BK's for my Attorney

[Cali]

I was curious to see how many BK's my attorney has filed last month. He did over 100. Has anyone every checked the amount their attorney does in a month?

And none of his cases have been dismissed.

[justplaintired]

How did you find this? I wouldn't mind checking out my lawyer. Any advice would be great, thanks, Cali.

[Cali]

I went on pacer and put his name in and saw all his cases. I did the search for free.

[laurannm]

Our lawyer has about 20 cases so far this year. A couple of other lawyers we spoke with have had close to a hundred each. However, both of those lawyers seem to indicate that they would push us into a 13 as soon as they found out we were above median. Most of their cases were below-median Ch 7 cases

[Cali]

So far this year his total is 250 cases.

Our lawyer has about 20 cases so far this year. A couple of other lawyers we spoke with have had close to a hundred each. However, both of those lawyers seem to indicate that they would push us into a 13 as soon as they found out we were above median. Most of their cases were below-median Ch 7 cases

[pa308]

I went on pacer and put his name in and saw all his cases. I did the search for free.

Does it give a summary? How do you do a free search?

Please pardon my ignorance. I will file late May early June and figured I would wait until then to sign up for pacer

[Cali]

You can check your local courthouse or maybe library to see if they offer it for free.

It showed each case, names of those filing and you can check their cases from there. All the cases were C7's. That is what we are filing, which we are doing in June or July. We paid our attorney in full in March.

Does it give a summary? How do you do a free search?

Please pardon my ignorance. I will file late May early June and figured I would wait until then to sign up for pacer

[sunshine mary]

"I went on pacer and put his name in and saw all his cases. I did the search for free"

OK I tried it but no luck...where exactly did you put in his name ?? The main page? Did you go to Bankruptcy? I really want to check this. thanks

[Cali]

https://ecf.casb.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl

1. log in with your info
2. look for your state, if you haven't done that yet
3. click query at the top
4. put in your attorneys name

"I went on pacer and put his name in and saw all his cases. I did the search for free"

OK I tried it but no luck...where exactly did you put in his name ?? The main page? Did you go to Bankruptcy? I really want to check this. thanks

[lrprn]

https://ecf.casb.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl
1. log in with your info
2. look for your state, if you haven't done that yet
3. click query at the top
4. put in your attorneys name

Unless you are doing this search in a known free location like the library or courthouse, be warned. If you do this search on your home computer, hundreds of pages at $0.08/page could come rolling in. BE VERY CAREFUL or you could end up with quite a PACER bill

Also filing a large number of cases doesn't necessarily mean the lawyer is the best lawyer for you to choose for your particular situation. Filing a large number of cases could also mean that the lawyer is overwhelmed and won't have much time to give you any attention or answer questions in a timely manner. Just something to keep in mind....

[justplaintired]

No luck here. I couldn't find any local attorneys that I know have cases open at the district I will be filing in. I think I am doing something wrong. Oh well, maybe tomorrow I'll try again. Thanks!

[Cali]

That wasn't my point. My point was my attorney has a lot of cases and none have been dismissed.
I did my research before picking an attorney.

I stated earlier, I was able to do the search for free.

Unless you are doing this search in a known free location like the library or courthouse, be warned. If you do this search on your home computer, hundreds of pages at $0.08/page could come rolling in. BE VERY CAREFUL or you could end up with quite a PACER bill

Also filing a large number of cases doesn't necessarily mean the lawyer is the best lawyer for you to choose for your particular situation. Filing a large number of cases could also mean that the lawyer is overwhelmed and won't have much time to give you any attention or answer questions in a timely manner. Just something to keep in mind....

[FreshLikeADaisy]

Cali, congrats on finding the free PACER!!!

Out of curiosity, how far back did you look for dismissals? To be honest, it takes months for a dismissal to occur, in general, and especially in a busier court. Also, even though you're filing a Ch7, look at his Ch13 dismissal rate: this is important. A no-asset Ch7 is the easiest bk there is for an atty. If you *really* want to see his competence, look at his Ch13 dismissals, and especially look for Ch13s that were dismissed for failure to make payments (esp the first!!!) and for other no-brainers, like failure to produce paystubs, failure to produce tax returns, etc.

This is a big deal, because dismissal for failure to make payments, especially if that client never made a payment, tells me that he did not educate that client well and/or shuffled the client into a 13 without consideration for the client's actual ability to pay. One or two, okay. Ten, that's a big red flag. One atty I looked at locally had some fifteen or so such dismissals over the last two years, along with a *huge* number of dismissals for failure to provide documents such as pay stubs and tax returns. That's just sloppy: both are required up front by federal law, and he had no business even filing the bk without having seen them. Again, for this particular atty, it was a mistake made *repeatedly*. So watch out for that.

On the other hand, if you looked back over a year, year and a half, and saw no dismissals, I'm indeed impressed! There were only a couple of attys that I found locally that had such a low dismissal rate... and it was their cases I chose to use as examples when I filed pro se, God bless 'em.

Good on you for doing your research!!!! I can't begin to tell you how much I wish everyone would do what you're doing now. Good luck!!!

[Cali]

I went back 9 months and didn't check out his C13's. I will be sure to check them out next time I am on Pacer.

Cali, congrats on finding the free PACER!!!

Out of curiosity, how far back did you look for dismissals? To be honest, it takes months for a dismissal to occur, in general, and especially in a busier court. Also, even though you're filing a Ch7, look at his Ch13 dismissal rate: this is important. A no-asset Ch7 is the easiest bk there is for an atty. If you *really* want to see his competence, look at his Ch13 dismissals, and especially look for Ch13s that were dismissed for failure to make payments (esp the first!!!) and for other no-brainers, like failure to produce paystubs, failure to produce tax returns, etc.

This is a big deal, because dismissal for failure to make payments, especially if that client never made a payment, tells me that he did not educate that client well and/or shuffled the client into a 13 without consideration for the client's actual ability to pay. One or two, okay. Ten, that's a big red flag. One atty I looked at locally had some fifteen or so such dismissals over the last two years, along with a *huge* number of dismissals for failure to provide documents such as pay stubs and tax returns. That's just sloppy: both are required up front by federal law, and he had no business even filing the bk without having seen them. Again, for this particular atty, it was a mistake made *repeatedly*. So watch out for that.

On the other hand, if you looked back over a year, year and a half, and saw no dismissals, I'm indeed impressed! There were only a couple of attys that I found locally that had such a low dismissal rate... and it was their cases I chose to use as examples when I filed pro se, God bless 'em.

Good on you for doing your research!!!! I can't begin to tell you how much I wish everyone would do what you're doing now. Good luck!!!

[danaf]

dang -it pays to be a lawyer. Assuming they are charging 1200 a bk - at 100 bks a month, that's 120k. That's alot.