My attorney forgot to file my financial course to the court in time for my discharge!

[freni32]

Well I get home today and in the mail I have a letter from the bankruptcy court showing:
"Notice of Pending Case Closing Without Entry of Discharge for failure to complete financial management course"

I completed this course within a week after the 341 meeting. I had the company fax it to my attorney 2 different times and had to keep leaving messages with them...and finally they tell me that their fax machine had problems and never received it....well I have still 3 more weeks left before my discharge and drive over their and hand them a copy of the certificate to file with the courts.....now I have this letter.

When I called them the secretary remembers me coming up there and giving them the hand copy and said the girl I turned it over to no longer works for them now..... so I had the company refax it to them again! Now they are showing that they have received it and will file a "motion to reopen the case"

I have never heard of anything like this before....how hard is it to get it reopen now...how long until it gets discharged now? Anyone ever been in this situation

Thanks for your help!

[freni32]

I just read on the internet it cost 245.00 to reopen the case to file the certificate with the course..... the attorney should be responsible for this because under the state bar it is no excuse that they never filed it after receiving it from me because their employee quit.

Anyone know how quick the turnaround was, my discharge was set to end 9 days ago...been waiting on the letter and then I got this....

Any ideal once they file a motion to reopen and pay the fee how much it will take for the judge to sign it and discharge the bankruptcy? Also anyone know what details will have to go back over...such as do I have to meet again with creditors...etc...

[AngelinaCatHub]

You are paying for professional knowledge. You would not take your own appendix out, you are not qualified. You depended on a person trained and should know. I would insist on your lawyer fixing this at his own expense. Like NOW! Unforgivable. ‘Hub

P.S. I’m having the same problem with incompetence.

[freni32]

how hard though it is to reopen, timeline to get it discharged again? what all is involved in this?

[Cali]

My attorney has a copy and I will be taking a copy with me to the 341. That way I know they will have it.

[FreshLikeADaisy]

Freni32, if the case was not actually closed -- you received a notice of PENDING closure, not actual closure -- then there would be no reopen fee if you get that paper filed as soon as humanly possible. As for the timeline, it really depends more than anything else on your particular district and the court caseload. I'm sorry, but I couldn't give you even a ballpark guess on that.

My concern is that the secretary you spoke with didn't actually check your bk to see if it was really closed or actually still open, and just assumed that it was already closed. It may not be, and if it's not, you can still rescue this situation IF you do it yourself and don't wait on this atty to do it for you.

Do you have a PACER acct? That's the best way to check the status of your bk. (See this thread if you don't know what PACER is: http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.php?t=1011) You can also call the bankruptcy clerk and find out that way. But quite frankly, if there is ANY chance at all that your bk is still open, then you take the hard copy down to the bankruptcy clerk yourself -- don't wait for this atty to get off his ass to do it. You will need to download Form 23 from the court (http://www.uscourts.gov/bkforms/bankruptcy_forms.html) and fill it out, but it's a one page deal and you can do it by hand in two minutes, there's not a lot to it. Basically, it's the info from your certificate and your signature.

Once you have Form 23 filled out and your debt ed certificate in hand, all you have to do is drive down to the bk court, hand both to the bk clerk, and say, "My case number is 08-12345, can you file this for me?" And that's it. But only if your bk is still open. If it has actually been closed, then you can't do that, it has to be reopened before you can file anything.

And no, you should not pay another penny to your atty. He needs to cover these costs. If you were to lodge a complaint with the state Bar Association and it went to hearing, and you had all your fax logs documenting all the times you faxed it, his position would be utterly indefensible. Don't give him another dime, and if your case is still open, don't wait another day to drive down to the courthouse and file the doc yourself. Good luck!!!

P.S. Cali, that's a great idea about taking it to the 341, but keep in mind that until it is actually FILED with Form 23 it doesn't exist. Your best bet is to check PACER; when it has been filed the "DebtEdDue" flag will be gone, and you'll actually see the filings and be able to pull them up. The trustee can't take this from you, it has to be filed. Just so you know.

[freni32]

great thank you, as far as paying my attorney the remaining balance of the bankrupcty (800 left to go) total paid: 2,400 dollars for Chapter 7... they probably can mess up my bankruptcy by not paying them, probably to wait until after the judge signs it?

[freni32]

why wouldnt they close the case if I passed my deadline which was the follwing Sunday (9 days ago)...also wouldnt I be out of the timeline to file this since the bracket to file this has passed?

[FreshLikeADaisy]

Freni, I wish I could answer your specific questions, but I don't know if your case has been closed or not. I wasn't looking at your letter so I don't know what your dates are. You would not be the first to receive a notice of pending closure only to find out that your case was still open because no one had actually gotten around to closing it. That's why you have to check ASAP!!! If it's open -- doesn't matter why or how or who -- then get your debt ed certificate and Form 23 filed TODAY!

The closure of a bk case is an *administrative* function, which is why you may still have a chance that it hasn't yet closed. But you can't really do anything, or take any action, until you know FOR SURE whether it is open or closed *today*. Once you know that, then you can plan your next move, but not until then.

If you have agreed to pay your atty a certain amount for your bk and he allowed you to carry that remaining balance into your Ch7, I wouldn't recommend stiffing him. As much as he screwed it up, he DID file your Ch7, and it WAS successful... except for this. So he really did do what you agreed to pay him to do. Don't stiff him, he did what he was supposed to do (with one GLARING exception ) but don't pay him *extra* to resolve what he and his office screwed up.

Call the courthouse (bankruptcy clerk) or check PACER ***today***. And go from there. All the speculating in the world won't help until you actually know the facts. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear earlier; it's a little past my bedtime so I hope you forgive me.

Good luck to you!!!

[freni32]

great. will call first thing in the morning...thanks so much for the advice, will give an update later tomorrow!

Thanks so much for your help!

[Logan]

Fax it to the trustee yourself....

[JRScott]

Fax it yourself as Logan says

I'm surprised your lawyer filed the case without actually getting paid, in fact I think that's illegal....I was told by my lawyer I had to pay everything before filing....

I hope this works out for you.

[Logan]

JR,

I also had a payment plan. I forget but a few hundred up front then 200 a month. I had another attorney tell me I had to pay them up front or the fees could be discharged but I went with the payment plan guy.

Logan

[Cali]

I didn't think you could file the case either, w/out full payment.

[ThreadsSnapping]

We also have a payment plan. We paid the filing fee and a $200 deposit and they are taking $50 payments every week from our checking account for the reamining $700. We have made 2 of the payments so far and will be filing in the next week or so. He did say that the payments did have to be completed with in 90 days, so he will be paid before our discharge.

TS