Timeline??

[donnaeve]

My husband and I have consulted with a lawyer and are gathering our documents (ugh-what a chore!) to bring to our intake interview. I was curious to know how long after that is our petition for bankruptcy filed? Is that done the same day? We have a large payment due on the 28th to a debt management company that we are going to cancel but that leaves us open to a repossession on a cross-collateralized loan. Hoping to find out if the car will be safely in the driveway for a littlw while or not!

Thanks for your help!

[ccsjoe]

Hi donnaeve,

How fast your attorney files depends usually on when you pay them. Normally attorneys don't want to file prior to full payment as they do not want to put themselves in a creditor position. That being said, if you have an emergency, your attorney can do an emergency filing (bare bones, couple of forms) that sets your filing date and gives you up to two weeks to submit all other forms and paperwork.

As far as filing a full petition, normally attorneys take 2 to 3 weeks from receiving the docs to prepare everything, have you review, then file. Filing is done electronically for the most part.

[tyson24]

I payed my whole retainer and took all my doc's in on 9-15. We would probably be filing next Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday but we need to wait for something important on October 2. So about a week and a half. I am sure every attorney is different. We were a rush because of a garnishment. It may also depend onhow large your attorney's office is. Mine is smaller.

Hope this helps!

[tobee43]

even if you pd in full, you can have them hold off until YOU are ready....our atty was pd in full but we waited for some time to pass due to being able to submit "NO" answers to some of the questions in the petition. once your atty has all the information required, the atty's office just had the completed petition signed and undated ready to go on my word. (then dates it)

so the bottom line is it's up to you when you file.

[pathfinders]

donnaeve

We had paid our Lawer, And Filed on the day he said was best for our circumstance

[donnaeve]

Thanks everyone! The attorney said that he would need the full amount for his services by our third meeting but didn't explain to my husband when that was. We would really have to cancel those payments in order to afford our attorney, so that wouldn't be until the end of October. I really just want to get this going and over with! I was hoping filing would happen as soon as possible but I guess we'll have to see how it goes.

[tobee43]

Thanks everyone! The attorney said that he would need the full amount for his services by our third meeting but didn't explain to my husband when that was. We would really have to cancel those payments in order to afford our attorney, so that wouldn't be until the end of October. I really just want to get this going and over with! I was hoping filing would happen as soon as possible but I guess we'll have to see how it goes.

third meeting??? what do you do at those meetings?? just wondering...shoot..we just emailed each other...we did have ONE meeting...and also we paid the atty on our time schedule not theirs...especially since we were broke...they were great and said take as long as we need to pay them and also upon the first 100.00 they would send letters and have us refer all creditors to their number!

we took over 6 months to pay ...but it was for a couple reasons...one being we were attempting to put more distance between us and the actual filing date. i don't think we could have done it any other way....but they still would have filed ONLY when we gave them the "green" light..

[kartoons19]

I had to wait about a month after submitting my paperwork and paying the attorney in full. I would have preferred to file sooner, but my attorney is a one-woman office, so I had to wait until she got to my case. Then again the wait wasn't too bad as I was able to refer all calls to her, so I didn't have to deal with the creditors calling me.

[donnaeve]

Ok, thanks for all of the input. I am going to make an appointment for the second week of October and we will go from there. Thanks again!!