So, I recently (a couple days ago) was served with court papers, I am being sued by a hospital for ,000. I have about k-100k in medical bills alone, so to avoid paying the ,000 I know I should just file bankruptcy. Today I had a consultation with an attorney, and I am SO confused still. It was a free 30 minute one, so maybe that’s why I felt really rushed and lost…but anyway. It’s going to cost about ,500 to file. I am a 25 year old BROKE college student who works part time at a retail store, this is a lot of money =/ ….I know it’d be easier and for sure would get the papers done RIGHT, if I had an attorney, but I don’t know if I can afford it. I know you can file yourself. Has anyone done this? My sister got a paralegal about 5 years ago, and filed herself. She said it was about 0, but she said the paralegal was helpful in helping her with the paperwork, BUT she did miss a few things. I feel like I’d be paying the lawyer to basically just go to the court and turn in the papers, and come with me to court. I still have to do all the dirty work of course…gathering my bills, filling out all the paperwork, etc…but I’m not sure if ,500 is worth having an attorney. Also, I am confused on this court paper I got. I know that they will eventually file a judgement against me (within 14 days) and start garnishing my checks, I understand bankruptcy can stop this. But is it only after your papers are completely filed and done? Or is it when you START the process? I am so lost! The attorney told me to try and get all this paper work gathered and figured out before 10 days so we can start it before the creditor starts coming after my money through the judgement. Does anyone have any advice? Thank you!

Technorati Tags: 100k, bankruptcy, checks, consultation, couple days, court papers, creditor, dirty work, judgement, lawyer, medical bills, money, paper work, paperwork, paralegal, part time, retail store

I filed for bankruptcy Jan 2005. Credit card company "wrote off" the debt Jan 2005. I thought it was included with my bankruptcy, but when I check my credit report, it claims I still have the debt, it’s just written off. To be specific, my credit report states that I still have this amount from the one creditor as "revolving debt". Shouldn’t it state that it was included in Chapter 7 like all of the other creditors state? Any help would be wonderful. I just want to know if I have something valid to dispute.

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy, chapter 7, credit card company, credit report, creditor, creditors, jan 2005, report states, revolving debt

My husband and I have accumulated more debt than we can handle of the years and with two kids, we have decided to just file for bankruptcy. We just moved to another state at the end of December and have to wait 91 days before we can file. So, our 91 days are up on March 28th and that is when we intend to file. However, my husband co-signed a loan for someone and that person has not made the payments. Now we have a court date, that court date is on March 29th.

My question is for anyone who has been in a similar situation. If you have had to file bankruptcy and have a court date for a creditor the same day you file, can they still make you pay? We would just like to know if we go into court that day, saying that our lawyer filed the paperwork for a bankruptcy the day before or is in the process of filing the paperwork, would that save us from having to pay the debt if the debt is going to be included in the bankruptcy?

Any advice is helpful.

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy, creditor, lawyer, paperwork

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.

Technorati Tags: attorney fees, chapter 7 bankruptcy, credit card payments, creditor, foreclosure, hoa dues, home loan, job, judgment against, late fees, mail, money, personal gain, surprise

I bought my home in 2006 and put down $ 100k, yes its 20% down for a $ 500k house. I have put in another $ 50k in upgrades and remodel. Fast forward to 2009, laid off, no income I resort to using my credit card to pay my mortgage while my house was being listed by my realtor. 6 months went by, then a year, the house remained unsold. I’m up to my limit in credit card debt, thinking to sell the house for $ 350k, which will give me approx. $ 50k to pay my credit cards. Year and a half later, house is in foreclosure; credit card at max limit. No job, no car (sold it to pay credit card debt), ..and now living like a deadbeat.

