Lawyer Meeting at Noon; Any last Tips?

[andysmom]

Hi,
Our 1st lawyer appt was scheduled last Saturday- after waiting for a long time in front of his office for what seemed like an eterntity; we realized he wasn't coming.
I have an appointment at noon for a consulation with a 2nd lawyer- unfortunately my husband can't get out of work for this one so I'm even more afraid since I'll be alone (well, w/my toddler...)
Any last words or advice or what to look for?
My main concerns / questions that I'm hoping he answer are:
will this likely be a 7 or 13?
what to do about tax refund due back in about a month or 6 weeks?
how long should we wait to file- due to income & last time cards were used?
My son's preschool 1st payment is due in May- he has a small account in his name w/me as guardian that we want to use to pay for his school(it was all money give to him from us & realtives for baptism,holidys,etc) there's about $2500 in it and we want to know if it's okay to use it for his school, which it was intended for?
What to tall the credit card companies when they start calling (some have a few days ago) if we have to wait a few months to file- what do we tell the credit cards?
Thanks so much for your time & helpful advice!

[sgirl]

See if you can get someone to watch your toddler. A 2 hour meeting with an attorney is not the place for a little one. If you can't, be sure to bring lots of quite things to keep them occupied.

[andysmom]

Hi,
I have no one to watch him; unfortunately everyone's at work. But I don't think it's a 2hr meeting; it's just the first consultation. We haven't met/hired/retained him yet. We just spoke on the phone for about 5 minutes and he made this meeting to discuss our situation & said if we decide that's what we need to do, we'll make an appointment for my husband to come to, too.
I'm hoping my little boy falls asleep for his nap when we get there- he was up really really so, fingers crossed that he'll be napping.

[albacore44]

ask him how many years he has been practicing BK in that district. if you believe your #'s justify a Ch-7 filing, try to get a feeling if he is a fighter. if you get the feeling he wants to push you into a Ch-13 and your qualified for a 7, tou dont want him.

[andysmom]

thank you so much!
My husband's income is right over median due to overtime & a gainshare check. I'm hoping if we wait a little, MAYBE we can file a chapter 7 but I'm not very hopeful in that area....

[albacore44]

thank you so much!
My husband's income is right over median due to overtime & a gainshare check. I'm hoping if we wait a little, MAYBE we can file a chapter 7 but I'm not very hopeful in that area....

then wait and plan. are you in a rush ?? how long ago did you stop paying creditors ??

[andysmom]

This will be the 1st month that we won't be able to pay all the credit cards; we could pay some... but there's no way we can pay all. Our cards jacked our interest to nearly 30% over a year ago and raised the minimums to unbelievable amounts that even in a few of their hardship plans, we're still at around $2600 /mo minimums which is definately not doable.
Our mortgage is fine- never been late, never missed a payment. Only about $36,000 (high estimate) equity in our house which is exempt.
I just don't want to do anything wrong.
Our income from 2009 w2 was over by a few hundred dollars; last 6 months pay stubs- if we filed today (which I am NOT ready to do today), we'd be over also by around $1000- mostly due to gain share check and a few call-ins my husband had.

[Overmihead]

Try to get a feel for how accessible he is...ask him if you have questions during the process, about paperwork or anything else, if you will be able to reach him by phone or email. Ask if he will be at the 341 meeting. Ask your specific questions about timing of filing with regard to your income and last use of credit cards. And, as mentioned in other comments, find out the extent of his experience and his familiarity with the presiding judge & trustees. Try to get a good feel for how confident he is. Ask him what would happen if a creditor does show up to protest. Like albacore said, you want to know that he is going to fight for you. I hope it goes well for you!

[lulabelle]

How did it go?

[andysmom]

