Help!!!!!

[My4mgirls]

I apologize in advance for the length....I'm new to this whole process and have soooo many questions...(and have had so many answered via this forum already) Thank you!!!

So...here is the beginning of my journey...my husband and I met with a lawyer a few months ago....we discussed a Chapter 7 with him....then took a month or so to mull it over...needless to say we decided to go with it....SOOO we made a second appointment to pay our fees and finish filling out paperwork....SO...we paid the rest of the $$ and it will be 3 weeks this coming Friday and we have not received our papers to sign..and they will not file until AFTER we sign the papers....then our 341 will be a month following that.. Supposedly it is at the "typist." Is this normal?? He did outline the timeline for us in the beginning...but I guess I am just itching to get things rolling....

The second problem is....my husband has been laid off since February and has been applying to TONS of jobs.....he is a veteran and stands a very very good chance of getting a new job in a new state that is paying quite well...after long hours of reading (on this forum...thanks again guys & gals) I learned that he would be ok to start AFTER our 341...so I guess my problem is ...HOW in the heck do I hurry this attorney up???

Another interesting fact is the attorney kept saying that we were fine with a 7 due to the "bigger picture" and was saying we just needed to show more going out a month than we had coming in....which he then stated he would not let us claim more than $600 a month for food for a family of 6!! I wonder if this guy has ever tried feeding teenagers???? He also neglected to mention (which I learned on here..u guys rock!!) that we were exempt from the means test becuz the majority of our debt was incurred while my husband was active duty military! Also---someone tell me if I read this correctly...I live in WI...and here is my sources of income...I work 32 hours a week...I receive DIC (death in compensation) benefits from the VA for my oldest two children from their father (my first husband) passing away...also Social Security for the same reason....my husband is on unemployment and receives his GI bill and disabilty from the VA due to an injury incurred while being deployed....SOOOO...the only REAL income that is not exempt is my job and his GI bill..??? RIGHT??? OR NO??? I think I'm going crazy??!!??

THANK YOU SOOO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP!!!!

[AngelinaCat]

Hi My4mgirls: welcome to the forum--I think. You may not like me after I say a couple of things--or ask a couple of questions.

1. Please say you did NOT pay this lawyer in full--I think you did, I just don't want to believe my eyeballs. NO ONE sends paperwork to the typist anymore--a competent attorney and staff has the latest editable software in their office and fill out your paperwork while you are in the office.

Our's--my 'Hub and I--attorney, as incompetent as she turned out to be, had all this stuff in her office. It was just getting her to DO it.

2. What is this 'bigger picture' stuff? We had to provide print-outs of all of our sources of income for the full six months prior to our filing date. This means bank statements, check stubs, pay advices--a fancy term for the notice you get when something has been put into your account electronically.

If you get any kind of retirement, disability, survivor-ship, Social Security, insurance dividend, stipend from Trusts, Unemployment compensation, or any other types of income, these have to be accounted for. Retirement, disability, SS, and some of these others are exempt, but you have to list them all.

Our attorney was not happy that I could not provide her with an itemized printout from Florida WorkSource detailing my Unemployment. I had to print out a copy of the bank statements for six months and highlight with a yellow marker my payments.

There is more that I can probably say, but I think I will drop it at this right now so you can read and digest this.

Good luck to you, and thank your husband for his service to our Country! Also keep some of the for yourself and your deceased family members and your family serving our Country. Thank YOU!

[MiSSMaGoo]

Well about the cost of food, that is crazy. I have a family of 5 and we claimed 900-1000 which is very much realistic...

[My4mgirls]

SO.....I called the attorney...they are saying that we have to pay them an extra $200 to pay for an emergency filing to get our stuff filed within 48 hours...AND then we would know when our 341 is. we have paid them $1400 to date...and now with an extra $200 we will be at a total $1600....plus we paid for the credit counseling with an outside agency which was an additional $100. I'm in NE Wisconsin....is this about the going rate??

[tkharvey]

I'm in Florida and the cost we just incurred for filing a 7 jointing is $1,750.00

[OverItinVA]

Don't Want to Scare You...But...

We had a TERRIBLE experience with our original attorney. We retained them in October 2008 and after 9 months of delays and us threatening to report them to the Bar for numerous violations of the professional rules of conduct they finally sent our "file" to our filing attorney. (We were referred to our original attorney by a CareOne Credit Counseling who was supposed to prepare our documents and forward them to our local filing attorney.)

When our filing attorney received the file it was in such disarray that he felt that he had to start the entire process from scratch because he couldn't trust that it was done correctly! Yep, everything....6 months of paperwork bank statements, pay stubs, and going back to the creditors (who were NOT friendly) to get new statements! It was so bad that our filing attorney felt like we were taken advantage of and offered not only to prepare the paperwork for free (because we paid the original attorney $2000) but also to pursue legal action against them! He even told the trustee in our 341 hearing that he is planning to go after them!

Anyway, it took us a year but we finally have gotten to the "60 day club". My suggestion to you is to find someone who is going to work with you, if you have problems getting them to move now it will only get worse!!!

Hired Attorney - Oct. 10, 2008
Got Filing Attorney - June 6, 2009
Filed - August 21, 2009
341 Hearing - September 18, 2009
60 Day Club -
Last Day for Appeals - November 17, 2009

[MSbklawyer]

Doesn't sound like he's up to date. The UST's tables for food for a family of 4 would be $752.

http://www.usdoj.gov/ust/eo/bapcpa/20090315/bci_data/national_expense_standards.htm

[limage]

I would see if you can get your money back and go to another attorney. I dropped my paperwork off on Monday afternoon, on Tuesday morning I had an email telling me the forms were ready to sign. I went down at lunch time and signed them. They were filed by 3pm.

[My4mgirls]

Well....I called the paralegal....and was very stern with her on the phone saying that I demanded to know what was going on...blah blah blah....long story short....

WE FILED on 10/8/09 and our 341 hearing is scheduled for 11/06/09...

She called to ask us for a couple of things they were missing...fine...no problem...faxed them to them immediately...

Keeping our fingers crossed everything goes smoothly!!!