Credit card companies still call and say "hello". Same story told to them over and over, no income, no job, no money etc. They "understand". Then they sell the debt to collection agency, same thing again. I told them my story..and they don’t care. "When are you gona pay?" I say with what? I can sell my t-shirt and underwear, but that might be worth 25 cents. What good will it do? So now, they are suing me in court. Went there and told the same story…judgment for the plaintiff. Okay, now they want to garnish my wage…but I don’t got no job. They want to freeze my bank acct…I have none. They want to..probably kick my ass..that they can definitely do..but that would hurt them, because if I get hurt and sue, they probably owe me money.

So here is my dilema, should I file Bankruptcy ..as there are other creditor waiting in line to sue me. Or should I go to court and and plea guilty but have no way to pay?

Yeah, I know..I’m a deadbeat, but I don’t blame my misfortune on no one except myself. Lost my life savings and people are laughing at me. What a cruel world this is. To file BK or not to file BK? If I do, I will have a fresh start says a friend. If I don’t, my friend says that the creditors will put my balance on my credit report, and renew it every 7 years…meaning that I can call the credit reporting agency to remove it, but they have a right and probably will repost my balance…as nothing had been collected. Is this true? I thought a negative item must be removed after 7 years, but it could be put back in and stay for another 7 years?? Please help. Thanks in advance.

Technorati Tags: bk, credit card debt, credit cards, creditor, creditors, cruel world, dilema, foreclosure, fresh start, judgment, max limit, misfortune, plaintiff, plea, realtor, remodel, should I file bankruptcy, t shirt, underwear, waiting in line

I file for bankruptcy and I have the meeting on the 17th. I DON’T have an attorney.And I forgot to add a creditor on the file.

Please, I need to know exactly what is the form I have to print out and fill out to bring to the court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I know I have to pay a fee of . But I still don’t know what form I have to fill out and where to get it. Thank you for your help.

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy, creditor, fort lauderdale, lauderdale florida

My wife is filing for bankruptcy and one of our creditor’s is Kay Jewelers. We bought our wedding rings through them back in 2008. We received a letter in the mail today saying that they may have a non-dischargeability cause of action against us if we don’t turn our rings over, which we really don’t want to have to do. I know that it seems like the sensible thing to do and we can’t really afford to pay off the debt. Is there any alternative to giving the rings back or paying the debt?
Thank you all for answering so quickly. First, I am not on any of her loans/ debts so it wasn’t really advisable that I file as well. The only thing I have in my name is my student loans and our car (which the person who helped us file our paperwork said we wouldn’t need to worry about since the title is in my name). With that said, while we were filling out our paperwork, there is a section that you get to put items that you would like to have exempt from the bankruptcy i.e. jewelry, clothes, electonics… and you’re allowed up to a certain value for each item. Our rings fell way below the limit so we were told that we could keep them. Lastly, and unfortunately, it was a secured loan so they are saying that the rings are collateral and they have the right to either take them back or have us pay it back.

Technorati Tags: clothes, collateral, creditor, debts, electonics, filing for bankruptcy, jewelry, kay jewelers, letter in the mail, paperwork, secured loan, student loans, wedding rings

Got a letter advertising for a bankruptcy lawyer saying I’m being sued by a creditor. The credit hasn’t sent me anything about being sued and nothing is showing up on public records. Does this sound like a scam?

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy lawyer, creditor, public records

I have contacted one recently but I only found 3 reviews. I was advised that I can pay 200.00 down to retain them and pay 380.00 per month for 4 months. Once this was paid the papers would be filed for the bankruptcy. I was also advised that once the 200.00 was paid to stop paying my bills and refer the creditor to my lawyer. In theory with my financial state this would be a great thing. In the 3 reviews I have found they have all stated that they had paid in full and a year later they were still waiting for the papers to be signed. The one lady was being sued by one of her creditors for failure to pay. Can anyone help shed some lite on this? I obviously have made enough bad financial mistakes I don’t want to make another one.
ps–if you want to judge go find a beauty contest

Technorati Tags: 4 months, bankruptcy, beauty contest, creditor, creditors, failure, financial state, lawyer

I have a delinquent Credit Card account that I last paid in January 2009, but it was not reported as a major delinquency until December 2009. What gives? Don’t most Creditors report major delinquencies at the 6 month point? When exactly should the clock have started ticking?

