Can you file bankruptcy on Attorney Fees?
If you are going through a divorce and have temporary orders that you have adhered to (you owe your spouse no monies and you owe no child support-all paid in full and current) can you file bankruptcy on Attorney Fees? The amount is 00 to spouse attorney and 00 to an independent attorney assigned by the judge. I am in Texas.
Ok. So my significant other is over her head and doesn’t make enough to pay her debts. Her income is less than half the median income here. A sample means test shows she easily and completely qualifies.
My question is this. She is going to have a hard time coming up with the attorney fees associated with filing (around here it seems to be 800-1500 bucks). I am curious how hard is it to file by yourself or if there is an alternative like a Pro Bono attorney option or discounts for low income persons.
EDIT: Her debt amount is roughly 30k. That is with medical bills WITHOUT college loans. Her monthly income is about 1200 bucks. Her monthly bills are more than that. That does not include food or gas. I am not looking for a moral lecture. She is doing this. I am trying to help her through it. She has exhausted all other options.
I hired a bankruptcy attorney in Aug of 2010. But before accepting their service I had asked them specifically that I had money combined with my mom and would that be a problem. The person who interviewd me told "Oh no problem, we just send an amendment document to declare that this account belongs to your mother and not you." Time paaast. And I finally had an appointment with the attorney in Feb 2011 that it was best to dismiss the case so I could have time to fix my mom’s account and refile or do the ammendment and he would charge me 250/hour( even though the contract said 215). So I agreed to dismiss it for him to refile. I was dismissed in early March. I fixed my mom’s account immediatley and within 2 weeks advised to refile. Upto this date, I have been given the runaround stating "well we’re in the process of tranfering your file". Everything was sent electronically. I have given them everything they have requested from me on time. My life is at a stand still. Can’t do anything financially until I resolve this situation. Can I fire this deadbeat and get my money attorney fees back? If so HOW?
My HOA’s Attorney raked up excessive unjustified fees on me for their own personal gain. I was late paying my HOA fees initially and willing paid the stated late fees along with my HOA dues. However, the Attorney collecting these fees does not accept credit card payments over the phone or online, etc. Therefore, I mailed the amount owed. To my surprise, I later received another letter indicating I owed another 0 for late fees. I ignored this notice b/c I thought that they probably didn’t input my payment in their system prior to the letter going out. So I received another letter stating I owed the 0 plus additional fees, and so on. Basically, each time I paid the stated late fees via mail, the Attorney claimed my payment didn’t arrive on time to their Office, and therefore I owed additional late fees.
In addition, all of my payments were applied towards Attorney late fees rather than my HOA dues. My dues were only 0 per year, but within that year I paid over 0 in additional fees that were never applied towards the full amount owed to my HOA. The Attorney continued to take their money off the top and say that I still owed a balance towards my HOA dues. As a result, I stopped paying b/c I felt I was being ripped off and the fees continued to increase. They ended up suing me for the amount they claimed I owed along with more Attorney fees and court cost.
Since I mistakenly missed the initial court date, when I showed up for the second court date where they filed a judgment against me, they won simply b/c I missed the initial court date. Now they are garnishing my bank account for the amount owed from the judgment.
Currently, I’m unemployed and my home is in foreclosure. I recently filed chapter 7 bankruptcy to stop the sale of my home so I can have time to secure a job and work out a modification on my home loan and get it out of foreclosure. I have not had the meeting of creditor’s as of yet. Can I discharge the past due HOA fees from the judgment/garnishment? I am willing to pay the past due HOA fees I accumulated after the garnishment since I intend on keeping my property. Also, I live in Georgia. Thanks for your answers.
I had a house that 100% financed, 90/10. When it foreclosed the fair market value exceeded the balance of principle outstanding to the first loan by 28k…pocketed by the lender. The second loan is in collections for about 80k…I don’t even make enough to pay basic bills, so am unable to pay this back or even make ‘reasonable payments’. 1) How is this handled tax wise? 2) Why didn’t the 28k excess go to the second lender? Or is there a way I could get the 28k from the 1st lender to pay directly to the 2nd to at least show good faith efforts? I’m overwhelmed and considering bankruptcy, but can’t afford the attorney fees yet so I’m seeking alternative situations.
I’m thinking about filing Chapter 7 but do not know if im eligible. Here’s my situation, I make 19k a year which is below the median; I have no property/assets or savings. I owe 23k on the car and 18k on 3 credit cards. If i sell the car I still owe 8k. I tried to negotiate with my car’s creditor and that’s the best rate they can do. The reason why I want to liquidate my debt is because I want to go back to school full-time. Save money and rebuild credit while in school. If i continue paying my debt ( 5 more years ) I will not have savings and an education. I don’t mean to be a deadbeat on my debts but this is the best solution i can do in order to straighten my life, financially and responsibly. I don’t want to do Chapter 13 for my credit card debts– this will waste my time, money and get a ruined credit report.
