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

My husband and I live in Alabama and initially filed chapter 13 bankruptcy 2 years ago. We have had to revisit our chapter 13 once to have the payments reduced and surrendered our home and a vehicle in the process. I am no longer employed and we have lost about 20,000.00 in annual income, that puts our total income at less than 35,000.00 per year. I have returned to school under a pell grant and it is just enough to cover tuition and books. I contacted our bankruptcy attorney’s office and sent them the paperwork showing the change in income and a letter from my previous employer. We had to send it certified because they claimed to have never received it by fax or email. We want to convert to a chapter 7. We are renting a home, my husbands work has slowed to a crawl, the bank has yet to take possession of our house that we surrendered, we cannot make our bankruptcy payment and I cannot get anyone from the attorney’s office to call me back with any answers. Would it be a bad idea to fire this attorney and start again with a new attorney? Or is it just the way things are? It took us nearly a year to get our first chapter 13 revisited and at this rate we are going to be in huge trouble if we can’t get something resolved. I might even have to cash out the little 5000.00 I have in retirement. ( I am 45 years old). Any advice. I cry every day.

Technorati Tags: 45 years, bad idea, bankruptcy attorney, chapter 13 bankruptcy, chapter 7, paperwork, pell grant, possession, renting a home, retirement

Bankruptcy was filed in Dec. 2003, will the attorney be able to erase this because it was in the original bankruptcy? Would the attorney have recieved paperwork stating there was a lien? My ex never recieved any notice, we were informed when we tried to refinance almost 3 years after the final bankruptcy.

Technorati Tags: 3 years, bankruptcy, paperwork

I recently filed chapter 7 bankruptcy and was awaiting my discharge papers. Instead I received dismissed paperwork because my attorneys did not send my financial management certificate to the bankruptcy court. They had the paperwork 5 days before my case was dismissed, now they want me to wait another month to wait for a discharge. I need a car and my children have been living with relatives until I can get on my feet.

Technorati Tags: attorneys, bankruptcy court, chapter 7 bankruptcy, discharge papers, financial management, living with relatives, management certificate, paperwork

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

I had a 3 year lease, my landlord lived out-of-state, he stopped paying the mortgage on the house I rented, used my rent money to pay on his home in TX and filed for bankruptcy when the IL house I was renting went into foreclosure.

I sent him notice that I was moving out in 45 days when I found out he was losing the house. I was current with rent, left the house immaculate (took pics, videos, and a statement from this real estate agent that I left the home in beautiful condition).

He agreed in writing to my move-out date, and also put in writing that HE broke our lease. I did not pay him the last month’s rent (00) because he owed me the 00 security deposit and another 5 in lawncare expenses and some smaller maintenance expenses (I have that in writing from him, too). As he had filed BK I did not feel he would pay me those monies which I why I did not pay the last month’s rent.

LOOOONG story short, he sued me for the last month’s rent, added on another 00 for the 5 days extra I took to finish moving out (he was not offering the home to rent to anyone else, no one was viewing the home – he lost no money as a result of those 5 days).

The day of court, I showed up with my attorney, all my paperwork, receipts, etc and my landlord did not show up but his attorney did. 11 months later I missed a follow-up court date as I was NEVER served or sent notice of the appearance and of course, a default judgment was made, plus fees for his attorney and court costs.

Sorry, long-winded – but here is my question: Can I sue the landlord for return of my security deposit, the lawncare service fees, etc – all the things I have in writing that he owes me? The attorney I had initially hired cost me 0 to show up in court the day my landlord did not. As he already filed for bankruptcy, if I won, he would have to pay me, correct? He is working – I know what company he is now at.

I am in IL and he is in TX which I understand has some kind of homestead rule where creditors cannot put liens on property or garnishee paychecks.

Thank you for advice!
Thank you both very much for replying.

The ex landlord filed his BK over a year ago, so I would think it would be completed by now. I figured anything he gets sued for after it is discharged, he would need to pay? I am certain the money he owed me was not included in his filing – I was never contacted by the court as a creditor.