To confuse matters more: this debt was either assigned to or bought by Mann Bracken, who happened to file for Bankruptcy around the same time that this item was reported as a major delinquency. Can I surmise from this that Mann Bracken was working on behalf of the original Creditor (as opposed to having bought it from them), and that it is now back in the hands of the original Creditor?
I just read from CatDad that the clock starts "beginning on the date of the first late payment that led to the charge-off". Doesn’t this mean this negative item should be tied to January 2009?
It shows as "Charge-Off" and also shows a balance.

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy, clock, credit card account, creditor, creditors, delinquencies, delinquency, delinquent credit, mann bracken

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.

Technorati Tags: 10 years, attorney fees, best solution, chapter 13, consequences, credit card debts, credit cards, credit report, creditor, deadbeat, education, filing chapter 7, full time, median, property assets, time money

I have given the guy my credit report and other paperwork to get the bankruptcy filing started. I gave him a deposit and will give him the rest when my student loan is deposited this week. He responded to my emails just fine until I sent him two regarding a judgment that had just been entered against me last week. He hasn’t responded to either one. I am concerned because I hear that my bank account can be frozen and I don’t want the creditor to get to my student loan money. Why do you think the lawyer will not respond to questions regarding this?
I don’t want the student loan discharged, the loan funds get deposited in my bank account and I don’t want the creditor in the judgment to get a hold of these funds because I use them for living expenses.

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy filing, credit report, creditor, judgment, lawyer, living expenses, loan funds, loan money, paperwork, student loan

Party A lost a breach of contract case in circuit court and now owes over a quarter million in business debt. Party A then files bankruptcy.

Can the attorney for Party B (the creditor to which that money is owed) prevent, overturn, reverse the bankruptcy for Party A?
Party A has approx. 00 worth of assets and no means of paying off the debt.

Technorati Tags: assets, bankruptcy, breach of contract, breach of contract case, business debt, creditor, money

I totally disagree with it, and have fought it repeatedly, but the creditor and the credit beaureas wont budge. Its been almost 4years. If I pay it off does it help my credit in any way? Ive been told it could actually potentially harm my fico score and lengthen the period of negative reporting, if I pay after all this time, as the clock is supposedly reset when I pay and wether I pay or not its been there so long it has already done the damage? Any thoughts on this?
AlsoI filed bankruptcy in 2002, which was primarily due to suffering a medical illness and being unable to pay my bills. Is there any way I can add this to my credit file and would this help improve my fico score or should I just wait. And finally I asked before about secure credit cards. I got a few responses but they werent too helpful. Anyone know of a good secure credit card I can get that wont report to the credit beaureaus as a secured card?
Thanks for your help.

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy, clock, credit beaureaus, creditor, fico score, medical illness, secure credit card, secure credit cards, secured card, thanks for your help

I just had my bankruptcy chapter 7 . None of the creditors showed up at the meeting and when it was about to get discharged , 60 days latter, one creditor filed Adversarial Proceeding .
My lawyer told me that he does not represent me in this and i have to look for a new one, even all the other debts had been discharged by bankruptcy.
What should I do, about this ? Apparently, I don’t have any money to pay for the new lawyer. What does it mean to me, can I settle with the creditor, or make a payment plan on my own?? Anyone help?????
Also, I had my 341 meeting on April 30th, and Adversarial Proceeding was filed on June 30th.
From the net , I got that creditor has 60 days after the meeting to file Adversarial Proceeding.It looks like they filed a day latter (May==31 days, June == 30).Would I be correct on this one? or…..my calculations and information are wrong???

