Means Test vs. I & J

[bcvw]

Some of you may have been following the thread about my incompetent attorney. I need some opinions.

I redid the means test he set up for me and the DMI is now $1550. He came up with all kinds of different amounts in the past couple of weeks, but we've basically been about $500 to $700 apart on the means test DMI amount and the I minus J amount . The short story is I have pulled as much out of my I & J as I feel can be done and still survive for the next 5 years, yet he's insistent we have to be within $20 to $100 of the means test to get confirmed.

I live in a rural area and my wife and I both have to drive a fair distance to our respective jobs. I've dropped my gas price projection down to $3 a gallon (it was $4.25 in September when we SHOULD have been filing), but even that is a guess now. Our LP bill is much higher than someone with a natural gas line going to their house. These two factors are the main contributers to the difference between the means test and the schedule result.

How do I convince him to file with that difference and is it likely the trustee will confirm? How important is that means test DMI to approval?

[rrockinggramma]

use your gas receipts to prove your budget and any other receipts you need to show them to the lawyer and the trustee if needed.

[bcvw]

That's what I said but he says the means test amounts are set in stone.

[rrockinggramma]

Your attorney knows the trustee's in your area and what they will and won't allow. But fight it off as much as you can. Take receipts to the 341 anyway just in case.

[bcvw]

I have no receipts for gas but I can extrapolate MPG of the two vehicles and the distance we drive to work to support the expense.

I really don't think he knows the trustee at all. I see very little CH13s in his history. He's a BK mill.

Really my queston is am ultimately I in charge of my own filing and can force him to file what I want regardless of his advice?

[liz417]

I really don't think he knows the trustee at all. I see very little CH13s in his history. He's a BK mill.

Just a quick questions: How do you look up an attorney's history? Pacer??

Thanks!

[paradise lost]

Seeing an atty next Friday-- are there questions I should ask him to determine if this is the dude to go with? So very foreign to this. The paperwork is painful, which is the least of our worries... TIA.

[bcvw]

Just a quick questions: How do you look up an attorney's history? Pacer??

Thanks!

I've looked him up in PACER, but I also look at the trustee's 341 schedule on a daily basis. He's only had one case on the docket since July and that one resulted in a dismissal by the trustee because paperwork was not filed in time (per what I found on PACER).

I think I might just see if I can get a second opinion from another attorney, even if I have to pay for an hour of his/her time. I can't go on like this much longer and now my attorney has got me so uncertain about our future. I don't see the point in filing according to his means test number if we can't live on what's left over.