I do not have funds right now to pay my attorney additional money (got laid off a few months back). So…no money for him – no help from him.

Regarding my getting served about the second court date – no I did not move. When I called the landlord’s attorney, he stated he sent me a notice via regular mail to my correct address. Did not get it. I am working on getting the judgment set aside, but as I found out about the default judgment more than 30 days after the fact, this is a bit difficult.

You are good folks for helping me out – thanks!

Technorati Tags: appearance, bankruptcy, bk, creditors, default judgment, foreclosure, homestead, landlord, lawncare service, maintenance expenses, money, monies, mortgage, paperwork, real estate agent, receipts, security deposit

Here it is, I was considering filing for bankruptcy and found a firm online that offered a free initial consultation. Half way through my initial consultation I was asked to pay a 0 down payment for a retainer fee for this firm to file bankruptcy papers for me. The phone call lasted about 1 hour. After hanging up I read some info that the bk attorney emailed me and decided that I was not ready to file for bankruptcy. I called the firm back asking for a refund as I had changed my mind, it was less than an hour since I hung up from my initial consultation, so I didn’t really expect it to be a problem. The attorney told me they would not give me a refund & if I tried to stop payment they would sue. Well, I hung up, called my bank and stopped payment and now 2 weeks later they are calling me and threatening "legal action". My question is should I really have to pay them? They didn’t do anything other than the initial consult which was supposed to be free.
I live in California and I did not sign anything. I was not even sent anything to sign. The reason I say he did not do anything is because I did not sign anything that would allow him to start paperwork on my behalf. And as he did not set up any future appointments with me I fail to see how he could have turned down any other clients due to my "retainer"
Rob5279,
I’m curious why you think I’m in the wrong. Doesn’t a customer have the right to change their mind? Especially within a 24 hour period?

Technorati Tags: amp, appointments, bankruptcy papers, bk, filing for bankruptcy, free initial consultation, paperwork, phone call, retainer fee

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

On 4/25 I hired a lawyer (and paid agreed upon amount) to file bankruptcy for me. He stated that he would be able to file within a day of completing paperwork. On 5/12 all paperwork completed and necessary classes taken, the next week he would not answer or return my calls. Secretary stated he filled banktuptcy over weekend. Finally spoke to him and he said it was filled but his computer down so cant give me case number. I searched the bankrupcty (pacer) website, it has not been filed. He won’t answer or return my calls that I have made. And his secretary told me she can’t help she doens’t know whats going on and that I am in the same boat as three other clients. He won’t answer phone or return my calls.What should and can I do? I need to file bankruptcy ASAP. thanks for any imput

Technorati Tags: answer phone, bankruptcy, case number, imput, lawyer, necessary classes, pacer, paperwork

I have a 341 meeting for a chapter 7 case on June 14th. Ive filed bankruptcy without an attorney so I don’t know what paperwork I need to bring with me.

I contacted the trustees office who’s handling it and they said they would need

2 months of bank statements
2 months of pay stubs
copy of petition
05, 06 tax return copy

Is there anything I will need to have with me on my person when I go to the meeting next week? Im without an attorney so I cant ask one

Technorati Tags: 341 meeting, bank statements, bankruptcy, chapter 7, paperwork, pay stubs, petition, tax return

my sister in law aubmitted all paperwork paid in full in august, now has still not heard anything from lawyer and he wont take her calls or see her. what can we do creditors keep hounding her.

Technorati Tags: creditors, lawyer, paperwork, sister in law

My employer filed bankruptcy last year and the company was sold. I was hired by the new company, but my husband and I decided to get on his (HD) plan and not pick up insurance with my employer. Since I didn’t take the new employer insurance (expensive!) I was told that I would be charged monthly administrative fees to continue the HSA. A few months later (still in 2009) my husband’s employer offered an HSA and that they would be contributing 0 a year to it, so we decided to roll my HSA funds into his new account (we were assured we could do this). We filed the paperwork about 3 months ago and heard nothing more. My husband attempted to get answers from his employer and was told to just be patient. I called the bank that’s handling his HSA setup and sure enough, my paperwork hadn’t gone through. We were told this was probably because there were so many employees with his company that were filing paperwork at the time, and when my paperwork was received it was ignored because I wasn’t the employee trying to roll the funds (my husband was).

