Mad at lawyer, anything we can do.

[breakingfree]

Had our 341 Jan 8th, took post-discharge course on Feb 5th (friday). We received our certificates over that weekend by email and I called our lawyers office on Feb. 8th (monday) to see how they wanted me to send them. The secretary told me to email them to her and gave me her email address. I did that immediately. So this past thursday I got a call from the secretary telling me she still needed the certs, I informed her that I emailed them the beginning of Feb. She said she has been having trouble with her email and didn't get them, so I sent them again. Then called on Friday to make sure she got them, she didn't. So I printed them out and drove the 30 mins to the office and hand delivered them right to her.

Got my mail today and there was a letter from my lawyers office saying since they didn't received our certificates the court closed our case without a discharge. I am fuming mad right now. Called the office and she laughs about. They want another $260 to refile. My husband is on his way there now to talk to them, I am too mad to go. We did everything they told us to, why should we have to pay cause the secretary doesn't know how to use email. Any suggestions, I am getting myself sick over this!!!

[ForumReader]

Had our 341 Jan 8th, took post-discharge course on Feb 5th (friday). We received our certificates over that weekend by email and I called our lawyers office on Feb. 8th (monday) to see how they wanted me to send them. The secretary told me to email them to her and gave me her email address. I did that immediately. So this past thursday I got a call from the secretary telling me she still needed the certs, I informed her that I emailed them the beginning of Feb. She said she has been having trouble with her email and didn't get them, so I sent them again. Then called on Friday to make sure she got them, she didn't. So I printed them out and drove the 30 mins to the office and hand delivered them right to her.

Got my mail today and there was a letter from my lawyers office saying since they didn't received our certificates the court closed our case without a discharge. I am fuming mad right now. Called the office and she laughs about. They want another $260 to refile. My husband is on his way there now to talk to them, I am too mad to go. We did everything they told us to, why should we have to pay cause the secretary doesn't know how to use email. Any suggestions, I am getting myself sick over this!!!

Sorry this happened to you. That is the trouble with some bankruptcy offices being incompetent. I hope your husband gets this resolved and that they refile at no charge for you two. Provide proof that you have sent the certs ahead of time. No excuse for the bk office to be this incompetent.

[newbie2]

Sorry this happened to you. That is the trouble with some bankruptcy offices being incompetent. I hope your husband gets this resolved and that they refile at no charge for you two. Provide proof that you have sent the certs ahead of time. No excuse for the bk office to be this incompetent.

If this was me and I was forced to pay the $260 I would do so...then wait for discharge and closing and then file suit against the law firm in small claims court to recover the money.

Hopefully you have your "sent" mailbox intact and can print those out as proof.

[justbroke]

If the case was closed less than 14 days ago, then the attorney can file a Motion to Vacate the Order closing the case in order to file the certificate. If the case has been closed for more than 14 days, then you will need to file a Motion to Re-Open and submit the $260 fee as well.

How you get the money back from the Attorney will be interesting. I might be inclined to file a Motion with the Bankruptcy court to disgorge $260 of his/her fees. But that's me.

[breakingfree]

Thanks for all of the info. My husband did not get anywhere with the lawyer, he was apologetic but kept making excuses. He paid the $260 because we don't want to mess up the case any more. What makes me mad is that we have done everything they asked us/told us to do and we are being penalized. The only comfort I have is we have put ourselves on a tight budget and have an emergency fund that the $260 will come from.

[LALADY]

For future reference for others emailing, always put as the first and last statement in an email, "Please confirm receipt of this email (and attachments)." If they do not respond in a couple of hours, pick up the phone. I've had the same issue, but it wasn't nonreceipt it was the attorney was inundated with emails.

[nc73]

Yup never rely on email unless you get confirmation.

[breakingfree]

That's what I did on Friday, a little too late. Going to have my husband call in the morning and ask him about justbroke's advice. The courts Final Decree - No Discharge was filed on March 24th. So only 5 days ago.

[music12]

yeah, go for it, justbroke knows what he is talking about. also, this lawyer should request to have the fees returned because it wasn't your fault. another poster on this forum said that his lawyer included a request with the motion to reopen that explained what caused the delay with the certificate, and the court allowed the motion to be filed without the fee.

[liz417]

Gee, sorry about this incompetent BK office, going through a BK is stressful enough! If you haven't already, sign up for Pacer so you can follow your case, obviously your attorney/his staff is incompetent.