How long should it take for attorney to provide results of means test?

[onthebrink]

My wife and filled out the form our attorney needed to determine whether or not we qualify for Ch 7 based on the means test two business days ago. She told us she would get back to us but did not indicate by when. I emailed her the next day asking by when we should expect to get a response and didn't hear back.

What's a reasonable amount of time we should be prepared to wait?

[forgotten]

The attorney could do it in under 20 min... so it all depends on how busy they are.

You can run the numbers yourself here:

http://www.legalconsumer.com/bankruptcy/means-test/

[MSbklawyer]

My wife and filled out the form our attorney needed to determine whether or not we qualify for Ch 7 based on the means test two business days ago. She told us she would get back to us but did not indicate by when. I emailed her the next day asking by when we should expect to get a response and didn't hear back.

What's a reasonable amount of time we should be prepared to wait?

The first phase of the means test simply involves comparing two numbers -- your household income with the median household income for your state. If your household income is lower, the means test is over; you pass. If your hh income is higher, there are further calculations and you may still pass.

So, with the necessary information in hand, your attorney can do the means test for you in minutes. The answer to your question is going to turn on how quickly your attorney can get started -- i.e. how busy she is.

[HHM]

Let's back up, did your attorney actually tell you she would simply run the means test and get back to you. That is not normally how it works, the attorney will "fully" prepare your case and then go over it with you. I am guessing this attorney is a little desperate for business if she is simply going to do a means test for you or some other limited service. Personally, that is counter productive, there is more to BK (A LOT MORE) than the means test. Or, you are so stubborn and don't listen to reason that all she could do to get you moving in the right direction is take this piecemeal approach.

Side note, you have asked this before, please don't duplicate your questions.

[MSbklawyer]

Or, you are so stubborn and don't listen to reason that all she could do to get you moving in the right direction is take this piecemeal approach.

Side note, you have asked this before, please don't duplicate your questions.

Good morning, sunshine!

That is not normally how it works, the attorney will "fully" prepare your case and then go over it with you. I am guessing this attorney is a little desperate for business if she is simply going to do a means test for you or some other limited service.

I would respectfully disagree, HHM. Potential filers who are at the very high end of the income spectrum or at the very low end of the income spectrum don't care -- they know they'll be going 7 or 13, as the case may be. But people who are in the middle and close to the line appreciate a fast and loose "rough idea" about whether they qualify for 7 or not and whether there are relatively painless steps they may be able to take (such as turning down overtime for a while) to qualify for a 7. I would rather give them that "rough idea" -- with the clear understanding that's what it is, an educated approximation -- than to go through all the work of "fully" preparing a case only to have it fall apart because the clients don't feel like they can afford the chapter 13 payment when they find out they can't qualify for 7.

[HHM]

Fair enough, but you can usually get a very good sense of this at the consultation without running a means test to give a "rough idea".

It is a matter of setting proper expectations

[onthebrink]

She wasn't clear. When we met she said the $500 fee be the retainer. The agreement she sent over said the fee was limited to the means test.

[DeadManCrawling]

OTB,

I would run the online means test posted above and see what you can discern for yourself.

Understand there are other factors that come into play and are not well represented in the online test, but it gives you a pretty good idea.

You may have better questions to ask an attorney-and this forum-after simply reading the means test. It can help generate ideas, just looking at the categories and comparing them to your own circumstances.

It may reveal deductions you didn't know you had, or make you question your initial assumptions about certain things.

And it may help guide you if there are things you need to consider, as MSBKLawyer pointed out.

It is a beginning of sorts, and helped us decide to wait a couple years to avoid CH 13 so we could get a CH 7. That is not the right answer for everyone, or probably most, but it was for us.

Look forward to seeing more of your posts and learning more. Your situation is not terribly different than where I started 3 years ago, or at least appears that way thus far.

[onthebrink]

Thanks, DMC! Will keep you posted. It is a grueling experience. I don't want to make any hasty decisions and am trying to get as informed as possible.

Your experience tells me that I don't need to make any major decisions right now. We might be better off waiting. If Ch 13 is our only option at this point in terms of BK, I am going to look long and hard at other options.

Good luck with your BK. From your footer it looks like you're days away from hopefully getting discharged.

[optimistic1]

I had a consult where he had a simplified means test, I gave him numbers I already properly calculated for my income and debts. He did it within the first 30 minutes of the consult.

Others will take forever and act like it is some kind of brain surgery, which I guess it could be when cases are complicated.

[MSbklawyer]

Others will take forever and act like it is some kind of brain surgery, which I guess it could be when cases are complicated.

Not so much when they're complicated, but when they're REALLY CLOSE to the line.

On these kinds of cases, you have to try to build in as much 'cushion' as you legitimately can. If you submit a means test without any spare room, all the UST has to do is find $1 of extra income or cut $1 of expenses and he can push the filer into a 13.