Is it normal to hire an attorney and not have contact for 6 months?

[tinfoilhat]

I had a free consultation and decided to hire this attorney as a retainer.
He told me what to do, gave me the paperwork, I paid him a small fee.

I guess he basically told me what I need to do to prepare and there is a wait period maybe because I sold a vehicle.

I guess I wait for time to tick down until the six months is up then schedule an appointment to start?
PS I'm only a week into the 6 month wait

[CH33 Paralegal]

I'm not sure why he needed a retainer to sit on your case, but there isn't really anything for him to proactively discuss with you until your case is actually filed.

I'm sure he won't mind if you contact him though.

Not sure about the sale details, but if he told you its better to wait, there must be a reason. He isn't out to do a quick filing for you if it can potentially be to your detriment.

[willbfree]

That's pretty normal and what happened to us. We were given a timeline the atty made for us. It provided what we needed to do when, what records to keep. From our first meeting when we paid a small retainer to our next meeting was like five months. We needed to complete tasks before we could file and we had a job to do. Also was given the same bk paperwork to fill out at the proper time. That also gives you plenty of time to start collecting the receipts and bank/loan/credit card statements which are crucial. Make sure you use the time wisely to get everything completed. It makes the actual bk process go smoothly. Good luck.

[tinfoilhat]

I'm not sure why he needed a retainer to sit on your case, but there isn't really anything for him to proactively discuss with you until your case is actually filed.

I'm sure he won't mind if you contact him though.

Not sure about the sale details, but if he told you its better to wait, there must be a reason. He isn't out to do a quick filing for you if it can potentially be to your detriment.

Well I was issued a summons, had an attorney working on that.
Then I went to this consultation, he told me to recend the settlement offer that the first attorney had offered and he will take care of it.
After the consultation I hired him as a retainer in case any other summons are issued he'll send out a C&D or whatever and that'll be the end of that until I file.

Now I'd like to know whats going on, I emailed him last week- no reply.
I called today- no call back.

About waiting on the vehicle sale, he said I have to spend the money in a reasonable amount of time and on necessities.

And among the other things on the list, I have to get my car appraised. I don't know when to do this. I guess wait til 6 months has gone by and walk into the office like I never been there. The only difference will be that I have paperwork, and no recent asset transfers. I have no idea.

[CH33 Paralegal]

you can use the NADA to appraise the car. If it's a 13, go with retail. If it's a 7, use the wholesale value. At least in the district I work in, this is accepted by the court as valid. You could possibly get away with edmunds as well if you had a specific situation.

Another way to appraise the car is just to look on autotrader at all types of your car for your model year and see what the market is bearing for something similar to yours.

About him not calling back, I guess that's just what it is, but he very well may be doing stuff for existing clients that requires a lot of his attention.

In terms of wanting to know what's going on currently, there may not be any answer that he has for you. If you haven't filed, then he hasn't actually been listed as your representation for you and your BK. Any debt related activity going on would have you directly involved.

I can understand his stance on the sale of the car being spent on necessities over time. What can happen to that money if you DON'T do that, is that it could result in you either having to surrender the money or potentially have to pay something back if you get rid of the money in a way that doesn't show that you were making a good faith effort to get by as long as you could before coming to the conclusion that you had to file bankruptcy.

[tinfoilhat]

you can use the NADA to appraise the car. If it's a 13, go with retail. If it's a 7, use the wholesale value. At least in the district I work in, this is accepted by the court as valid. You could possibly get away with edmunds as well if you had a specific situation.

Another way to appraise the car is just to look on autotrader at all types of your car for your model year and see what the market is bearing for something similar to yours.

About him not calling back, I guess that's just what it is, but he very well may be doing stuff for existing clients that requires a lot of his attention.

In terms of wanting to know what's going on currently, there may not be any answer that he has for you. If you haven't filed, then he hasn't actually been listed as your representation for you and your BK. Any debt related activity going on would have you directly involved.

I can understand his stance on the sale of the car being spent on necessities over time. What can happen to that money if you DON'T do that, is that it could result in you either having to surrender the money or potentially have to pay something back if you get rid of the money in a way that doesn't show that you were making a good faith effort to get by as long as you could before coming to the conclusion that you had to file bankruptcy.

To avoid confusion:
Attorney #1 handling my summons.
Attorney #2 Retained, and gave advice above.
Attorney #3 Spoke with several times.

Attorney #2 told me to have a place like Carmax appraise it, or a private car appraiser. If I have to go NADA I'm not sure. I know the NADA black book trade in is $5400 and that was the book out of a car dealers desk. I forgot, is wholesale more or less?
I have $5000 in vehicle exemtpions available, and I also own a truck worth $1200 KBB.

Attorney #3 I talked to today, he said I can use the money from the vehicle I sold in 2 months and file. (for example I said I'm going to have some dental work done)
I'm not sure why I have to wait 6 months to file as attorney #2 suggested.

I cannot wait that long. I KNOW I can move to a certain state and go back to work, but if I do that I can't file BK for a while, I can't even pay my debts because they are charged off and tripled with charges. I want this debt off my back without losing anything else period. People have expressed their opinions about just giving up my assets, filing and calling it done. I am not giving everything up.

They all said I pretty much have to use the money up, #3 said when I file I need to have a couple hundred in the bank at most.

I just want to start NOW. And I don't want to lose my car.

Right now I feel like #2 robbed me.
#3 has given me advice three times now for free, but I'm not so sure how he is with asset protection.

I'm mad as hell, this post probably doesn't even make sense.