Should it be taking this long to even start the process?

[Forthebirds]

We "retained" (didn't sign or pay anything) our atty in October. Atty is a friend of friend and is taking care of us outside of his BK mill. Atty has answered many of my (overly-anxious) emails but we have not done ANYTHING towards filing! Atty wanted us to wait to put time between CC transactions and to see if student loan discharability would change. Just now the atty is asking about our expenses because I went back and calculated our income and we are over the median, when in Oct the atty said we were well under. I ran all this by another atty I know, and he did not have positive things to say. At this point, I'm almost ready to walk and go somewhere else. But, am I overreacting? Does this sound normal? Am I rushing things? I know BK is a business decision and not an emotional one, but I would feel like a jerk if we went w/ someone else now (but I won't allow that to influence what is best for our situation).

[frogger]

Glad to see that you understand that this is a business decision. Consult with two or three other attorneys and you'll get a better picture of what your deal is. Good luck!

[Floridagail]

He will not do anything until he is paid in full. Ours said He were 7, but we were worried. Of course We thought giving him retainer would start the process, it did not. After He was paid in full , he still did drag his feet. We ended up pushing the issue to file the day b4 we needed to. But it was a struggle.
In your case Do not be in rush, Let the cc advance age off some. Unless you have a reason to file soon, besides creditors calling. Like a lawsuit or judgement. I stopped paying my cc for 18months before I was sued. You have time. Have you done the means test yourself online.

[Forthebirds]

Well, now it seems like I'm complaining about service I haven't paid for! I would love to pay the atty and get this going but it's been wait and see, wait and see. I appreciate all the help that has been given, but I also feel like since we are clients on the side, we are moving more slowly.

I did meet w/ another atty last week. He did not have good things to say about the firm our atty works for, and said it's not good business practice to do a BK outside of the firm. He recommended moving on and telling atty we decided to take a different path. He offered a discount and his cost is a couple hundred more than the first atty. I feel like the 2nd atty would get things going, but I also don't want to jump the gun and change attys if I don't really need to.

[btbeme]

If you are over median income you will need a good attorney to help guide that path. Which one do you feel is the best attorney?

[Forthebirds]

We are over the median by a good amount of money. I think they're both good atty's. I think I liked the 2nd atty because everything was on the table, plan devised, fee schedule, and we were given the paperwork we would need to complete. I haven't gotten anything from the 1st atty and I have no idea what we are doing! So I guess it's either be very direct w/ atty 1 and say we would like to get this going now, or go w/ atty 2...I told atty 2 I would be in touch in the next week or two as he needs a retainer fee if we use him. I don't want to tell him never mind, then things don't progress w/ atty 1 and I go back to him and say actually we do need you! My husband feels better about using atty 2. I guess I just feel bad about not using the first atty. Trying to not let my emotions make the decision but it's difficult.

[Pjmax]

I wouldn't feel bad. This is an important decision for you and your family. It's important to choose the lawyer you feel most comfortable with. Many people on here interviewed a lot of attys. before making the decision. I talked to 3, and I didn't choose the least expensive.

[Forthebirds]

Thank you Pjmax!

[Floridagail]

If he bad mouthed the other attorney, I would not use him either. The first attorney sounds reasonable as he wanted to put more time since the cc use. Even if you are over medium, you have expenses to leave no DMI then you are fine. Hubby was twice the medium and he is able to file 7 due to high mortgage and our mortgage errearages.

[stevem3827]

Our problem is that our Attorney depends too heavily on his paralegal.

We had originally supplied all the requested documents in early October. I am not sure what she was doing but twice I had to supply more recent paystubs (first for October, then for November). Upon first receipt of the documents, there were several glaring errors that she made, which we caught. We finally filed in Mid-December.

The US Trustee questioned some of the information and requested additional supporting data from them on January 4th. She forwarded the request to us on January 11th. I responded that weekend to the best of my ability (could not answer some of the questions regarding how derived some of the data on the Schedule I and Means test since I was not exactly sure what time frames she actually used).

We still had our 341 Meeting on January 28th but it was continued to March 4th since the attorney's office had only responded in part (the information that I supplied) to the US Trustee. As of today the schedules are still not amended. Yes, I take some responsiblity for the information not being correct but since I am paying them to be the experts and accurately complete the documents and since I am not the expert on the calculations, I feel that it's on them.

Since our next 341 is less than 2 weeks away and the US Trustee still does not have all of the requested info, I can see this meeting getting pushed back again. The worst part is our attorney is a Trustee for the state so he should be more aware of what his staff is doing. The paralegal was out for awhile with medical issues but it doesn't account for almost no action over the last 6 weeks.

So, yes, it can take awhile just to get going and then keep it going. If our meeting is bumped again, I'm rolling up against tax filling deadlines with our potential refund in limbo as we aren't sure (we were close) to a 7 or 13.

[lillymarlene]

In the summer of 2010, I decided on an attorney and paid the retainer. Shortly after that, my boyfriend's mother, who was helping me out, kept saying, "What's taking so long!?" I asked my attorney, and he said that there's really no reason to rush, it's best to wait to make sure you catch all the creditors, etc. Then he filed for me that October, about 2 weeks before I was supposed to go to court on a couple of creditor lawsuits.

[Forthebirds]

Thanks everyone. After reading the responses and trying to be rational about things, we decided to stick with atty #1. I contacted him and was very clear that I wanted to get things going. Since then he has been in contact w/ me several times and we are making progress! I am just so nervous about being sued because we are approaching 6 months of not paying. We should hopefully file in the next 2-3 weeks! Never thought I'd be looking forward to filing BK!

[btbeme]

I am just so nervous about being sued because we are approaching 6 months of not paying.

No worries. "Being sued" is simply the start of a long process by which the creditor hopes to get a court order to get you to pay up. If you were served with papers today it would take at least a month or two (in almost every jurisdiction) for any court date, and that can easily be delayed with some simple paperwork. Yes, filing BK before a lawsuit is perhaps less stressful, but for many people the trigger for filing is the receipt of their first lawsuit.

[Pjmax]

No worries. "Being sued" is simply the start of a long process by which the creditor hopes to get a court order to get you to pay up. If you were served with papers today it would take at least a month or two (in almost every jurisdiction) for any court date, and that can easily be delayed with some simple paperwork. Yes, filing BK before a lawsuit is perhaps less stressful, but for many people the trigger for filing is the receipt of their first lawsuit.

I agree with this. I had one judgement and the same attorneys acquired two more accounts, so I knew it wouldn't be long. You will have plenty of time, so just be careful rushing things. Take your time, research, read everything carefully, and ask questions about everything you don't understand. You have an attorney who will handle things for you, so don't spend much time worrying about being sued.