How much does Chapter 7 Cost

[calgirl67]

We have an appointment to see a BK attorney in Sacramento next week - looking to file Chapter 7.

How much is this going to cost us? What's the going rate for attorney's fees for Ch. 7?

We own (aka have a mortgage) on our home, 2 leased cars, 1 school loan and $100k in CC debt we need to wipe out. House is totally underwater since Sacramento real estate market took a dive. No other assets except retirement accounts and general househole stuff.

No asset Chapter 7, as far as I can see.

Need to know how much $$ we need to come up with and do we have to pay it all upfront?

Many thanks!!

[JoePlumber]

retaining fee's

Yes you have to pay your bill in full if you want them to do anything on your behalf,,, just had a buddy file with an Attorney In Sac no too long ago. I think he paid $1700 and he got rid of Everything he owned and started over...

I have a meeting with an Attorney Wed and may talk to another before I decide anything at least... I am going to call his next, from Sac.

[mikemike]

Yes you do need to pay all up front before it could be sent. I paid $1500 and i live in ny. He was orignally charging me $2000 but me and a friend of mine filed together so he gave us a suppose discount lol.

[ortegah]

I'm in maryland and for us its $1500 plus its $300 to file, $50 for credit reports and $75 for a certificate from CCCS for pre-bankruptcy counseling. Oh yeah and then it's $70 for the bankruptcy/money management course we have to take. So what's that altogether...$1995 total.

[lookingforward]

I'm in Louisiana, and it was 1400.00 all together with filing fees.

[ForumReader]

Mine was $1435 for the attorney, $299 for filing court fees and $80 dollars for the courses.

[crescentmoon]

Mine was total of $1299, that includes the filing fees, but I pay for my own courses, and I pulled my free credit reports (per my attorney's suggestion).

Also, my attorney accepted a $500 retainer, and once I paid that, I was able to send all the collections phone calls to him. The remainder of $799 was due at the time of turning in the paperwork, which we just did on Monday!

KBB

[LimpDisc]

In Colorado mine will cost $1400 for chapter 7. That includes the filing fees, but I still need to pay for my own courses. Will be paying my $400 retainer today and the remaining balance the day I file.

[ohio]

I am in Ohio and my attorney's fees were $1100, court fees $299, debtor education courses $80, credit report $30. My attorney wouldn't accept my free Transunion report. (Maybe because I pulled it a month early.)
He asked for the $1100, $30, $299 in full before he would file. It took me a bit to pay him. I paid him $500 up front and he immediately took on my collections calls.

[liz417]

I'm in California and the "going rate" (I consulted with 6 attorneys) is between $2k-2,300 plus filing fees.
You can retain your attorney for as little as $100 down (at least in my case) and once you stop paying your creditors, you should have enough $$ to pay the fees.

[backtoschool]

The fee depends on the complexity of the case (are there reaffirmations, assets, etc.). I paid 2,100 including the 300 bankruptcy court costs.

[lovebirds]

Louisiana is $1400 including lawyer and court fees.

[debtBgone]

For a Ch7 no-asset here in MN I paid my lawyer $1000 to retain him and to take my collection calls. And then a week before I filed I paid him the rest of his fee ($700) plus the $299 filing fee. I did my 2 certificate courses online and paid $40 for each of those. So the grand total was $2079. Money well spent!

[RGMLM]

I live in the San Fran. bay area. I am paying $3,000 (another lawyer wanted $3,500). I have a house, boat and stock so I don't know if that palyed into the price or not.

[BkinTX]

Oh man. We paid $2700 in TX for a no asset, straight-forward, easy peasy Ch 7.

D'oh!