What I want to know is, do I have to wait til this whole mess is straightened out until I can file my 2009 taxes due to the fact that eventually there should be a distribution (from my HSA going into his)? Or does it not matter unless we exceed the family HSA $ limit for 2010 contributions? There’s over 00 that will be rolled and I don’t want to have to pay taxes on it.

Technorati Tags: administrative fees, bankruptcy, employer insurance, hd, hsa, insurance, paperwork

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

My son needs to file bankruptcy. He is trying to straighten out his life and he needs to get his credit in order after bad relationship and some not so smart moves when he was younger. He is 27 and of course he doesn’t have hardly any money, and I told him I had heard that one can file it basically themselves and not pay an attorney. I used to have a ton of paperwork on this subject but that has been long ago and thngs have changed. I know I could do it for him if I had a reputible place to help me through it. Anyone know of a free or cheap place for us to start? This is not a complicated one either because he has nothing, just all of the bills. I have most of them. Thanks for reading, your knowledge is greatly appreciated.

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy, money, paperwork, relationship, smart moves

In a week I will be done paying my att. fees and will be able to actually file for bankruptcy. I am not unemployeed, but have been out on sick leave. My last paycheck was collected on 8/11/06 and this was a check for cashing out my sick time and all of my current and future vacation time. My Dr. has sent in the proper documentation required by my employer to excuse my absence. I am currently excused through the end of this year, but I will need to go in to be reevaluated to see if I should return to work. I have applied for LTD since I am eligible, but I had to wait to until the ‘waiting period’ was over. It so happens that the paperwork for my LTD is now being processed at the same time when I will file for bankruptcy and I do not know if the LTD papers will be done in time or if my claim will be accepted. With me not working and this LTD claim status unknown, how will this affect my filing? Is it possible I may still have to file a Ch.13? My att. has not yet replied to this. ADVICE??
My LTD would be provided through my employer. If approved it would provide me with some income and allow me to keep my health insurance. If I am denied I will continue to go on with no insurance and I will not know how long it will be before (or if) I am able to return to work for the company of which I am currently employed. I am not physically disabled or injured. I will be happy to answer any questions if it will help to clarify/answer my bankruptcy concerns. PLEASE — SERIOUS RESPONSES ONLY!!! Thank You!!!

Technorati Tags: absence, bankruptcy, health insurance, insurance, ltd claim, paperwork, paycheck, proper documentation, sick time, vacation time, waiting period

I live in Arizona and I know that there are some special considerations for filing bankruptcy in the state. I have no idea how to navigate all of the paperwork and I don’t want to mess something up – does anyone have any advice on where to start?

Technorati Tags: filing bankruptcy, paperwork

I was default for several months on all my bills. Then i was delinquent. After that the credit card companies started calling 20 times a day to my house. I still did not pay. Then a collection agency was involved and they too did that boring stuff of excessive callings and mailings. Finally the collection agency sent the debt to "debt buyers". The debt buyers also played the same role of excessive phone calls and letters asking to pay bill. However I still did not pay anything.

Then the debt buyer sold the debt to another debt buyer. Finally it reached the lawsuit stage and I still don’t care to pay anything. I showed up at the court and demanded proof the debt is mine (even though i knew its mine). The creditor lawyer did not bring any paperwork so a new court date was set 3 months later.

In those 3 months the debt buyers again called and called and mailed lot of bills. But i still didn’t pay anything. Then just 1 day before the court date, i filed chapter 7 bankruptcy protection.

So my question is what was the point of debt buyers buying my debt and harassing me when i ended up filing bankruptcy. What will debt buyer do now? will they sell it again to another debt buyer? I don’t quite understand whats the purpose of their role?

