Question How much

[1mquestion]

Is my lawyer entitled to a portion of my garnished wages after they are recouped post bankruptcy? If so, how much?

[bcohen]

The attorney is only entitled to a portion of the recovered wages if you signed a contract specifically agreeing to pay him/her a percentage of such wages. Check your contract--the amount/percentage should be there. However, if you did not actually sign anything agreeing to pay the attorney a portion of the money, then legally you don't have to!

In any case, the recovered wages are technically not yours just yet. They are property of the bankruptcy estate, and you (as well as the attorney) cannot spend them until/unless the trustee in your bankruptcy case has formally abandoned them. If I were you, I would hold on to the check until your case is discharged, or you get permission from the trustee to do so!

[1mquestion]

His secretary called yesterday and said that we got the discharge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He got the check recently. He is asking for 1/3 of this check and wants me to sign the check over to him and he will issue a check for 2/3 of the money. I feel uncomfortable signing the check over.

I looked at the paper we signed and it is a “bk retainer agreement.” It says nothing about recouping money or percentages.

What I do remember is his legal aid mentioned that he will take a portion of these wages if he recoups them. He latter mentioned it outside of the court building after our hearing. They both presented to us as a normal thing and at the time we took them at their word.

Since I still have to deal with him in the coming year, with address change and a dead release, I don’t want to make trouble. Should I offer 25 % not 33%?

Thank you for any advice.

[kornellred]

Surely you are talking about a trivial amount of money in the first place? Wages garnished via lawsuit prior to filing for bankruptcy cannot be recovered. Filing for bankruptcy sets the automatic stay in effect on the date of filing. How long were your wages garnished after the automatic stay went into effect?

[1mquestion]

Actually it was not trivial at all. A yearly bonus happened to fall in that time frame. We were garnished for 7 months. We were able to recover the money garnished 90 days prior to filling. They only garnished one check after filling and my lawyer had them get that back to me with 2 weeks; he did not take a portion of that one.

[1mquestion]

This was my first time on this forum and I mistakenly posted the question in two places. So I would like to update this one.

We agreed on 25%, paid our lawyer and recovered our check. The agreement was never in writing and our lawyer acknowledged that, but we felt it was fair.

We got our discharge on Wednesday. I will not spend any money until the case is close. In any case, the moneys destination is towards 100K in student loans.

[BKAttyMI]

I have it in my fee agreement that if I am able to recover garnished wages, I receive 1/3 of those funds. The reason being, getting this money back can take up a lot of time and work, not to mention dealing with nasty creditors on the phone that don't want to release the funds. Make sure your attorney exempted these funds on your bankruptcy petition, otherwise they could become property of the bankruptcy estate.