341 riverside,ca end of month help!

[bkinrivco]

To make a long story short, dw and I panicked and picked the wrong lawyer. He has given us no guidance, nothing. Were given packet to complete. Just answer questions. Were asked to provide "garage sale value" for personal property" household goods" and as is value for jewelry. Never told how to determine that. That's it. We noticed after reading the petition that the bk form instructs you to list your personal property " household goods". In our case the paralegal put down the value we provided. Are we going to be in trouble with the trustee. Our lawyer seems annoyed with any question we email to him. We were also told our lawyer wouldn't be at the hearing. A special appearance lawyer with another firm will be there. We only met our lawyer once at the consultation we had. Is that standard. We have learned the most from this forum. We were informed that if the petition was missing anything that the trustee would want another 341. Makes me wonder what missing means. Since we are not bk lawyers, know nothing about bk laws and specifically provided information based on what our lawyer asked for. Just wanted to know if we are right to be very worried. Also, are we financially responsible for another meeting if the lawyer or paralegal did not properly fill out the petition or the lawyer did not supply the trustee with information needed.

[TeacherMomma]

This sounds like every single attorney represented case I watched at my 341. A debtor sitting there - an atty they had never met or one who didn't show or didn't know anything about the case- with messed up forms. Thanksfully the trustee was hard on the ATTY not the debtor.....and continued all those cases for another month. So yes, you would get another 341 if they mess u0 your forms. Your other questions I am not sure about.....

[lrprn]

To make a long story short, dw and I panicked and picked the wrong lawyer. He has given us no guidance, nothing. Were given packet to complete. Just answer questions.

Sounds like you got tied up with a bankruptcy mill law firm. Unfortunately what happened to you happens to far too many people who file bankruptcy. There's a lot of "I wish I knew that before I filed" here on the boards

We only met our lawyer once at the consultation we had. Is that standard?

Regretfully when using a bankruptcy mill firm, yes.

Just wanted to know if we are right to be very worried.

As long as your case is a relatively straightforward one with no complicating features like a personally-guaranteed business, no extensive property holdings beyond the normal one house and two cars, no insider transfers, no questionable last-minute charges made before filing, etc. then chances are you'll be ok. Keep in mind that if something turns up missing, the trustee will continue the 341 to a later date to allow your lawyer fix it.

Also, are we financially responsible for another meeting if the lawyer or paralegal did not properly fill out the petition or the lawyer did not supply the trustee with information needed.

Whether your lawyer will charge you more for another meeting depends on the agreement you made when you agreed they would represent you. Did you sign something that laid out what the lawyer would do for you before and after you filed?

[albacore44]

it's too bad you already hired an attourney, you are in our area, and we could have directed you to the one that I and Lizz417 are using who is BK only and 30 years in that court

[2manybills]

Sadly mill firms handle cases that way. I am lucky I have a great attorney. I saw so many people in court and their attorney was just meeting them for the first time or the attorney was reading their file while talking to them.

[foolishpast]

I just had my 341 in Riverside and there were 3 attorneys who filled in as attorney for everyone that was there. I got there early and sat and watched for a couple of hours. I heard them going up to people and introducing themselves as the stand in for so and so. I must have heard 15 different attorney names so this is apparently a very standard practice.

Out of the probably 70 cases I witnessed I would say about 20 of them had to be rescheduled. Some didn't bring a social security card. The others the trustee had a question about a certain loan or about their property. There were a couple she said the person could just mail the information to her office and as long as it checked out they wouldn't have to return for another 341.

I agree that as long as yours is pretty straightforward there shouldn't be a problem.

[liboton21]

it's too bad you already hired an attourney, you are in our area, and we could have directed you to the one that I and Lizz417 are using who is BK only and 30 years in that court

Can you please PM the attorney? I'm going to file next month and almost have everything squared away. Thanks.

[Mi Bankruptcy]

You should have a copy of all the paperwork filed. I would go through it with fine tooth comb. My Bk attorney was somewhat like yours although not a bk mill. They were just busy.

