No Assets, No Family, No Steady Job - Anyone have experience similar to my situation?

[hopefull]

• New to the forum and seriously drowning in debt. 40k in unsecured debt, 30k debt in auto loan
• No steady work for 7 months.
• First missed payments were 4 months ago, but caught up about half way. Falling behind again with no way to catch up in sight
• I'm 35 single and the last six months income I have made less than the median amount in my state (CA);so I qualify to file Ch. 7.
• Haven't taken the Online Means Test yet.
• Should I file? Anyone have experience similar to my situation?

Any questions or comments will be much appreciated!

[justplaintired]

Sounds to me like you should speak with a lawyer. Find a free consultation, more then one with a few attorneys. Sounds like a good case to file C7, but an attorney can tell you for sure.

Good Luck

[soleprop]

agreed, get a free consult; it doesn't mean you have to use a lawyer to file, it does mean he'll ask the right questions and get you thinking along the right lines if BK is an option you want to take. to my inexpert eyes, you look like a great candidate for it.

[HHM]

No steady work for 7 months

That problem needs to be resolved before you file. As a practical matter, you need to have at least enough income to pay your necessary expenses. Until you can do so, filing BK is premature.

Otherwise, sounds like you are a ideal candidate for a no hassle chapter 7 BK.

[hopefull]

Thank you all for the warm welcome. I will be contributing to the forum, the best I can; as I progress through this BK.

[JRScott]

Good Luck

[hopefull]

Had my first consult today. Lawyer said Chapter 7 was okay.

Had my first consult today. Lawyer said Chapter 7 was okay. With only looking at my deposits for the last six months; said it was a waste of time to complete the means test because my income was below the median.

I had expressed my concern about being forced into a Chapter 13 and the lawyer responded the with the same "waste of time" answer.

After the online means test: "That would leave you with $387 at the end of each month to pay into a hypothetical, five-year Chapter 13 bankruptcy plan, which would pay your unsecured creditors . . .". I would interupt this as; I will be forced into a Chapter 13.

My income is based off of deposits only; and haven't done any business deductions.

Is my lawyer telling me this to just get me to hire them?

Any questions / comments are welcome!

[Phillymanhere]

Hey,
First of all, congrats on getting to the first lawyer. I'd definitely recommend you visit 3 more. See what they say. That's probably the easiest way to judge how sharp any one attorney is.

The deal with expenses ... lawyers working with clients filing chapter 7 sit down and make sure the client has included all his/her expenses ... It is quite easy to overlook reasonable expenses ...

I can't say for sure, but what this guy might have been saying, was "I've never seen a case where someone with your level of income didn't qualify for chapter 7. By the time you and I go over your expenses, you won't have so much left over at end of month."

But get to several lawyers in your area. The reason (or lack thereof) for his comments will become clear.

[hopefull]

Second consult; retained services.

Had my second consult today and retained the services of the second lawyer. The first lawyer was very short with me and the second was very patient.

The first told me prefilling classes was $50 and the post filling class was $50. The second lawyer told me the classes were $15 and $30.

Both lawyers said that Ch.7 was very likely; if I was telling the truth (I told the truth).

Homework from lawyer:
- Client Questionaire For Business Debtor
- income/expense worksheet

[justplaintired]

Had my second consult today and retained the services of the second lawyer. The first lawyer was very short with me and the second was very patient.

The first told me prefilling classes was $50 and the post filling class was $50. The second lawyer told me the classes were $15 and $30.

Both lawyers said that Ch.7 was very likely; if I was telling the truth (I told the truth).

Homework from lawyer:
- Client Questionaire For Business Debtor
- income/expense worksheet

Wise choice.

Far as passing the means test did you include all your expenses, like say food, every thing you need to survive on? Dividing car insurance into 12 months, car repairs, ones you don't know about yet but could be down the road, newspaper subscriptions, kids lunches?, kids clothes, kids field trips, birthday gifts, xmas gifts, the list goes on and on and on. I remember when I first started on the paper work and we had just stopped paying cards I thought we will never make a C7, then we started trying to survive on our income, minus cc and guess what we barely make it sometimes. It's tight, not always, but most of the time. Not much money left and definitely not enough to finance a C13, so now I do understand why our attorney didn't see any trouble with us filing C7.

[Pizza]

That problem needs to be resolved before you file. As a practical matter, you need to have at least enough income to pay your necessary expenses. Until you can do so, filing BK is premature.

Otherwise, sounds like you are a ideal candidate for a no hassle chapter 7 BK.

Wow, must be a lot for me to learn ... you mean you can't go bankrupt if you are out of work and have no income??

Seems like being broke as a joke would make a great candidate for a discharge!
Also, doesn't it screw up your chances for getting a new job if your credit keeps getting worse and worse?

[Cali]

You can file BK if you don't have a job, but without a job how can you survive on basic needs of life(food, rent, gas for car, medical, etc).

Wow, must be a lot for me to learn ... you mean you can't go bankrupt if you are out of work and have no income??

Seems like being broke as a joke would make a great candidate for a discharge!
Also, doesn't it screw up your chances for getting a new job if your credit keeps getting worse and worse?

[Pizza]

You can file BK if you don't have a job, but without a job how can you survive on basic needs of life(food, rent, gas for car, medical, etc).

That I understand, but if you're broke and unemployed, why would you wait until you found another job to file bankruptcy (assuming you could find one any time soon).

[JRScott]

The principle reason to wait in that circumstance is that without a steady income you can end up in the same or worse situation after the bk. Keep in mind you can only file a chapter seven every eight years or so.

[Cali]

I guess you missed my point of my post. If you don't have income how can you make it w/out ending up where you are at now? Being unemployed doesn't mean you don't have bills to pay after your BK.

That I understand, but if you're broke and unemployed, why would you wait until you found another job to file bankruptcy (assuming you could find one any time soon).