How did you successfully find a good bankruptcy attorney?

[lrprn]

Sorry to hear about your lawyer troubles, RichN

I have left numerous messages and can never get anyone to answer the phone at the office.

Stop calling. Go by the office during business hours when you know your lawyer is in the office. To find that out, check your local court's calendar - most are posted online - to see when your lawyer is in court. If you can't find your court calendar, post your city and court location here - we'll help you dig it out.

I am trying to not be a pain in the @#$%@ but I am concerned about the quality of our case.

You aren't being a pain. One more suggestion for you - leave a message on the phone stating that if your lawyer does not contact you within 24 hours, you are calling your state's attorney general's office to report your concerns that you have been abandoned and are left to deal with your legal problems alone. That should open the door to a phone call!

At what point can we, or should we, contact the trustees office directly?

Are you checking PACER to see what's being filed (if anything) by your trustee and lawyer? If you don't know what PACER is, let us know and we'll explain why this can be very helpful in your situation.

To answer your question, if you contact your trustee directly, chances are he/she is going to tell you to contact your lawyer. However, if you check PACER and see anything that indicates the trustee is about to dismiss your case, I would definitely contact your trustee then and explain the situation.

[PaKettle]

Answering my own post...

How I FINALLY found a good bankruptcy attorney:
lrprn here told me about a guy that was recommended by someone she knows of, and since he was also a member of NACBA, the National Assoc. of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys that someone else had recommended to me, I decided to go with him.

I originally had ruled him out because his office is a bit of a drive for me, but then I figured what the heck, I won't be going there often, anyway (hopefully!)

His name is Mark Markus and he gave me a good long telephone consultation, after demanding I fill out a lot of info on forms on his web site (http://bklaw.com/) before the consultation.

That may seem like a bad thing, (it was no picnic!) but like he says, the more info he has the more accurate he can make his opinion about what the client should do. So after I filled out and sent him all the forms and some disclaimers he required us to sign, he set up a phone appointment and I called him at that time. I also liked that he answers his own phone and I didn't have to go through a paralegal at any point.

He spent almost an hour with me on the phone although it was "supposed to be" only 20 minutes. He was very thorough and answered all my questions. He was honest about possible pitfalls and yet set my mind at ease about some things, too. He was higher priced than the other guy I had talked to the day before, but I went with him because he had more experience than the other guy and also does ONLY bankruptcies whereas the other guy does divorce and bankruptcies. Not sure that's bad, but I prefer a true specialized attorney, I figure they can be more on top of just that area of law.

So, thank goodness, at least this part of it is done! Now I have to save some money to pay him, and wait the standard 3 months after our last charges, before filing (which will be mid September), and then join most of the rest of you here in the stressful WAITING game... (I HATE waiting!)

But I figure the sooner I get the ball rolling, the sooner it will be over.

So:
Onward!!
p.s. Thanks, lrprn!