Our Attorney and his assistant reuse to answer our email. faxes, and phone messages

[Ron55]

What can you do from a legal standpoint if your attorney does not answer emails you send asking for legal guidance, him nor his assistant answer emails, wont answer faxes sent with comformations of delivery and wont answer phone calls nor will they return them.
We paid them for the chapter 13 filing and help now after three years we need some legal advice concerning the ending coming up and they just wont answer.
Can you report them to the trustee not helping or a legal bar or anyone else? We paid for the service threw the entire process not just to file it and by law they are supposed to represent you till this is finished.
Any help would be appreciated.

Ron

[tobee43]

ron...you think maybe they are out on holiday??? maybe as a cost saving measure they closed the office this week?? sorry to hear you have problems...

what i would do first is if the firm is still under retainer and you are still making payments...i would send a certified letter requesting they contact you....and to please respond....if that fails i would go to the bar and file a complaint....

in as much as your questions on your bk...if all else fails i would call the trustees office and explain...hate to bother, but can't can thru to my atty and have a few questions can you help me? many of the trustee's offices are really nice...some are not...i know ours was...but we were a 7 not a 13....not that that should matter much.

[HHM]

reporting to state bar may be premature.

If you are 3 years into your chapter 13, it is good bet that "official" representation by the firm has ended. Unfortunately, most attorneys structure chapter 13's such that they are retained from date of retention to about 6 months after confirmation (monitoring). After that, you are mostly on your own. Note, there is a difference between being "attorney of record" and being actively represented. For example, a chapter 7 case, the attorney that filed the case will ALWAYS be the attorney of record in that case, but that doesn't mean he still represents the client once the terms of the attorney client fee agreement have been satisfied.

I suggest you go back and look at the fee agreement, at least then you will be in a better position to know what the scope of representation in your case actually is, and then can determine next steps.

Also, from a practical perspective, when you approach the end of the chapter 13, everything pretty much happens automatically. You may just want to call the trustees office and verify your last payment date. From there, the trustee takes a few months to do an accounting, issue the report, and then your receive your discharge and the case closes.

[LadyInTheRed]

A holiday closure is a good possibility. Even if they didn't close for the holidays, many of the staff or your attorney may have taken time off. They may be trying to catch up. While you are understandably anxious for answers to your questions, they may have more urgent issues they need to address first. But, if you have contacted them numerous times, you think somebody could at least call you to acknowledge your correspondence and tell you when they will respond. If you send another letter, tell them you are concerned that they have not responded to your prior corresponence and that if you don't hear from them by a certain date, you will have no choice but to contact the Arizona State Bar. That should get their attention. If it doesn't, you can find out how to file a complaint at http://www.azbar.org/Public

[LadyInTheRed]

I suggest you go back and look at the fee agreement, at least then you will be in a better position to know what the scope of representation in your case actually is, and then can determine next steps.

Good point. Definitely check the fee agreement before even threatening to contact the State Bar.

[frogger]

Note, there is a difference between being "attorney of record" and being actively represented. For example, a chapter 7 case, the attorney that filed the case will ALWAYS be the attorney of record in that case, but that doesn't mean he still represents the client once the terms of the attorney client fee agreement have been satisfied.

Exactly. Our attorney worked for us very well until we were discharged, and then would not do anything, return calls, answer questions, etc.

After a couple of weeks of no response from our attorney, we notified the attorney and the trustee that the attorney of record no longer represented us and that we would handle all of our proceedings from that point forward.

The attorney of record still gets notifications, but we have not used them since discharge. (Thanks to much of the advice and information that we have learned here)

[Ron55]

Thanks for the replies but I understand what you are all saying.
Here is the deal our chapter 13 attorney is supposed to help us till the discharge is received. They get snotty when we email a lot of questions not getting answers.
I just received a reply saying I am aggrivating sending emails to them .
She also stated an idiotic reply, we aske her when are you going to send the credit councell certificates to the court? We faxed them to her and she said she would get them to the court and I think maybe we should just send them to the trusee ourself also.
But she says I can not send the credit certificates till we are close to the end of the plan DA! There is two payments left how much closer to the end does she mean?
Also in her email she said since we have made 41 monthly payments of a 43 month plan at 647 each that now we can mail the last two right away if we want to that the ammount is set and it is so close it is ok to pay off two months early.
I told her I am sending them both monday and they will have it all paid in full then so how can she make a statement she wont send the certificates of credit councel till it is close to the end of the payoff?
This is what aggrivates me she can hold up our discharge if she dont send the certificates so should we just send them to the trusee to make sure he gets them?

[HHM]

Don't get me wrong, I am not apologizing for this attorney. It is LOUSY service, but since you still need their help (apparently), it probably isn't practical to go off half cocked and start reporting this attorney to every agency you can think of.

However, I do caution that your assumption that the attorney is supposed to help you "until discharge" may not be accurate. So before you create a new batch of headaches, identify the end result that you really want. If the ONLY thing you need to do is send the Credit Counseling Certs to the Trustee and make 2 payments, do it, and be done with it.

[tobee43]

Don't get me wrong, I am not apologizing for this attorney. It is LOUSY service, but since you still need their help (apparently), it probably isn't practical to go off half cocked and start reporting this attorney to every agency you can think of.