I’ll face the consequences: Attorney fees, bad record for 10 years, higher rates.. you name it.
My question is if i’m eligible to file for CHAPTER 7.
Hi all,
My wife and I have been trying to have a child for over 3 years. While she has been pregnant twice, both experiences were quite traumatic for both of us. Her first pregnancy ended with a miscarriage at 5 months, and the second pregnancy was an ectopic pregnancy which landed her in the emergency room. We both really want a child, especially a child of our own, but I just don’t want to cause any more physical and emotional distress on my wife. We have decided to look at the alternative which is adoption. Primarily we’re only interested in the adoption of a new born. We began to do some research and the cost of an adoption seems staggering! We’re not interested in an international adoption either. I would like to get some feedback from other couples which have successfully adopted a new born. How much did it actually cost you (after the tax credit and any employer adoption benefits). Was it really around K!!
I can understand the attorney fees and medical costs for the birth mother, but k? It also seems that the adoption process is quite complicated (home study, back ground check, family history, etc), I do understand why those things are required, but I would assume those things should be required of ANY couple wanting to have a child, not just adoptive parents.
Anyway, I am really interested to see how much adopting a new born ended up costing you.
Thanks so much for your feedback! Our combined income is around 0K a year, we own two homes (fully paid), so we’re not poor, and though we really want a child, we don’t want to end up declaring bankruptcy to have one.
Thanks so much!
Jason & Mindy
@PIP – If you haven’t adopted or even intend to adopt, you’re not qualified to answer my question, nor am I interested in your opinion. Your "answer" had nothing to do with my question. In the future, I would recommend that you read an individual’s question carefully before answering.
@Toreejon – Much like the other person who "answered" my question. I am sorry that you had a bad experience as an adoptee, but no where in my question do I ask for an adoptee’s opinion. I have friends who are adopted and have no longing for their natural mother and father.
@Sunny – I did not ask for your opinion on adoption. I wanted answers from adoptive parents. The fact that we really want a child of our own, doesn’t take anything away from us completely loving an adopted child. This so called "bond" between child and natural parents is a myth. This bond is developed as the result of the relationship with the child’s parents (i.e. the parents who raised the child). There is absolutely no evidence that suggests there is a "natural" bond between a child and a natural parent if the child was not raised by those parents. As to your point of DNA, it is completely irrelevant. Unless you’re Einstein or Mozart, your DNA is nothing to write home about. I can’t believe you equate adopting a child with that of buying a car. You need some serious help. Adoption is a very unselfish act. We want to adopt not to make up for the "child we might have had" but to rather to share or love and blessings with a child in need. We don’t HAVE to adopt, we want to.
I may have to file bankruptcy due to losing a court case and owing ,000 for attorney fees and court costs.
How much would it cost to hire a bankruptcy lawyer to do it? And is it possible I can be denied????
HELP!!!!!!!!!!!
I have filed a petition for contempt against my ex for non-payment of child support. In retaliation, he has counter-filed a custody suit against me. The custody suit is borderline frivolous and nothing more than a smokescreen to try and intimidate me out of pursuing the child support case. What I want to know is: if my ex files bankruptcy after he loses the cases in court, will that get him out of paying my attorney fees and court costs? I know that if this was simply a child support case then it would not discharge the fees, but since it is now a custody case as well, can he avoid paying my fees by filing bankruptcy? This is in Tennessee, by the way.
With creditors still calling what can I do till I am able to pay the full amount needed for filing & attorney fees?
I am looking for low attorney fees.
I would like to file for bankruptcy in San Diego. I spoke with a lawyer and the quote for attorney fees, court costs, etc was just over ,000. I am trying to shop around, but most law firms don’t post rates online. If anyone could recommend a law firm / lawyer that would cost less than ,000 in the San Diego area – it would be greatly appreciated. Thank You.
We have completed a bankruptcy but were served with a nondischargability claim from a private lender claiming fraud. I have all of the answers and want to know if it is advisable to answer the complaint by myself so as to avoid additional and unnecessary attorney fees.
Has anyone filed bankruptcy recently, i went to go see an attorney and he wanted 300.00 for a filing fee and 1200.00 for attorney fees is that the rate for a bankruptcy attorney nowdays?
My ex husband was court ordered to pay half of my attorney fees. Now, my ex husband filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy and included the court ordered attorney fees in his bankruptcy. My attorney now wants nothing to do with our case until they are paid. (Which sucks cause I really liked her!) Does anyone know if he is aloud to do this?
I will do a free counseling session "pro bono" for chapter 7 bankruptcy to get certificate for the 1st step. basically i don’t want to pay attorney fees so I will file on my own behalf, how much will it cost me, Any advice?
I can’t afford an attorney (if I could, I wouldn’t have to file bankruptcy), but I’m pretty smart and I have heard of people filing their own. That cuts out the attorney fees and leaves the filing/court fees which can be paid in installments. So I am wondering if anyone else has filed on their own and how hard it was. Thanks!