Seeing our lawyer again on Tuesday and we are so mad opinions please

[aces67]

We are below the median for our state and we are converting to a Ch7. We discussed with the lawyer that we can no longer afford dh's truck note and asked him what the best thing was to do with it. We owe $8K on it and it's worth $9K. Anyway the lawyer decided it was best to just surrender it. Well they sent all the papers in the mail for dh and I to sign. I immediatly sat down and ran the numbers and without the truck note we have $500 a month in disposable income. I immediatly freaked out and called the lawyer. I couldn't get past the paralegal who told me it was too late the papers had already been filed without our signature and that it would all be fine they handled it. She said there was no need to do a means test b/c we were below median.

Fast forward to May 31st. The UST is involved and says our case is an abuse. Our lawyer won't tell us anything until Tuesday but I can only assume it's over that truck note. If we had kept it and tried to sale it later then we could have used the truck note and our means test would only show $50 a month leftover.

We may be wrong and this may not be what the UST is objecting to but I really feel like it is. If the lawyer can't fix this now than we really feel like firing him on the spot and asking for a dismissal. Dh's income keeps going down so I feel certain that a good BK lawyer can get this to go through.

So my question is this are we overreacting or would you fire him also? We've only paid him $200 of his $750 fee. Do we still owe him the rest if we fire him?

[StartingOver08]

Can you change your Statement of Intentions to reflect that you are keeping the truck?
Then when you are discharged you can sell it if you want. Seems like the attorney may not have thought though the entire process.

[aces67]

We're not sure. I guess we'll discuss that on Tuesday. The thing Is I checked the means test b/c of everything I've read on this forum. If I knew from this forum to check it then why didn't he?

I think that's what frustrates us the most you know?

The only option he gave us was surrender but from reading the forums It seems like we could keep it and sale it later or keep it and not reaffirm and just keep trying to make the payments.

He didn't educate us very well on our options.

[StartingOver08]

I know I was able to change my Statement of Intentions right up until day 59 of the 60 days! So it can be done.

That will probably solve your disposable income issue.

As to why the attorney's don't go explain the schdules or go the various options, who knows?? Some attorney's seem to just 'go thru the motions' and not really help with the issues.

[aces67]

I know I was able to change my Statement of Intentions right up until day 59 of the 60 days! So it can be done.

That will probably solve your disposable income issue.

As to why the attorney's don't go explain the schdules or go the various options, who knows?? Some attorney's seem to just 'go thru the motions' and not really help with the issues.

Now that makes me feel a LOT better. But if we change our statement of intentions now so that a 7 would go through won't the UST question that also or no?

[spidge]

I wouldn't get to excited as I have seen here that any changes while in the BK where the trustee files abuse until he/she can review it thoroughly. This is based on observations here and is not from personal experience. Hopefully the attorney will have some good news.

[Flamingo]

Is this the same lawyer that handled your Chapter 13 and now your conversion? If so, and all was well, why are you doubting him now? He knows your situation better than anyone. You don't know for certain if the abuse thing is over the truck. Something raised a red flag and the trustee wants to review it which your attorney will handle. You stated you could not afford to keep the truck so either your expenses increased or your income decreased. What concerns me is your statement that they filed the papers without your signature after sending you the papers in the mail to sign. Something is not either stated right there or something is misunderstood. Can you clarify?

[Frshstart09]

On my statement of intentions I stated I wanted to keep both my vehicles because I was afraid of the same issues (conversion and more Disposable income). However, both reaffirmation agreements are ridiculous and I've decided not to go forward. My lawyer assured me this won't affect my discharge because they can't force you to reaffirm a debt. In the interim i've received financing on a new Used vehicle because I know the others are going back. Good luck

[aces67]

Is this the same lawyer that handled your Chapter 13 and now your conversion? If so, and all was well, why are you doubting him now? He knows your situation better than anyone. You don't know for certain if the abuse thing is over the truck. Something raised a red flag and the trustee wants to review it which your attorney will handle. You stated you could not afford to keep the truck so either your expenses increased or your income decreased. What concerns me is your statement that they filed the papers without your signature after sending you the papers in the mail to sign. Something is not either stated right there or something is misunderstood. Can you clarify?

They sent us the papers in the mail to look over and sign. I called them the same day and asked them not to file yet b/c things didn't add up and the paralegal said it was too late it was already filed and there was no going back. This is the same lawyer that handled our 13 but he often gives me answers that makes me think he's not sure what's going on and then the fact that the papers got filed before we signed and sent them back just makes me doubt him. I suppose I'm just scared and frustrated. I don't think he looked over anything, at least not carefully.