allow him/her to pay the fee to the attny in installments.

As to the "zero down" aspect, there still are attnys who provide for this. However, since the contract (fee agreement) to hire the attny is entered into prior to filing, the obligation to pay the legal fees is discharged. The result is that the attny takes a risk that his/her client will "flake out" and not voluntarily pay. I have not researched this issue in a long time but I doubt this has changed over the years. Assuming case law has not changed I have a real problem with "zero down" as I can guaranty that the attny never tells the client the debt is subject to the discharge - what a conflict of interest.

Des.