Technorati Tags: 341 meeting, bankruptcy chapter 7, creditor, creditors, debts, lawyer, money

I was served yesterday legal papers that I’m being sued for less than ,000.00 by my creditor, first I’m unemployed, I looked up online and found a lawyer that charges 50 for filing bankruptcy, I need to know the best option and plus I don’t have any money! they only thing I own is my car which is been paid off, I know it sounds like a radical question but how are they thinking of getting paid by me when I don’t have any assets? are they trying to take away my only property which is my car? and plus I can borrow money from my mom( I’ve been living with her)(her salary is approx: ,000 annually)(since I’ve looked over the fact that they see if you’re living with someone they might take them responsible as well!)(so she can’t be because we’re already below the minimum salary rate) anyways my radical question is should I even get bother by it? I mean they can’t get anything off of me! I’m flat BROKE! my bank account is even overdrawn by thousands! and since if you’re answer is yes<< (you are being sued so start the PANIC ALARM) which is best? and do attorneys from nonprofit organizations do the same work as an attorney who gets paid some 00 ? (I mean if it’s him charging me because he will go to court and file my papers and stuff..)(hearing meeting is %100 me<< so I’m wondering to go cheap with it to prove to the court that I AM BROKE for real! or borrow money and pay the lawyer! which is best?
Thanks:)

Technorati Tags: assets, attorneys, creditor, filing bankruptcy, lawyer, lt, minimum salary, mom, money, nonprofit organizations, panic alarm, salary rate

hello, I just filed for bankruptcy oct 25th, i haven’t received my discharge yet , but will be very soon. I was wondering, how long will it take before my credit gets good enough to maybe get a good interest rate on a house or a car. I am in nursing school right now, and will be graduated nov 3, 2008. I hopefully want to have my credit to a point where i can get a good rate on a house. What steps can I take to improve my credit? I did just recently get a credit card w. a 350 $ limit, and plan on paying monthly to improve my score. I was rather suprised I even got a card w.out the discharge. I also just opened a checking accounts, and again was suprised to see i was accepted w. no problem, w. a big bank like bank of america no less. But what else can i do to achieve better credit and how long does it take? has anyone had similar situations. I am kinda scared to put alot of money in my bank account, because I am afraid a shady creditor will take my money out and garnish it. please help

Technorati Tags: alot of money, bank of america, bankruptcy, checking accounts, credit card, creditor, interest rate, nursing school, score

the bankruptcy lawyer told me that i should refer all creditor calls to him and i’m not supposed to tell anything else to the creditor. I told this to the creditor several times, but he keeps asking me only one question –

"how will you pay? you must pay it"

I told them, "i will not pay anything as i have a bankruptcy lawyer and you contact him"

he stubbornly responds,

"this is an attempt to collect a debt and you must pay. How will you pay — credit card, check or money order. Again i repeat you must pay"

i said, "did you call my bankruptcy lawyer? why don’t you"

he stubbornly says, "you have no lawyer, so don’t make excuses and we will continue calling till you make payment. so once again i repeat you must pay and how would you pay?"

i hung up the phone on them. what to do? bankruptcy lawyer says he never ever received any call from such creditor whatsoever.

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy lawyer, credit card check, creditor, money order, quot, several times

The creditor filed judgment against me on my credit for medical bill, that was from my ex -wife. I was being nice and stupid, she was still under my insurance coverage even we were separated, I had no idea where was she, all of sudden there was medical bill on my credit. I filed divorce on the news paper because I couldn’t find her. I am still not able to pay this money, I am thinking about filing bankruptcy… How can I do it?

Technorati Tags: creditor, divorce, filing bankruptcy, insurance, insurance coverage, judgment against, medical bill, money, news paper

i don’t have the 00 to pay and it is a simple bankruptcy for one creditor just wondering if i can do it myself and just pay the state fee of 9?
could you go into detail as to why?

i read that you could buy the documents at "office depot"

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy, creditor, office depot, state fee