Attorney retainer fee vs. Filing and PDLs

[hbattist]

My husband and I have paid the attorney retainer fee for a chapter 7. He said to collect all paperwork from the past 6 months (bank statements, payroll, etc). I thought you collected paperwork from the 6 months prior to filing. We can't even file until we have the lawers paid off which could be several months from now. Can anyone clarify??
So far this has been quite a mess. We had out 2 PDLs. We went in and talked face to face with our bank's branch manager and she helped us open a new checking account and get our old account closed so the PDLs could not go through. Well guess what? One of the PDLs still got through!! And the branch manager told us she will refund us the overdraft fees, but now we owe the bank the amount of the check (since we would have owed the PDL store anyway, in her words). So our checking account is now well into the negative and there is a DAILY negative balance fee being added.
Our lawer advised us not to pay this because it will be discharged, but I am worried about our banking in the future.
It has been 3 weeks since we retained our lawer, and I am questioning every day whether or not we are making the right decision. Sooo stressful!! I am just looking forward to this all being OVER...

[keepinitreal]

I think you should open a new checking account with a different bank as soon as possible. The bank manager at your original bank gave you bad information and then made you pay for their misinformation.

Just open a new checking account and have all the money you owe your old bank and the pay day lenders discharged in your bankruptcy.