However, I do caution that your assumption that the attorney is supposed to help you "until discharge" may not be accurate. So before you create a new batch of headaches, identify the end result that you really want. If the ONLY thing you need to do is send the Credit Counseling Certs to the Trustee and make 2 payments, do it, and be done with it.

i agree and do want to change my order of things that i would do..... respectfully........it would be the cert letter, if no response...it would be the court and lastly the reporting....

first working for atty's i believe strongly in them...but like hhm says here reporting someone straight up helps no one....it would or should be the absolute last resort...it's the old adage...one gets more with honey than vinegar....additionally, it's a process that takes time and will not do anything to resolve your immediate problem.

i'm glad you heard back, but not what you heard....i would just swallow it...since you are SOOOOOOOOO CLOSE to the end....just stick it out...you're just about at the goal line....i know it's hard, but in the end it will be well worth it.

i know this may seem difficult, but i would take the opportunity to call and leave a message...and i know this is hard....but i have done this before....called left a message and said i'm sorry if i offended anyone, i am just over anxious and did not mean to imply anything blah blah....(i don't usually back down on anything as many people on this forum know...LOL!!!! ) but i'm absolutely NOT to proud or stubborn to possibly hurt my chances of getting a task done because the other party over reacted....just a suggestion.

[Ron55]

Hi I have no intention of reporting them this close to the finsish line. I do think it is stupid to say she has to wait till its clsoe to the last payment to send the certificates to the court when she knows I am making the last payment the end of this month how much closer do you need LOL! And on a chapter 13 your attorney by law does have to work with you all the way threw they did not just get paid to file they got paid to complete it till discharge is received.
Otherwise why would they state they are going to have to send to the court the certificates, if they did not have to work with us till the end they would tell us to do it and be done with it.
I know one thing I never thought we would see this day its like the end of hell coming and we can get on with our life and not have to worry about 647 a month, that will be a nice amount to use elsewhere for sure. We eventually want to buy a small home in Phoenix Arizona and that bankruptcy payment is more than a house payment will be .
thanks
Ron and Kathy

[tobee43]

Hi I have no intention of reporting them this close to the finsish line. I do think it is stupid to say she has to wait till its clsoe to the last payment to send the certificates to the court when she knows I am making the last payment the end of this month how much closer do you need LOL! And on a chapter 13 your attorney by law does have to work with you all the way threw they did not just get paid to file they got paid to complete it till discharge is received.
Otherwise why would they state they are going to have to send to the court the certificates, if they did not have to work with us till the end they would tell us to do it and be done with it.
I know one thing I never thought we would see this day its like the end of hell coming and we can get on with our life and not have to worry about 647 a month, that will be a nice amount to use elsewhere for sure. We eventually want to buy a small home in Phoenix Arizona and that bankruptcy payment is more than a house payment will be .
thanks
Ron and Kathy

i'm sure you will reach that goal!!! we are closing in feb...so we are really excited to be home owners once again! it's been an uphill battle for certain!

i'm glad this is finally ending for you and wish you the best of luck...you will be on your feet before you know it!

[Ron55]

Thanks we hope so heck we are only looking at homes that cost 70 thousand in our area homes are so cheap now and a payment with fha is only 570 on a home like that with insurance and taxes.
I wont truly feel good thou till three things happen one we get that last payment sent off, two we get the discharge in the mail and three we get the title to our car since it was in the chapter 13.
thanks for encouragement we need it as it feels like jail for ever in the payment plan. Our attorney told us at the beginning that most people never finish a 13 that start one well we can say we will finish ours!

[tobee43]

Thanks we hope so heck we are only looking at homes that cost 70 thousand in our area homes are so cheap now and a payment with fha is only 570 on a home like that with insurance and taxes.
I wont truly feel good thou till three things happen one we get that last payment sent off, two we get the discharge in the mail and three we get the title to our car since it was in the chapter 13.
thanks for encouragement we need it as it feels like jail for ever in the payment plan. Our attorney told us at the beginning that most people never finish a 13 that start one well we can say we will finish ours!

well...we got our house...closing next month and it's being owner financed......it's amazing how many places are out there owned that used to be rentals like our house was..actually this house people only "lived" in for 3 years so it's almost new...but the owner couldn't sell it and we have been here for the past year...the last six month i have been negotiating with him ...and finally....yesterday the contract was signed!! so we are going to own again..and i'm sure you will soon as well..

[Ron55]

So what are you doing a wrap around owner finance if he owes on it still or did he have it paid out and he is actually financing it? Is he financing it full term or for a short term where you have to eventually refi and pay him off that is how some out here do it.

[tobee43]

he owed the property outright....so we are doing a straight 15 very similar to conventional mortgage...i am drawing up all the papers since i have done so many closings myself....his atty can review it all...as his atty reviewed by purchase contract and approved it.

so we are getting a 5% straight 15 year ...he's using the past years "rent" partially for the down payment...he attempted to sell the house for 3 years...and we found out the house is 6 years old...was empty 3 of those years...he's an absent owner...lives in another state and just wants out...so we seized the opportunity...we are paying approx. 30k more than the houses are going for in the area...however, this one has a pool...which is just about new and fence and a few other extras that the neighboring houses didn't have so we felt the extra money was worth it since we had someone out and said the pool and cage is worth over 50k alone...cool....

if he dies...(we sure hope not) the mortgage goes into his estate and is handled accordingly.....of course that could be a worry, but he's in his 40's so lets hope he's around for the next 15 years!