Consulted with attorney today - irritated

[WC Nurse]

We met with an attorney today and I'm more worried now that before we met with him. My husband has been laid off for 7 months now. He's collecting unemployment and just got his first extension. He's bringing home less than half of his usual income. I would have thought that we would have no problem filing Ch 7 due to the extended loss of income but was told that we BARELY (by about $45) pass the means test. The attorney seemed apprehensive about us filing cause it was so close. He advised several things:

1. Call Aflac and take out a disability policy.
2. Trade in one of our paid off cars and finance another car so we have another car payment
3. Have my husband stop collecting unemployement
4. Ask my boss to give me a 5% decrease in pay
5. For me to take a lower paying job

If we did any of these things, we'd have problems paying our mortgage. We do not want to lose our home.

Our son is away at college. We pay his tuition, he pays his other expenses and works 2 jobs to do so. The attorney said we can't count him as a dependent (even though he is one on our taxes) because we'll have to count his income in our household income.

Our daughter just finished culinary school; still lives at home. She hasn't found a job yet but is actively looking. Once she begins working, her income would count towards our household income and would mess up our numbers.

My husband has been trying to find work but now it seems he's better off not looking. We wouldn't qualify to file if he began working again.

I feel like we're in a catch 22...not enough money to file Ch 13 and too much for Ch 7. I am so irritated! I'd hate to pay all that money to file and be told that they won't discharge us.

I just felt like venting but also look forward to any comments/suggestions anyone has.

[ska]

I think you should get a second opinion.

I have a son in college and was told that I could not consider the money I spend for his tuition as an expense on the means test, which was a big bummer considering it is a chunk of money. My son does not have a job at the moment, but do pay him to watch my younger child after school. I was concerned that this income from my son would counter act my child care expense. I told my attorney that he uses this money for college expenses and she said that was fine, because his income is not contributing to household expenses.

Did the attorney say anything about the college expenses?

Also, I thought that income only counted the last six months. So, if your daughter is not working, she is not providing additional income. There is no way to determine when she will find a job, especially in this economy, and how much she will earn. If they could, could they tell me if I am getting a raise or if my son is going to find a job soon, because it sure would be helpful.

[TEW]

We met with an attorney today and I'm more worried now that before we met with him. My husband has been laid off for 7 months now. He's collecting unemployment and just got his first extension. He's bringing home less than half of his usual income. I would have thought that we would have no problem filing Ch 7 due to the extended loss of income but was told that we BARELY (by about $45) pass the means test. The attorney seemed apprehensive about us filing cause it was so close. He advised several things:

1. Call Aflac and take out a disability policy.
2. Trade in one of our paid off cars and finance another car so we have another car payment
3. Have my husband stop collecting unemployement
4. Ask my boss to give me a 5% decrease in pay
5. For me to take a lower paying job

If we did any of these things, we'd have problems paying our mortgage. We do not want to lose our home.

Our son is away at college. We pay his tuition, he pays his other expenses and works 2 jobs to do so. The attorney said we can't count him as a dependent (even though he is one on our taxes) because we'll have to count his income in our household income.

Our daughter just finished culinary school; still lives at home. She hasn't found a job yet but is actively looking. Once she begins working, her income would count towards our household income and would mess up our numbers.

My husband has been trying to find work but now it seems he's better off not looking. We wouldn't qualify to file if he began working again.

I feel like we're in a catch 22...not enough money to file Ch 13 and too much for Ch 7. I am so irritated! I'd hate to pay all that money to file and be told that they won't discharge us.

I just felt like venting but also look forward to any comments/suggestions anyone has.

I quiet my job and kept a car that i didn't want to pay for and almost had to buy another to for chapter 7

[PoorGrammyinBK7]

I think #1 and #2 might well be something to consider (as long as you doon't go overboard on the expense of the car trade-up).

The rest are absolutely ridiculous, in my opinion, since you are already $45 under on the means test.

Also, make sure you are counting ALL your expenses. Sometimes people leave off things like dry cleaning, haircuts and other "little things" that add up.

I think its also a good idea to get another attorney's opinion, if you can.

[WC Nurse]

Maybe the Aflac policy is the best idea. Although I'm worried that they might question why we need another disability policy since my husband is laid off and sitting at home, and I work from home. Not too much danger here.

While I would love a new car (mine is a 2002 Toyota Camry), I hate to think about having a payment for the next 5 years. I hate even more to think about creating more debt when I'm trying to get out of debt. It'll be a couple of months before we can save up the money to file so I guess I have time to think about it.

Oh, I forgot to mention...I asked the attorney if my husband could just file on his own since the debt we're behind in is in his name only (I've been paying the bills in my name to keep my credit intact). I was told only if he began using another address and even changed his driver's license to the other address. Otherwise, he'd have to count my income as part of the household income. Being here in So. Calif., I never thought of my $70k a year as high income, but apparently it is when trying to file bankruptcy.

[willsurvive]

I'd get another opinion definitely. We got 5-6 opinions and went with the lawyer that we liked the best. Our first guy made us scared of bankruptcy. The one we are with now we really feel like he is on our side and looking out for us.

[lrprn]

$45 over is nothing. You can adjust your living expenses to get under the median. Definitely go see other experienced Ch 13 lawyers in your area. If you can file Ch 7 and still protect your assets that you want to keep, that's almost always the way to go.

[catleg]

The danger with lawyers is that a lot of them are lazy and do not truly advocate for you...they want to do the least work, for the same money, which means they won't press for anything in the "gray area" because it would mean more work....more than likely, that is a reason to question their competence as well.