How is someone supposed to pay for a lawyer if he is broke?

[swampwiz]

I was wondering how this works out. Obviously, folks in bankruptcy are out of cash. But lawyers don't work for free.

[liz417]

Our attorney told us to stop paying the credit cards, we put a retainer down and was able to forward all calls to his office. It took me a year to save up to pay my 1st attorney in full ($4k).

[ForumReader]

I was wondering how this works out. Obviously, folks in bankruptcy are out of cash. But lawyers don't work for free.

How this works, well one thing comes into play, when a person decides to file for BK and does not have the cash to pay the lawyer, he or she would have to stop paying his/her credit cards and use the money to save towards attorney fees. Once a retainer is made, the attorney can take calls from the petitioner's creditors until the fee is paid in full and then when the petitioner is ready, to have his/her BK paperwork filed. It is always a good idea to interview several attorneys before deciding which ones to hire. Or another way is have someone else pay the attorney fees directly (not the person filing for BK if he or she does not have the cash).

[pookieny]

My lawyer said I could put $100 down to retain him and deferring creditor calls to him and the rest I made payments and the day I paid in full they went forward with my BK. It was $1100 for everything.

[lrprn]

I was wondering how this works out. Obviously, folks in bankruptcy are out of cash. But lawyers don't work for free.

There are some good ideas here that clearly outline possible options for what to do when you don't have cash to pay for a good bk attorney -

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/debt/20070615_bankruptcy_cost_lawyer_a1.asp

http://www.************************/...rney/#more-717
http://www.************************/...ptcy-attorney/

If your income is low enough, you can also talk to lawyer organizations by state who take pro bono (no fee) cases for deserving folks who need to file for reasons beyond their control and can't pay even if they stop paying their unsecured debts - http://www.abanet.org/legalservices/...gramlinks.html

[BBW]

Our attorney told us to stop paying the credit cards, we put a retainer down and was able to forward all calls to his office. It took me a year to save up to pay my 1st attorney in full ($4k).

You paid $4k for a chapter 7 attorney????

[BBW]

My attorney took 1/3 as a retainer, 1/3 at time of filing, and will get his remaining 1/3 the morning of the 341.

[liz417]

You paid $4k for a chapter 7 attorney????

That was to my 1st attorney who told me I only qualified for a ch 13 w/ $400-$500/month 60 month payback
So after I paid the retainer, I found this site and spent hours and hours here, learned everything I could about BK and found out that I could *possibily* qualify for a ch 7...I consulted 6 more attorneys, hired the best and was recently discharged!