We got them cheap. However, I was on them and nit picking my paperwork. My attorney didn't show up for the case. However, I didn't really care because I knew my paperwork back and forth. I owe almost all of my knowledge to this forum. Knowing where you stand is the best thing.. I.E, are you above or below the median income, are you reaffirming your home, are you negative on your schedules. If so, how do you propose to make payments on the property you want to reaffirm. As example my attorney did not want to exempt my tax return and I had enough money to exempt it. The attorney said they never take the tax return here.. I said I don't care, I want it exempted anyway.. They exempted it (I found a case where the court ruled against someone for not exempting and they had to pay it back) .

[mom2three09]

We're in Indiana, but the attorney we hired only does BK cases & has been practicing for 25 yrs. We met with him for nearly 2 hours the first meeting and he even came in to answer questions the other two times we were in his office. He was also there for our 341 and helped us beforehand as to how to answer the trustees questions. We paid him $900 + filing fees, so not a lot compared to what some attorneys charge. The only thing that has upset us is the fact that he had to amend our schedules to show that we have equity in our home so that the judgment liens dh has won't stick after BK...and he actually dragged his feet about doing it so we have to wait another 30 days to get our discharge (we should have been discharged today ). Other then that he's been great.

[liz417]

Hi bkinrivco, welcome to this forum

I understand how you feel, when I 1st started this bk 'journey', I hired the 1st attorney I consulted with...big mistake....anyway, a year later and still not filed, I had to find another attorney but I had also found this site and read everything I could about BK. I ended up with a great attorney and was discharged last month. Sounds like you are stuck in a BK Mill-type place (trust me, I KNOW, after the 1st attorney, I learned my lesson and interviewed 6 more attorneys!), if you case is pretty straight forward and a no asset case, you should be fine. It is normal for attorneys/law firms to send "stand ins" for your 341, only one attorney out of the 6 would be there with me at the 341. Do you have a date and time for your 341?

[ForTheBest]

We were informed that if the petition was missing anything that the trustee would want another 341. Makes me wonder what missing means. Since we are not bk lawyers, know nothing about bk laws and specifically provided information based on what our lawyer asked for. Just wanted to know if we are right to be very worried.

Hi bkinrivco,

At my 341 last week, "missing" meant that my upside down car wasn't listed on Schedule B, my Statement of Financial Affairs wasn't filed and my tax returns weren't sent to the TT a week prior to the 341 as required. Needless to say, the TT grew quite impatient with my attorney - but gave him a week to correct things and continued the 341 until next month.

While that was very upsetting to me, it's evidently fairly common for stupid mistakes like that to be made. Thankfully, they can be corrected fairly easily. And as long as you're honest at the 341, the TT will regard those kinds of things as a black mark against your attorney, not against you.

In my case, unfortunately, the errors didn't stop there. I've since learned that a pending personal injury settlement from a car accident a year ago should have been listed and exempted but wasn't - despite my lawyer's repeated assurances that it didn't need to be. And today I learned, among other things, that my creditor matrix was filed with only one-fifth of the creditors listed.

I've had to retain a new attorney, but she can't do anything until the first one officially withdraws through the court (which he has to find out how to do. oof.) I've had to talk with the bk court clerk and am waiting for a call back from the TT, whom I was advised to call (to ask for more time to file the amended schedules, etc.) It all feels like quite the nightmare to me. It's going to drag my case out for quite a while AND, of course, it's going to cost a lot more than I ever expected to have to come up with in the beginning.

In hindsight, there were several red flags early on, after paying, that I should have heeded but ignored. For example, I requested copies of my filed paperwork several times, but the lawyer (who's not a mill attorney by the way) never provided them. Instead of marching myself over there and refusing to leave till I got them, though, I let it go. So I guess that makes me as much of a jerk as the lawyer was. (For those reading this, no need to remind me; I already know!)

Anyway... I'm in no way suggesting that you're in a mess like I am, and it doesn't sound to me like you need to be "very worried" at all. But if your gut feeling is that things just aren't right, be much more proactive than I was.

As Mi Bankruptcy suggested, go over your paperwork with a fine tooth comb - then make a list of anything you're not sure about or that doesn't feel right - and don't stop hounding them till they agree to meet with you to address your concerns. And, as I know you will, keep reading past posts on this forum. I discovered it kind of late, but without it I'd still be in the dark.