Chapter 13 in Florida - Some Q's

[jayc]

I've been reading and reading so many posts in here and getting so much good info, but I just wanted to get some advice from some people and I have a couple of questions.

My wife and I have about $10K in credit card debt. We have 2 mortgages. One for $148K and the 2nd for $37K. The house is worth about $130K. I have two children and make about $7000 under the median level for a family of four in Florida. I have a car loan on my 2003 Honda Accord that is still owed about $15000 (I was upside down on it when I traded in my 03 Explorer 2 yrs ago) With the credit cards, mortgage, car payment and other expenses, we're barely scraping by. Now comes the news my mother being diagnosed with terminal cancer, so we've been traveling from the Daytona Beach area down to Tampa every week to visit with her and that is costing us that much more money.

I am current on my mortgage and car loan, but the credit cards are maxed and now we're dealing with late fees and over limit fees. I am considering filing CH 13 before it gets worse. I have some questions:

1. Looking at some preliminary totals and using some of the links I have found on this site, I am certain I will wind up with negative disposable income. Since I am under the median and my plan would be most likely 3 years, I would assume even if the payment to unsecured creditors was $0, I would still have to make payments to cover the attorney's fees and also the fees for the trustee is that correct? I think I saw that in Florida the trustee gets 10%, but 10% of what if the payments I am making is $0 to unsecured creditors or would it be a percentage of the secured creditors assuming I would have to make my mortgage payments and car payments through the trustee?

2. I keep reading about people "cramming down" their car loans but haven't been able to find much of an explanation. How does that work exactly? It seems to me people have been able to get reduced interest rates and therefore reduced payment amounts but still keep the car.

3. I know you guys don't like direct links to law firms, but does anybody have a good website where I can search for a reputable attorney? No offense to those in the legal profession, but far too many are more in a hurry to get clients in the door and right back out, collect their fees and bring more another client in than they are concerned about truly representing their clients.

Thanks for the help!

Jay

[optimistic1]

1. but 10% of what?

It's 10% of the total amount of money you pay into the plan, example, your disposable income is $100 a month X 36 months, = 3600 X 10% = $360.00 trustee fee.

That is an example where the 3600 pays all your required creditors, including attorney's fees if they are in your plan. And it is just an example, it gets a little more complicated than the way I explained it.

2. I keep reading about people "cramming down" their car loans but haven't been able to find much of an explanation. How does that work exactly? It seems to me people have been able to get reduced interest rates and therefore reduced payment amounts but still keep the car.

To "cram down" your auto loan means, your car is worth 5,000, but you owe 10,000 @ 10% interest, when you cram it down, your loan is seperated, one claim is secured, one is unsecured (the upside down amount). By reducing the amount of payoff and utilizing the Till rate for the secured portion which is the Prime Rate (3%) plus 0-3% extra, this frees up more cash for other claims or cushion in your plan (i.e. extra money). It can benefit the debtor (if your attorney is slick), but it's intention is to benefit other creditors, so that everyone gets a fair share of the pie. Keep in mind, that you can only do this if your vehicle was financed more than 910 days ago.

3. I know you guys don't like direct links to law firms, but does anybody have a good website where I can search for a reputable attorney? No offense to those in the legal profession, but far too many are more in a hurry to get clients in the door and right back out, collect their fees and bring more another client in than they are concerned about truly representing their clients.

Thanks for the help!

Jay

Type this into www.google.com,

"board certified bankruptcy attorney specialist florida"

The first link looks good enough to me, dont hire some piece of s*** injury lawfirm that also does bankruptcies just because the economy is ripe for it. Always hire a board certified specialist.

I can also suggest that you utilize the Florida State Bar's attorney locator service, only good standing attorneys are allowed to participate.

http://www.floridabar.org/tfb/TFBConsum.nsf/48E76203493B82AD852567090070C9B9/EC2322E512B83D1E85256B2F006CC812?OpenDocument