How to find a lawyer

[ssh4061]

First of all let me say thank you to everyone who answers questions on this forum. I have been reading through this site for a least a year now and have obtained so much information. My husband and I have finally decided it's time to get the ball rolling with filing for bankruptcy.

We have only lived in our current state going on two years this May. How do you go about finding reputable bankruptcy attorneys in your area?

[Drazil65]

Hi and welcome, in a case like this where you probably hesitate to ask someone you know for a referral (if you plan on keeping things private) I would just open the phone book and get some names. We looked outside our county as we wanted to file in a county that the trustees were a little more debtor friendly (just because). We also live in a very small town and they tend to publish things like bankruptcy in the local paper, being it is a very small local paper people tend to read everything, wanted to avoid that if possible.

I would make a list of what is important to you as far as location of atty's office and whether you have a choice in filing outside of your resident region. It worked out very well for us but maybe not important to you so make a list. After you have a list of names of bky atty's then do online searches on them and start reading. Narrow it down to maybe your top 5 to call. I would suggest you start with maybe 3 atty's to make appointments with then make those free consults.

Bring a list of questions with you to each consult, interview them and get a real feel for how they operate and how familiar they are with the system/trustees. Your atty can make or break your experience and interviewing them in the beginning is your opportunity to get what you want. It takes some time but well worth it. Good Luck...

[TXskyblue]

I started by looking up lawyers in my area that were board-certified in BK. There was only a handful.

I googled around for reviews and then called a few that I was interested in. Ending up going with the one who told me he thought I could qualify for a 7 when the others told me I was definitely a 13.

[mynameainttracy]

One thing I did, after googling and other online searches, was look at the online court logs for upcoming cases. I saw that there were a couple of attorneys that had 20-30 cases each every week and then there were the ones that just had a couple. I'm not saying it is the way to pick an attorney, but for me it showed me who had the most experience with the trustee and was most familiar with their tendencies. For us that proved invaluable.

[AngelinaCat]

Call the clerk of your BK Court and ask for a list of names. They aren't allowed to make recommendations, but chances are that you will get a list of attorneys that the people in the Clerk's office prefer to deal with. They work with these people every day, and know who is prepared, courteous, and professional. Likewise, they also will know those who are rude, discourteous, ill-prepared, etc.