Should I be worried?

[Shanfish]

A little background: when we had gone in to sign the papers for our CH7 petition, there were a TON of mistakes that the paralegal had made. So the atty said he would fix everything and I assumed we would have to sign all over again before it was filed. When I didn't hear anything for a couple days I called and called and no one ever got back to me. We received the notice that our case had been filed in the mail along with new papers to sign 2 days after the filing date. Our paperwork was filed on February 15 and I had not even been able to see the completed petition until YESTERDAY! I had stopped in after our filing to drop off the signed pages and was told that my petition still needed to be updated! We have our court meeting with the Trustee on March 22nd and after receiving a copy of the petition there are more mistakes. The biggest mistake is the incorrect address of the property we will be discharging. The paralegal entered the address of the house that we rent not the one we own. There is also a debt on there for a car loan that we had paid off back in October and no longer own as well as my student loans (which I know cannot be discharged) listed with the wrong amounts.

I called the atty and he acted like it is no big deal and said he will just file an amended petition. Is this normal or will it be sending up red flags? Our case is pretty clear cut, we have no assets and are living paycheck to paycheck anyways but I don't want this to take longer than it has to or make the Trustee suspicious of anything.

[BrokeinMD]

My attorney's paralegal sucked, too. My attorney had to Amend my petition. Let him prepare the Amendment and make sure you sit with him and go over it, or, at the very least, that he emails it to you so that you can make sure it's correct.

[tobee43]

A little background: when we had gone in to sign the papers for our CH7 petition, there were a TON of mistakes that the paralegal had made. So the atty said he would fix everything and I assumed we would have to sign all over again before it was filed. When I didn't hear anything for a couple days I called and called and no one ever got back to me. We received the notice that our case had been filed in the mail along with new papers to sign 2 days after the filing date. Our paperwork was filed on February 15 and I had not even been able to see the completed petition until YESTERDAY! I had stopped in after our filing to drop off the signed pages and was told that my petition still needed to be updated! We have our court meeting with the Trustee on March 22nd and after receiving a copy of the petition there are more mistakes. The biggest mistake is the incorrect address of the property we will be discharging. The paralegal entered the address of the house that we rent not the one we own. There is also a debt on there for a car loan that we had paid off back in October and no longer own as well as my student loans (which I know cannot be discharged) listed with the wrong amounts.

I called the atty and he acted like it is no big deal and said he will just file an amended petition. Is this normal or will it be sending up red flags? Our case is pretty clear cut, we have no assets and are living paycheck to paycheck anyways but I don't want this to take longer than it has to or make the Trustee suspicious of anything.

we had the same exact problem............and it was our ADDRESS!! this paralegal kept using an address for us that was over 35 years OLD.....and listed that property as the property we were surrendering.......it was so frustrating.......and i really doubted that person was a "real" paralegal....we were told our person was, but when i finally confronted her out of our frustration ...well...no...i'm not REALLY ...but i fill out the petitions....

we had to do ours 4 times............and finally i spoke with our atty as you do as well...and he had the same response. i refused to allow them to file until i reviewed it.......but like your atty says...they can amend it...so it will be fine.

that's the cheap help out there...and some REAL paralegals need jobs...but the attys don't want to pay real ones...LOL!!

i'm sure you'll be fine....

[LadyInTheRed]

Petitions are amended all of the time, so I wouldn't worry about that.

What I would worry about is the petition being filed without you first signing it. If you haven't already, you should tell your attorney that under no circumstance should anything be filed containing your "electronic signature" until you have actually signed the hard copy of the document. He shouldn't even have to be told that since its a legal requirement. But, make it very clear that such actions are unacceptable to you.

[discouraged]

I never even thought of that. I only had a few changes and we went over them over the phone and once the law clerk reviewed it to make sure the changes were made, I let them file it. Wish now I'd looked it over one last time but, in reality most changes were minor (they didn't retain my garbage collector was one of them). The only big thing was the cash on hand. The paralegal told me since it would be exempted I didn't have to include it. When I got home I emailed the law clerk and told her I was not comfortable with that and wanted the 1200 I'd taken out of the bank (and hid in my house) was included in my petition.

[Shanfish]

Petitions are amended all of the time, so I wouldn't worry about that.

What I would worry about is the petition being filed without you first signing it. If you haven't already, you should tell your attorney that under no circumstance should anything be filed containing your "electronic signature" until you have actually signed the hard copy of the document. He shouldn't even have to be told that since its a legal requirement. But, make it very clear that such actions are unacceptable to you.

Yeah, I don't understand how that was possible... I expected to be able to review it before it was filed. And I was uncomfortable with signing the forms and mailing them back without knowing the information was correct (and of course it wasn't). I haven't heard anything back since the 11th about the amended petition; is there something for me to sign with that? Our 341 is on Tuesday and I really don't want the Trustee to know I am as clueless and out of the loop as I really am. I feel like it will draw unnecessary attention to our case!

[tobee43]

i agree...i can't see how an atty can submit a petition without the signatures being there.

i would reach out to the atty's office again, ask them, or tell them you need to know...it could be, maybe you did sign the paperwork, (i know it was sent to us AFTER the petition review), and i kept the ONE sheet unsigned until i finalized the petition. so, it just may be, you signed the paper not knowingly??

[LadyInTheRed]

I haven't heard anything back since the 11th about the amended petition; is there something for me to sign with that?

Yes, you should sign the amendment. Call your attorney on Monday and find out what is going on. If an amendment is not filed before your 341, I suggest you prepare a list of errors on your petition and show it to your attorney before the 341 and tell him that when the trustee asks whether everything in your petition is correct you will tell her about the errors. The trustee may also ask you whether you signed the petition. I'm don't what will happen if you say "no", but you will be under oath.