Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. for BK help?

[Quagmire]

tryBEFORE considering bankruptcy. I have seen a big fluctuation in prices for BK . . . i.e. on Craigslist, I see some places will do a BK anywhere between $199 to $1,000. Yet right now, since I do not have even $500 for legal help, I see that Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc. charge less than $30 per month for legal help. So I was wondering if anyone in this group has used them for BK or for BK help OR if you can suggest a way for me to retain a lawyer the cheapest way possible (just to field my creditor phone calls temporarily)?

Quagmire

[lovemybugs10]

How long do you want to hold off calls?

If you are only doing it for that reason, I would suggest turning off your ringer and letting the machine pick up.

[Quagmire]

Lovemybugs10, I would like to have at least 3 months to myself to work on my financial troubles, as I did not plan on running out of money last month.

So I am hoping that within that time, I will definitely know what action(s) I plan to take. Yet hearing that AmEx took about 4 months to serve Seahawk4life, makes me very uncomfortable. My AmEx bill is now 35 days past due. YIKES!!!

Yet I do not want things to snowball by ignoring my creditors telephone calls, because I don't want them coming to my door or my neighbors door looking for me AND I do not want my creditors calling my family or friends looking to get in contact with me. Mainly, I just need to buy some time until I can figure out what I should do . . . but I want to get rid of those phone calls/put them on hold, I don't want my creditors hounding my family or friends . . . yet I do not want to deal with a lawsuit while I trying to figure out what I want to do.

Quagmire

[Fresh]

Quagmire,

Realistically, I think that having 3 months on your own to figure out whether you could work out a plan with your creditors is truly pressing it. What I have noticed recently is that these creditors are getting seriously fast with suing folks. I was shocked to read that AMEX had sued someone here after even 90 days. 2010 is NOT 2009. When I started coming here last year, there were so many people here who seemed to have had a year or more to really plan their bankruptcies, and even just as you are contemplating settlements or other types of plans. And, as so many have mentioned here, getting sued is just a crap shoot. You just never know even if you are well below the radar.

I do not know about the Legal Services Plan you mentioned, but have you ever considered Legal Aid? Usually, if you qualify for their services based on your income level, there is a private attorney who will basically do your case pro bono (for free). If you are not employed or have relatively low income, you would likely qualify.

Otherwise, you might consider doing some free consultations as so many at this site recommend. You need someone who does this as a business to really consider your situation.

I wish you well.

[HHM]

Let's back up Quagmire, what would be the point if trying to "figure" out a pay back plan or settlement if you have to default on your credit cards. You will have done the damage, so why WASTE money paying back something you can discharge in BK.

Sorry to say, you sound like you are in denial about your financial circumstances and harbor some untrue assumptions about the negative affects of BK and the benefits of settling.

Forget about buying time, go get a BK attorney and file BK.

[Quagmire]

Thanks FreshmightHHM

[Silver26]

Also just because you have retained an attorney doesn't mean they stop calling or will stop calling your friends or family. Some of my creditors stopped but many did not. My wife's parents got calls routinely on our older accounts. We stopped paying Amex almost 2 years ago and I havent heard anything from them for 16 months.

[kartoons19]

Quagmire,

I tried the Legal Aid route. It took them a month to call me back the first time. After I finally got to talk with someone (a law student), I found out a week later that they would not take my case because at the time I was judgement proof. So I decided not to file BK, since I didn't have anything they could take.

Now that I am working, I have decided not go through Legal Aid as I wanted to work directly with an attorney and have my case processed fairly quickly. So while I think Legal Aid can be helpful, I would expect that it would take a lot longer for the bk to be filed and that most of the conversations would be with a paralegal. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

[Flamingo]

Thanks FreshmightHHM

Quagmire...as to your last paragraph to HHM, most of us in this forum were never in financial trouble before, did a lot of stupid things before investigating filing for BK (we filed Chapter 13 and kept our house) and, as to us, realized we should have filed way sooner than waiting the one year we did. Best of luck to you...the denial part will eventually fade as many of us never forsaw ever having to be in the position to file Bankruptcy.