Hi, Everyone. I have been reading and researching this site for a few weeks now, and have learned quite a bit. Unfortunately, I didn't find it soon enough as my husband and I have been in, and out, of bankruptcy since November 2008. At this point I feel like I am doomed to a life of bk forever!
Quick synopsis:
My husband is a mortgage broker who took a substantial financial blow when the housing market crashed. After months of using credit cards to pay bills and borrowing from peter to pay paul, the IRS began garnishing over half of his income and we could no longer pay any bills. All we could do was keep utilities paid and food on the table. We sought the advice of an attorney a friend had used for his bankruptcy and the attorney advised us we were definitely a Chapter 7 case and filing was in our best interests. Sadly, he was the only attorney we consulted and that's when everything went from bad to much worse.
We filed Chapter 7 in Nov 2008, converted to Ch 13 in October 2009 and were dismissed in February 2010. We have since refiled Chapter 7 with a new attorney on March 12. Oh, and in the midst of all of this, my husband lost his job then get a new one and I returned to work leaving my 2 children with my mom. Major stress.
Our 2008 Ch 7 case was selected for audit by the US Trustee who found all sorts of discrepancies in figures for our means test, schedules, etc. By the time we knew what was going on, we had been accused of misrepresentation and basically lying on our paperwork. In the meantime, at the advice of our attorney, we had surrendered both of our vehicles and abandoned our house. We did not know what all paperwork was being prepared by our attorney, in fact, he had us sign everything the at the courthouse just before our 341! Had I found this forum sooner, I would have known not to use this attorney. The mistakes he made are unbelievable, and even the US Trustee acknowledged we "got caught in an audit with a bad lawyer", yet he would not drop his objection to discharge and said we would have to "prove it" in court and fight it out to try to get our 7. No other lawyer would take our case mid stream because they didn't want to "clean up the mess" our attorney had made. Now, I must mention, despite all of the crazy numbers our lawyer used in our paperwork, we qualified for a 7 anyway. But, the US Trustee said the only thing left was for us to go to a Chapter 13. Our lawyer converted our case but says he "didn't realize" that would mean paying 100% of our taxes, which are $50,000, plus trustee's fee and lawyer's fees over a 60 month period. There was no way we could make that payment...and we surely would have never converted had we known that beforehand. Our case was dismissed...we were caught between a Chapter 7 mess and not enough income for a 13. Plus, we qualify for a 7 so I didn't want to agree to an impossible 13 just because our attorney screwed up our 7. So, we finally found another attorney who would take our case despite the mess our original attorney created. I did a lot of homework to find the new attorney, so I pray he "gets it right" this time. We filed a Chapter 7 no asset case and the new attorney went over all the paperwork with us numerous times. I feel very confident in what we turned in. The US Trustee has requested evidence of income, which makes my highly nervous. He's already involved again. Great.
I hope that's because our paystubs weren't submitted when they were supposed to be and not because he is automatically trying to cause us grief.
I cannot reiterate enough for anyone considering bk, get informed, very informed. Do not trust that your attorney is staying on top of things, either. I am now using PACER, too, and have found it to be very helpful.
I will become more active in the forum now that I have "officially" introduced myself. I pray I survive this latest filing and I will be glad to share what I have learned with any one new to bk. I feel like I could write a book now on "what not to do when filing bk". Ha! We have GOT to get some relief soon, this ongoing BK is taking a toll on my health and my marriage.
Thanks for listening and sorry this was such a long post.
Quick synopsis:
My husband is a mortgage broker who took a substantial financial blow when the housing market crashed. After months of using credit cards to pay bills and borrowing from peter to pay paul, the IRS began garnishing over half of his income and we could no longer pay any bills. All we could do was keep utilities paid and food on the table. We sought the advice of an attorney a friend had used for his bankruptcy and the attorney advised us we were definitely a Chapter 7 case and filing was in our best interests. Sadly, he was the only attorney we consulted and that's when everything went from bad to much worse.
We filed Chapter 7 in Nov 2008, converted to Ch 13 in October 2009 and were dismissed in February 2010. We have since refiled Chapter 7 with a new attorney on March 12. Oh, and in the midst of all of this, my husband lost his job then get a new one and I returned to work leaving my 2 children with my mom. Major stress.
Our 2008 Ch 7 case was selected for audit by the US Trustee who found all sorts of discrepancies in figures for our means test, schedules, etc. By the time we knew what was going on, we had been accused of misrepresentation and basically lying on our paperwork. In the meantime, at the advice of our attorney, we had surrendered both of our vehicles and abandoned our house. We did not know what all paperwork was being prepared by our attorney, in fact, he had us sign everything the at the courthouse just before our 341! Had I found this forum sooner, I would have known not to use this attorney. The mistakes he made are unbelievable, and even the US Trustee acknowledged we "got caught in an audit with a bad lawyer", yet he would not drop his objection to discharge and said we would have to "prove it" in court and fight it out to try to get our 7. No other lawyer would take our case mid stream because they didn't want to "clean up the mess" our attorney had made. Now, I must mention, despite all of the crazy numbers our lawyer used in our paperwork, we qualified for a 7 anyway. But, the US Trustee said the only thing left was for us to go to a Chapter 13. Our lawyer converted our case but says he "didn't realize" that would mean paying 100% of our taxes, which are $50,000, plus trustee's fee and lawyer's fees over a 60 month period. There was no way we could make that payment...and we surely would have never converted had we known that beforehand. Our case was dismissed...we were caught between a Chapter 7 mess and not enough income for a 13. Plus, we qualify for a 7 so I didn't want to agree to an impossible 13 just because our attorney screwed up our 7. So, we finally found another attorney who would take our case despite the mess our original attorney created. I did a lot of homework to find the new attorney, so I pray he "gets it right" this time. We filed a Chapter 7 no asset case and the new attorney went over all the paperwork with us numerous times. I feel very confident in what we turned in. The US Trustee has requested evidence of income, which makes my highly nervous. He's already involved again. Great.
I hope that's because our paystubs weren't submitted when they were supposed to be and not because he is automatically trying to cause us grief.
I cannot reiterate enough for anyone considering bk, get informed, very informed. Do not trust that your attorney is staying on top of things, either. I am now using PACER, too, and have found it to be very helpful.
I will become more active in the forum now that I have "officially" introduced myself. I pray I survive this latest filing and I will be glad to share what I have learned with any one new to bk. I feel like I could write a book now on "what not to do when filing bk". Ha! We have GOT to get some relief soon, this ongoing BK is taking a toll on my health and my marriage.
Thanks for listening and sorry this was such a long post.
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