Horrible Attorney Meeting

[robivi3]

Good point anon, I was under the old law. My BK is old hat hat now. Alot of things do not apply. I stand corrected but still doubt that most will engage in much footwork w/o specifics and extra $$$$$$$$$. People are quoting 1200.00 as more or less standard. that was the going rate here before the new law went into effect and included only the basic Ch. 7 BK. My BK 7 with hearings and depositions went a little over $2000.00 and i know that he could have hit me up for more reasonably. One depo alone took 3 and a half hours of his time.

That being said, a law making them responsible and a Judge holding them responsible are two different things. Attorneys and Trustee's and Juges have relationships and Lodges and Dinners and goings on to which we are not privy. I doubt that many will be held up to what they are actually responsible for though some will get a slap on the wrist at some point.

I still say that for $1200.00 you will only get a basic Chapter 7 and I'd be real sure to know my situations regarding my assets before going in.

[alh]

The bankruptcy court site here has a list of all the trustees. Not sure if others do, but it could save some pacer bills.

[catwhisperer]

The best thing I did was after a couple of horrible attorney meetings was to go the Bankruptcy court site and find out who the Chapter 7 trustees were. Then I looked them up and made an appointment with them. I finally felt like I got better information. I went from "there is no way you can file a chapter 7 and you will have to pay 1200 a month for 5 years in a 13" (which we didn't have) to "there shouldn't be a problem at all with a chapter 7" Mine was not a completely straight forward case either (but not as complex as yours) and after meeting with the first group of attorneys I was majorly stressed.

The meetings are a pain but find some other attorneys until you find one you feel comfortable with.

You are right. We paid money to this "less than desirable" attorney but got the name of the trustee who would be handling it. I looked it up today and if I get another attorney it will be from the trustee's office because I'm sure that would help.
Thanks for the affirmation of this thought!

[catwhisperer]

Another thought
I did find out alot of information while I was there. I picked the brains of the paralegal but proper! Had to - they walked us in, sat us down in front of this guy who proceeded to ask questions, and NO information like this is what is going to happen, etc. NO bedside manner. I'm sorry, but this is a horrible time in a persons life and they should have at least a teaspoon of compassion.
BUT - I learned ALOT. Got some questions answered, and now we feel like we are in charge of this, not that it is controlling us

You all gave me alot of help so I knew what to ask and how to get the information.

[SinkingFast]

I believe that much of the problem is that the lawyers who wind up as BK attornies are not the cream of the crop. They are not the folks who graduated at the top of their law school classes or went to Harvard.

The BK attornies for the most part are the lawyers who couldn't get a job with the prestige law firms and practicing BK law was a last resort.

I have a friend who is a BK attorney. He's a nice guy socially. However, he doesn't appear to be making much money, and I wouldn't hire him to get my dog out of the pound.

As I have read elsewhere on this forum, if your BK is at all complicated, you should approach it as if you are going pro se even if you plan to use an attorney. And, of course, you should search until you find a BK attorney who doesn't drag his knuckles on the ground when he walks.

ROFL!!

There are 3 Trustees here. 2 Ch 7 and one Ch 13. Since we'd seen the daughter of one of the Ch 7 trutees for a Consult, we couldn't go to the other Ch 7 Trustee. We'd taint the Trustees here and the US Trustee would have to bring in a person from outside. Which could get messy, from what I was told by the other Ch 7 Trustee's paralegal.

But then we mentioned having Consulted with the one Trustee's daughter, and other attnys said her Dad could still be our Trustee. Since we'd only met with her and she'd only gotten a cursory info on our case, no details, she wouldn't take us due to the outa state exemptions, her dad wasn't tainted in their minds. Our attny will just say we Consulted with his daughter, was that a problem for him, NO, and they'd move on. If it's not a problem for our attny, it's likely not gonna be a problem for the Trustee either. So we've been told.

We live in Po Dunk too, Anon. The BK community here is very close knit. Everyone knows everyone else. If one farts, they all smell it kinda thing. Since several attnys said the same thing about having met with the Trustee's daughter, I'm guessing it's true. We shall see.

[anonymuse]

If one farts, they all smell it kinda thing.

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!! Thank goodness I just finished my coca-cola or that would have spurt up my nose!

The county I live in and the county I work in have separate trustees. So I looked up the Denver trustees and I have a lot to choose from--some even blocks from where I work!!!! (Hopefully they're taking cases.) This county has 80% of the workload for that state so there are about 15 Ch 7 trustees and only 1 Ch 13 trustee. (But in my region, it's like 2 Ch 7 and 1 Ch 13).

[robivi3]

Rover,

My dad always said it best, Stay away from rich doctors and poor lawyers. I couldn't agree more. Now let me clarify, my boy did drive an F350, but he live in Sunshine Ranches, the best area of Davie Horse Country here in Broward. He dresses very sharp and I found the Office quite nice and it was also in a pricey area. But i liked his sensible attitude and the fact that he was into his family.

[SinkingFast]

Rover,

My dad always said it best, Stay away from rich doctors and poor lawyers. I couldn't agree more. Now let me clarify, my boy did drive an F350, but he live in Sunshine Ranches, the best area of Davie Horse Country here in Broward. He dresses very sharp and I found the Office quite nice and it was also in a pricey area. But i liked his sensible attitude and the fact that he was into his family.

Your attny sounds like our Orthopeadist back home. He's THE doc to go to when you need a hip replaced or any type of bone and/or joint surgery. Really good!. He wears cowboy boots and drives F350 pickup with hay all over it. If you drive by his house, you'd know why. He owns a mini ranch and breeds horses on the side. The house is huge. Kinda looks like Southfork from the "Dallas" TV show.

A friend of ours, his dad owns his own landscaping business. Dad maintains the doc's place. He hates weed eating the fence out by the highway. The white picket looking stuff and it's a mile long. That's a mile of weed whacking to keep the Doc's place looking nice!

We paid our mower dude $400/mo to mow our place, 5 acres, last fall. He traded out what he weed whacked to keep the bill down, but he always trimmed around the house to keep it looking nice. I can't even begin to imagine the Doctor's monthly landscape company bill. It must be unreal!

[aa06a47]

Rover,

My dad always said it best, Stay away from rich doctors and poor lawyers. I couldn't agree more. Now let me clarify, my boy did drive an F350, but he live in Sunshine Ranches, the best area of Davie Horse Country here in Broward. He dresses very sharp and I found the Office quite nice and it was also in a pricey area. But i liked his sensible attitude and the fact that he was into his family.

My lawyer is what I would consider a poor lawyer. Her practice is pretty much just starting up (3-5 years old). She is no spring chicken just out of school though. She spent the first half of her life/career working for special cause types of things....defending rights of people, poor people, which of course, came with little or no pay. I asked her why she got out of that type of work, and she said, well, I didn't want to not be able to feed myself or my kid. She does have some good high tech equipment in her office now, but I can tell she is going through some growing pains as her pratice gets bigger.