Had my first meeting with lawyer

[kingred]

Well the first lawyers meeting went pretty well and this lady looks to really have her stuff together, I was impressed for sure. Her fee seems a bit steep for ch 7 at 1700, filing fee included so does anyone know if that would be high for South Dakota? In just lightly going over the income she said it would be a borderline ch 7 case because I'm 5k over median if I file in April and that it would really depend on the money left at the end of the month as well as the schedule I & J. I also learned that the judge is a hard ass and the trustee isn't too far behind. From what she said the judge will look forward as to income I could make since I'm on seasonal layoff, but doesn't care about the expenses that would come up as far as starting college and having a baby on the way! I'm going to re-crunch the numbers since she said I can't use the ownership expenses on a vehicle I'm NOT making payments on, seems weird but at least I still get operating costs. The bit about not having CC statements was enlightening as they are helpful but she said most CC companies don't sell the debt, but farm out the collections while retaining the original debt, good or bad I don't know but if sold it will prove tough to get real addresses!
Is it normal that you must have the total amount due ready before filing? She said it's that way otherwise I would by default file on what I owe her, so we can get all the numbers ready and have all the ducks in a row and once she gets the full amount she'd file electronically.

Oh yeah, she also said things like non insurance covered medical expense are avg'd out over 12 months as well as the amount is looked at over the year, rather than looking at say a one time big bill. Sound right to y'all?

One bright spot was that I may be able to keep the bike as it is not just a sunny weather toy and I use it to get out and see my daughter in another state, 2006 with almost 50k miles and she said a picture of the odo may be enough to prove it's a proper vehicle so that would be nice, but with a negative number on the 22A who knows....

[StartingOver08]

She is right about the entire attorney's fee and filing fee needing to be paid before you file BK in a Ch 7. We all had to do that...some made payments over months to get the attorney fees paid. I don't know the fees in your area, in our area my Ch 7 filing and attorney fees were $2674. So your's sound good to me!

Is this the first attorney you have interviewed? Several attorney interviews will give you great perspective on how the process is handled in your district.

[DebtEnder]

Regarding the fee a lot of lawyers don't like to work with chapter 7 over the median.

As far as other states go it only seem to be a 3-400 more then here in Georgia, and thats the wham-bam thank you mam chapter 7 lawyers. Since she seems to be willing to do the long means test forms to prove chapter 7 then that seems worth charging a few extra hours for the added level of work involved.

[StartingOver08]

I did not experience a problem filing Ch 7 being over median and the attorney did not have a problem with it either. ($70k over median)

Could be due to variances in different districts - it seems that there are local customs that affect your filing even though BK is a federal event. Who knows why or how the local customs came about, that is why it is good to interview several attorney's. You can then get a more comprehensive idea of what is 'standard' in your district. JMO.

[UpsideDownMI]

I have spoken with 2 attorney's about chapter 7 in the past week and they were both $1400 plus filing fee and counseling costs, which comes to $1800 total. Both of them required payment in full prior to filing, but said they will begin getting the papers in order as soon as the $1400 is paid. I am in Michigan (Eastern District).

[cursedbycc]

My attorney is $2000, plus $299 filing fee, $69 for both cc course and debt management course = $2,368 and all he wants is $100 to start representing me, but the total needs to be paid before we can file my papers with the bk court. We are looking at a BK7. HTH and good luck!

[kingred]

This is the first attorney, I'm meeting with another Monday and the other 6 bastards couldn't be bothered to return a phone call! She did say that I am a borderline easy case being over the median but as I pay a kings ransom in child support each month that really helps bring the total income down. It does surprise me that with a federal law it is interpreted differently, but she said the judge here is hard nosed so if the trustee doesn't like it we go in front of him to prove the assumption does not arise, and she said that is a bit extra simply because it's more time, and at 150 an hour.....well let's just say we need to get a concrete case!

I re did some numbers such as presuming they take some upcoming income into account and it varies some but on the I & J it comes out positive 200, but that's without a lawyers crafty accounting and knowing what expenses can be played with and which one's to leave alone. My major concern is that the trustee will think I'm abusing the system and then predict my income since it varies with construction and right now the season may start mid April so that potentially screws me at the 341 meeting if the trustee asks what my current work situation is and decides I'm abusing the system(it jumps pretty good during summer as I work 60 hours a week, then come thanksgiving it's back on unemployment), and it doesn't help either that since I can't claim my daughter on taxes I can't add her to the number of household members and a fetus, despite having to pay for care and such doesn't count until it's born.(it jumps pretty good during summer as I work 60 hours a week, then come thanksgiving it's back on unemployment).

If I do find work before the 341, which is pretty likely, will the trustee ask what you make and extrapolate that into a 6 month avg and put a bullet in your head?

Something I forgot to get clarified, as I have not been a resident in SD for long enough I can't use the states exemptions but have to use federal. Does this include median income as well?