What would you ask?

[ejny65]

As always, I appreciate all inputs, experiences and ideas.
At my first meeting with an attorney (beside the regular questions about my case) what are the best questions to ask a lawyer to make sure he is professional, yet caring.
How would you know if your lawyer is good?
What would you ask then if you knew what you know today?
What are the signs of bad/good BK lawyers?

[gophermn]

This is a very good question so perhaps I can tell you what happened to me - then - ou will know a few things to ask.
I met with my attorney October 07 and gave him all the paperwork, info and a check for $2000 to pay in full. December (2 months later) I find out they still never filed. I called the end of October and mid Nov and they said, Yep - we got everything and all looks good." WTF - when are you gonna file the petition?
Basically I found out this attorney (in MN) takes on more cases then they can handle. They are pushing 100 cases a month so of course I got held up in the mix. So now I sit here waiting for my 341 next week with another attorney (I fired the other one). What really pisses me off is that this whole BK thing could have been done by now. But you live & learn and I should have asked a question like this in October 07.

Ask the attorney how backed up they are? I found a awesome attorney and has been on the ball sending me updates, etc.
Ask the attorney how much they charge beyond the normal filings. If someone wants to contest something, your attorney might charge extra.
Make sure this isnt the first case they filed and that they have been doing this for some time.
Others in this forum are very very knowledgable and will give you good advice. Well, I hope they do because I got burned and because of that, I could have been discharged by now.
Make sure you have everything the attorney needs (bank stmts, pension, 401K, debt secured & unsecured, w2, payroll stubs, previous tax forms, etc, etc).
See if your attorney will send you emails with copies of the petition, credit classes, trustee letter, etc?

Anyway, hope this little bit helps.
Good luck!

[Knew_it_all]

what are the best questions to ask a lawyer to make sure he is professional, yet caring.

He? Ok, let's assume all attorneys are men for a moment. To see if he was caring, I would ask him when was the last time he called his mother and if he sent her flowers recently. In addition, I would interview his kids...Does dad play with you or is he <too busy> all the time? Questions like these should tell you if he is caring or not..good luck

[gophermn]

He? Ok, let's assume all attorneys are men for a moment. To see if he was caring, I would ask him when was the last time he called his mother and if he sent her flowers recently. In addition, I would interview his kids...Does dad play with you or is he <too busy> all the time? Questions like these should tell you if he is caring or not..good luck

WOW never thought of that! very true though!!

[PaKettle]

As always, I appreciate all inputs, experiences and ideas.
At my first meeting with an attorney (beside the regular questions about my case) what are the best questions to ask a lawyer to make sure he is professional, yet caring.
How would you know if your lawyer is good?
What would you ask then if you knew what you know today?
What are the signs of bad/good BK lawyers?

Good question, EJ! In fact I was going to try to make a FAQ on this and submit it as a sticky. Maybe someone can use the comments from this thread to make one. I should think this site needs such a Sticky: How to Find and Interview an Attorney for Bankruptcy.

(I use "he" and "him" below but obviously a woman attorney can be just as good; or bad. )

Well, I talked to about 7 attorneys so I can offer some experience and advice; even though I ended up choosing a rather bad one. (I insist it wasn't for a lack of research and effort, it was just a matter of not being able to tell for sure and taking a chance and losing.)

#1) Before interviewing any attorneys, do your homework:
1A) Read this forum and learn as much as you can in the time that you have available
1B) Gather all your data:
**income for the last 6 months (gross income before anything is taken out)
** Add up all your fixed expenses - expenses that do not
change each month: rent, utility payments (average them for
the previous 6 months), insurance payments, cable and
internet payments, anything you pay every month - but NOT
your credit card payments!
**Estimate your expenses on things like clothes, transportation, car maintenance and/or bus fare, taxi, parking,
entertainment, household items, etc. - and compare these to
the tables found at [DOJ/ IRS web pages to be added here]
for your state.

#2) Once you have all the stats above, look for an attorney. I
don't know that any site is better than any other but one is
www.nacba.com. The absolute best way is to find a friend or family member who has filed before and were happy with
their attorney. Otherwise just pick some at random and use your interviews to try to weed out the bad ones.

#3) Interview at least 3, but maybe even 5 or so attorneys, especially if you have not felt comfortable with the ones you interviewed, or if they give you advice that doesn't sound right according to what you've read on this forum. Even if you love the first one you interview, interview a couple more just to see if the info the 1st one gave you matches what the others are saying.

#4) If your research has indicated that you qualify for a Ch. 7 or are close to qualifying, do not accept "no, you do not qualify for a Ch. 7" as being absolutely true. Some attorneys want to charge you more for a Ch. 13, some do not know the "tricks" to get you into a 7 instead of a 13, and some just plain don't know what they're talking about. If they say you do not qualify for a 7 ask them what things you might change to be able to qualify down the road, say in 3-6 months... Or if there might be a way of re-calculating your expenses. Have you perhaps missed some expenses or under-estimated some?

