Lawsuit Feedback

[IvoryAngel]

If you are pending a lawsuit for a vehicular injury/accident how does this affect your ability to file?

[LadyInTheRed]

It doesn't change your ability to file, but it may change whether you should wait to file. Are you the plaintiff or defendant?

[IvoryAngel]

Plaintiff. My same attorney does bankruptcy and he seems to think that it will hinder me filing but I was reading some information that states if its for personal injury they are not supposed to take it. By the way it will probably only be at max 2000 so its not like an insane amounts of monies even.

Thoughts?

It doesn't change your ability to file, but it may change whether you should wait to file. Are you the plaintiff or defendant?

[LadyInTheRed]

Your potential judgement in the lawsuit will be an asset of your bankruptcy estate. Personal injury awards are only exempt if state law provides that they are. You can read about OK BK exemptions at http://www.legalconsumer.com/bankrup...-law.php?ST=OK I don't see an exemption for PI awards, but it's possible I missed it.

If there is no exemption, the trustee will probably want whatever you receive in the lawsuit. If the lawsuit is not complete by the time you file, the trustee will probably keep your case open until there is a judgement and he can collect from the defendent. But, that will not delay your discharge. There is a possibility the trustee will abandon it if he does't think it's enough money to bother with, but don't count on it.

If there is no reason to hurry to file, you may be better off waiting until judgment is entered and until after you collect the judgement. Then spend the money on attorney and filing fees or to pay your necessary living expenses before filing.

I don't think it's accurate to say the lawsuit will hinder your filing. But it will prolong the closing of your case and prevent you from getting any benefit out of the lawsuit.

[TXskyblue]

Is it a good idea to use a BK lawyer who also does personal injury cases such as your auto accident?

[LadyInTheRed]

Is it a good idea to use a BK lawyer who also does personal injury cases such as your auto accident?

It depends on how experienced the attorney is with BKs. It may be that the lawfirm handles both types of cases, but individual attorneys within the firm handle cases in their area of specialty. Generally, it is a good idea to hire a BK attorney who practices exclusively in BK instead of a "generalist". As the saying goes "Jack of all trades, master of none." If IvoryAngel has not yet paid a retainer to this attorney to do the BK, she might want to consult with other attorneys before hiring this one.

[IvoryAngel]

The attorney doing the lawsuit for the incident also does bankruptcy and when I advised him that I was thinking about filing he stated that I couldn't have both either one or the other. Maybe he could get in trouble for previous knowle

I have spoken to one other attorney but he wanted me to bring in the lawsuit details to go over it before making an assessment. I don't get the logistics of all that I suppose the max that was paid to me cash was $4000 and I think pending $2000 or less depends on fees I assume.

I had read before that if it was paid due to a personal injury it should be untouchable but it doesn't appear to be the case I am unsure about that in this location. It's been pending for over a year now also which is annoying because he had originally told me I'd have to wait a year to file after the suit. =(

I think its a good idea though to use the funds I get from that to pay the fee's to file I mean wouldn't that just be the end of that and we can all just move along? I have accumulated insane amounts of hospital bills due to bad health unrelated to the incident. I don't mind though used it for bk fees.