Hi,
Okay I had my 1st consult Friday. The lawyer was great & I felt very comfortable with him. The appointment was shall I say a little difficult since I had to take my 3 yr old son (no noe to watch him- the appt was during the day & everyone was at work & my husband couldn't leave- had meetings w/vendors already set up). I brought his stroller to keep him "contained" but it was up a ton of stairs so that wasn't going to work.
Anyways...
As far as his experience, he does seem like he is very experienced; I'm pretty sure he only does bankruptcy cases but isn't a "mill". He's a former president of one of the district bankruptcy bar associations & says he handles every step of the process himself - not paralegals.
I still don't know if it's a chapter 7 or 13 because income is boderline. He didn't tell me to bring any paperwork since it was just the initial consult, but from reading here I knew some of the stuff they'd likely need. I brought my husband's paystubs- I'm missing 3 plus a gainshare check stub- I had the net amounts only- My husband has his HR getting him the copies we need.
He did suggest that we should file for bankruptcy either way. He advised me that if we were definite about filing then to stop paying my credit cards. Also, since our checking & savings were w/a bank that we also had credit cards with to stop all auto drafts & once all checks clear to close those accounts & open w/ a new bank.
We opened our new checking account Saturday. I have to stop all auto drafts this week. He also said only give the checking account # only to our insurance companies for autodrafts & don't give that to anyone else.
Said our house is exempt either chapter- we only have around $36,000 equity/ can exempt a little over $40,000. Cars are safe too since they're both old & paid for (and not worth much).
Said if our income tax check comes in before we file go ahead & spend it on sensible things & keep track of it. Since we just dropped our taxes off at our cPA's don't know that we'll get it back before; if we don't he said we can most likely exempt it since we don't have much else to exempt.
As far as my son's nursery school for Sept (which we already pd a depoist for); he said if it's a chapter 13 sometimes they can get picky but he said since I had the money for it in his own account to go ahead & when I'm closing out my accounts at my old bank to pay ahead for it- won't then be in the budget & won't be questioned.
He didn't really go into explaining all of what happens & what the payment would look like if it's a chapter 13; so I am still nervous. He didn't go over the credit counseling either. I think because he didn't want to get anny more nervous since he said he's hoping to get it a 7.
His price for a chapter 7 is $1500. You bring in the paperwork - he gave me a list of what he needs- and $250 to have the means test done. He said most it would take is 2-3 business days to know where you stand. If you decide to file the $250 comes off of the $1500.
If it's a chapter 13 (I don't know what the cost is) but he said we'd know what our payment would be before we made our decision.
Did not want a retainer or anything - just $250 when we do means test.
in the meantime, if I have any questions call him; don't make any big "decisions"/ purchases, etc without contacting him & if we were to get served w/ a lawsuit or something from credit cards- call him immediately. (I hope this doesn't happen- this is our 1st month not paying credit cards).
As far as what to say to the cc's- just put them off - don't tell them we're filing quite yet.
He didn't want to speculate on anything; would rather wait and do it correctly so as not to get us nervous or give false hope.

So, all in all, I felt with a good feeling about him & somehow a little more at ease about the decision process.

So, does this sound like a good initial consult?

I have another one scheduled- that was scheduled before this one- on Thursday. Should I still go to that one or does this one sound good?

Thanks for all your help!

[blessed]

His price is very reasonable. It does sound like your case could be rather straightforward with only one house and two cars to exempt. It wouldn't hurt to talk to the other attorney and see if you still like this guy better. Good luck!

[Amadan]

Always go for a second opinion. Its free so it cant hurt.

[andysmom]

Case does seem straightforward; only problem is we're right at the median income for being able to file a chapter 7.
It's not that I mind paying money back under a chapter 13; I'm just scared to death of the whole process.

[SMinGA]

Being at the median does not automatically mean NO on the ch. 7. Really boils down to income vs. expenses and making sure your expenses are reasonable based on the IRS guidelines. From your posts, I don't recall anything that seemed unreasonable. (Unreasonable in my opinion would be things like huge cable bills, high entertainment/hobby expenses, eating out all the time and not being willing/interested in getting spending under control. Such things would mean even if you did a ch. 7 you'd be in bad shape again after anyhow...)

[andysmom]

Hi SminGA,
Thanks for your post. No, I don't believe that our expenses are crazy but I think that may be what pushes us into a chapter 13 instead of a 7. Being that our income is at the median, and we have no car payments and no real other expenses besides our mortgage which is just about $780 and our utilitites and food/etc that everyone has; we have not much else to factor in. We do have a 401k loan but from what our lawyer has said that won't count in a means test but can be part of the budget in a chapter 13. I'm just really a ball of nerves and can't believe we got ourselves into this situation.
Trust me, I do want to change and never end up here again. As far as a chapter the 13, I'm only really worried about how much the trustee will be involved in our lives over the next 5 years and in my head I keep playing this senario where our payments would be like 1/2 our take home pay and not be able to afford to live- basically in close to the same position as now.
I will feel much better & relieved when I know exactly what we're facing & what a 5 year plan payment would look like.
I'm dropping off the check and means test info this afternoon (along w/ a note with a few questions) and will hopefully know a little more sometime soon.