#5) Questions to ask your attorney:

**Do you do only bankruptcy cases, or other cases as well?
(It's okay if they do other stuff, but it's obvious that someone who does only bankruptcy is probably more knowledgeable than someone who does 5 different things.)

**About how many bankruptcy cases do you do per year? (I would say that 25 or more per year means they know quite a bit about it. 120 or more a year might mean they don't pay enough attention to your case...) Is most of that Personal bankruptcy or Business bankruptcy, Ch. 13, Ch. 7, etc.?

**Are you also a Trustee? (Some say this is a good thing. One concern might be that if you need to adjust some things one way or another in order to qualify, a Trustee might be less willing to push the envelope in one area or another. On the other hand, a Trustee knows the ropes and knows what will fly and what won't. You decide.)

**How long have you been doing bankruptcies? (I'd say at least 2 years is what you are looking for.)(Someone who's been doing it less might be fine, but...?)

At this point they will probably be getting annoyed with your questions so let them ask you THEIR questions.

Notice how they ask them. Are they really organized in their questioning? Are they completely impersonal and not personable? Are you just another number to them? Are they judgmental? Do they sound ultra conservative, like they think everything is a problem? Are they possibly trying to scare you into thinking you have a very difficult case and you need THEM to be your saviour? (I talked to one like this.) On the other hand, to they sound like they are just saying "Yes, you qualify! No problem!" because they just want your business?

These things are hard to tell! Turn your intuition on and keep it engaged during the conversation. If this is a phone conversation it's harder to tell (most of mine were by phone). But if it's an office consultation, look around, note the surroundings. Is the guy's desk and office a mess? Is there someone there answering the phone and taking care of business? Is he taking calls while talking to you? (This - while annoying- may actually be a good thing, if he's answering his clients' questions and being available to them.)

After he is done asking you questions and possibly giving you his opinion as to whether you qualify or not, it is time to go for round two of questions for him. If he seems annoyed with your questions, maybe he/she's not the right attorney for you.

**So, after I pay you in full, how long would it be before you could actually file for me? (At this point I think a good attorney might ask, if he hasn't already, "When was your last major expenditure on a credit card? Have you had any recent purchases over $300? Have you taken an cash advances in the past 3-6 months? If so, how many and how much?"

**Do you attend the 341 meeting with me? (If the answer is no, look elsewhere.)

**Do you communicate by email? Send copies of documents etc by emails? (I think this is a good thing if they do!)

**If I have a question can I expect to get through to you and that you will get back to me within 24 hours?

**Do you do all the paperwork yourself or do you have an assistant or paralegal do some or most of it? (Personally I prefer an office where the guy does it himself. However, that said, mine did it himself, yet screwed it up!)

**How much do you charge for a Ch. 7? (I'd say the range should be between $900-1500. You don't want a bargain basement attorney, nor do you want to get ripped off. I had one that wanted over $2k for my simple no asset case. I told her that was way more than the others I'd talked to and so I'd be looking elsewhere, thank you very much.)

I've probably left out some good questions. Hopefully some others will fill in what I've forgotten.

One thing I found was that some of the attorneys I talked to turned me off. I just knew I did not want to work with them. One told me "Well, I really want to delve into your debt, what exactly you have spent the money on and when..." I decided he was being way too nosey and/or conservative and decided against him. Another guy didn't even do the consult, he had a paralegal do it. I didn't give him any consideration, either. One sounded real good but had only been doing it 2 years and also did divorces, so I wasn't sure...

In the end I went for the guy who I had one (internet) recommendation on, and who seemed very personable and knowledgeable in our meeting and whose price was next to the lowest quoted to me.

It ended up being the wrong decision because he didn't answer phone calls (even when I had a legitimate concern), he didn't attend our 341 (granted, he was sick, but...), and most of all, he made some mistakes on our Petition that caused the UST to get involved in our case and caused me to have to make another trip to his office and amend our Petition.

In the end, you can do everything right and still get a lousy one, or you can just point your finger at the yellow pages and get lucky and get a great one. But doing some research and asking questions SHOULD usually help!

Hope this helps.

[epiphany]

Wow, Pa seems to grill 'em hard! Not that that's a bad thing.

I also agree that this would be a great idea for a sticky.

I think what you ask them all depends on what's important and relevant to you. You will figure that out if you do your homework before meeting with the lawyer.

I was completely green to the process when I stumbled upon this board. I read every single post that I could (I was up until 2am every night for the first two weeks). While reading the posts, I found that I had questions that I didn't even know I had.

When I met with the lawyer I retained, I was fully equipped and had a written list of questions. He did all the talking first and then asked me if I had any. I whipped out my notes and started asking. Don't be afraid to do that!

Start writing down your questions as you think of them. I really think if you diligently scour this forum, you will know what questions to ask when the time comes.

I think I got a great lawyer. It's far from over yet but I have been pleased so far. I hope you get a good one too.

EP