Last night I had my free consult with a local ch. 7 bankruptcy attorney. I had another one with an attorney who canceled so I suppose it was a case they didn't think they were going to make much money on (their fee was $1,700 total).
Last night's attorney told me 2 things flat out wrong. One is the max exemption amount here in Florida. The second was that a letter I got from a credit card company meant I've got a judgement against me and about to be garnished. I left there scared to death and past upset.
After a lot of research, I figured out the letter was just a sleazy legal looking document to get me to sign my rights away. I've never received a summons from that company.
The attorney just kept trying to get me to give them a retainer and hire them.
In fact, after reading the Nolo book and other stuff, I'm very possibly not even going to qualify for ch 7 based on my Sch I income and Sch J expenses going forward.
The attorney assured me everything would be fine if I just hired and paid them their $1,500 over 3 to 4 months. My problems would be solved but they never even looked at my details. Another important detail they avoided is that I do have one summons I've answered and am on a time limit to get this filed before the court date in about 2 months. And of course my car value is substantially higher than the $1k exemption here. I kept asking about this stuff but kept getting the "just pay us and everything will be fine" answer.
In summary:
I'm a dead broke but reasonably intellegent person. I definitely think I'm better off pro se. I know this was just one attorney but I can't afford any attorney at this point anyway. I am SO GLAD I've learned as much as I absolutely could in advance! It really helped that the middle district of Florida bankruptcy court has all the forms and some other useful stuff on their website, too.
The whole terrifying court hearings with Capital One who is suing me is starting to look better and better!
Last night's attorney told me 2 things flat out wrong. One is the max exemption amount here in Florida. The second was that a letter I got from a credit card company meant I've got a judgement against me and about to be garnished. I left there scared to death and past upset.
After a lot of research, I figured out the letter was just a sleazy legal looking document to get me to sign my rights away. I've never received a summons from that company.
The attorney just kept trying to get me to give them a retainer and hire them.
In fact, after reading the Nolo book and other stuff, I'm very possibly not even going to qualify for ch 7 based on my Sch I income and Sch J expenses going forward.
The attorney assured me everything would be fine if I just hired and paid them their $1,500 over 3 to 4 months. My problems would be solved but they never even looked at my details. Another important detail they avoided is that I do have one summons I've answered and am on a time limit to get this filed before the court date in about 2 months. And of course my car value is substantially higher than the $1k exemption here. I kept asking about this stuff but kept getting the "just pay us and everything will be fine" answer.
In summary:
I'm a dead broke but reasonably intellegent person. I definitely think I'm better off pro se. I know this was just one attorney but I can't afford any attorney at this point anyway. I am SO GLAD I've learned as much as I absolutely could in advance! It really helped that the middle district of Florida bankruptcy court has all the forms and some other useful stuff on their website, too.
The whole terrifying court hearings with Capital One who is suing me is starting to look better and better!
Bankruptcy Wizard
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