Technorati Tags: bankruptcy protection, callings, chapter 7 bankruptcy, credit card companies, creditor lawyer, debt buyer, debt buyers, filing bankruptcy, paperwork, phone calls, proof

I am considering filing without an attorney. Situation is a wage garnishment for an 11k judgment that looks to be for credit card. (I’ve been disputing this for years trying to prove it’s fraud but clearly haven’t been successful – another story) Background: single mother, head of household, 2 kids, one student loan about 7k, one car loan, about 7500 left to pay, don’t own property, no assets; all my earnings go to rent, household and child care. I’m not behind on car or student loan payments. I just can’t afford wage garnishments and I think a bankruptcy is my only option to cease the garnishments. Since this 11k judgment is the only debt I need discharged in the bk, I think I may be able to manage this on my own instead of hiring an attorney that I can’t afford. Anyone have personal experience with this or with paying for a sevice that helps only with paperwork?

Technorati Tags: assets, bankruptcy, bk, car loan, child care, credit card, earnings, fraud, head of household, judgment, mother head, paperwork, personal experience, single mother, story background, student loan payments, wage garnishment, wage garnishments

We filed ch7 bankruptcy 3yrs ago. It was discharged. Just recently I discovered our home mortgage was never reaffirmed. We’re making payments, our mortgage company is happy. But our payments are not being reported to any credit agency (our credit report doesn’t show we even have a mortgage.)

A quick call to our lawyer who handled this told us that no assumption papers were signed. I know when I filled out the "so you want to file bankruptcy" paperwork that I checked that we wanted to assume our mortgage. Our lawyer said the following:
A) it wasn’t a big deal but nothing could be done now
B) the mortgage companies often don’t allow mortgages to be reaffirmed (essentially saying it was their fault)
C) we should seek other methods of rebuilding our credit.

Does any one know:
A) is it really no bid deal?
B) should I fight to determine who’s fault this really was?
C) is there anything that can be done to get our mortgage back in good standing?

Thanks
Frustrated in Big

Technorati Tags: assumption, bankruptcy, credit report, home mortgage, lawyer, mortgage companies, mortgage company, mortgages, paperwork, quot, report doesn

I’ve decided to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy…my employment hasn’t been steady in the last year and my debts eclipsed my rent even though I was on a debt mgmt company. All my accounts are closed and I haven’t used a card for anything since July (and that was at best a grocery purchase). I’ve been living off of temporary jobs and the occasional two-week unemployment benefit. I’m single, live alone in a small apartment, have no assets (not even a car). I have approximately K in old credit card debt. I’m not a shopaholic…most of the debt was incurred either to help me stay afloat while unemployed (and not receiving UE benefits).

I know bankruptcy will screw my credit, but I don’t really care…I don’t plan on moving anytime soon or buying anything on credit within the next few years. It would be wonderful to be able to put away some savings after paying my bills (00 a month would pay all my bills and allow me a modest budget of disposable income) would feel wonderful after scraping by for years and praying I don’t lose a job.

I can’t afford to hire an attorney, so I’m having a paralegal help me out. I know an atty would be better, but since I have nothing to save (no assets), I figure things would be pretty cut and dried.

At the moment, I am subsisting on temporary jobs and unemployment benefits during the weeks I am not working. A permanent job could come along, but I’m guessing not for at least another month.
wash – you can make payments to an attorney? I visited one early on in my decision and they quoted me 00, all upfront. I’ve heard that if you screw up your paperwork, you cant file for bankruptcy for a whole year, so I realize the value of an attorney…however, I also have a pretty simple financial matter: no assets, no kids, no mortgage.

Yahir – I don’t know if you’re a real person or not since I see a lot of these links, but just FYI – I was working with a debt mgmt company for about three years before I lost a job and could no longer pay them.
I’m single, no kids, never married.

This paralegal is not working for an attorney…she has her own business. She also told me she has filed for bankruptcy herself a number of times….I don’t know if this is a warning sign or it proves that she knows the ropes as far as what to expect.

Technorati Tags: assets, budget, chapter 7 bankruptcy, credit card debt, debt mgmt, debts, disposable income, financial matter, job, mortgage, paperwork, paralegal, real person, shopaholic, small apartment, temporary jobs, unemployment benefit, unemployment benefits, upfront