Please give us advice!!! I am desperate.

[jaljayjar]

We filed Chapter 7 in 2000 due to my husband having a major job loss and killed our income. We weren't prepared for it and we tried to get through but was unable. We lost everything except our house. We bought a car and my husband was "called" back to his job...needless to say, he was laid off again in 2001 and my store that I was managing closed. We again, got behind and lost the car a few months about a 18 months after purchasing. We both got new jobs, but not like the income we once had. Long story short....the loan company tried to garnish both of our wages for the rest of the loan. We filed Chapter 13 to prevent the employers from being involved. The company never submitted a claim for the amount ($11,000). The other things on the chapter 13 were 2 hospital bills. We stopped paying the chapter 13 because we couldn't afford it anymore. Now, that the chapter 13 is dismissed...the company is trying to garnish our wages again. They didn't want the money before through bk 13, but they want to garnish our wages. We wanted to file ch 7 after the 6 year period to have a fresh start, but now the laws have changed and will have to wait 3 more years...and they will probably be able to garnish. If they would garnish our both of our wages, we would not be able to afford rent, food, etc (garnish amount would be about 1000 bucks a month) Any advice???? I am truely at a loss. There is not too many decent lawyers in this town to meet with, so I would have to to Lima, Ohio.

[StaciMM]

Your options are limited since you have a ch. 7 in 2000. Ch. 13 would stop the garnishment, but would require some disposable income to pay into the plan. The drive may not be what you want, but if you have to drive to visit attorneys try to schedule several consultations for one day perhaps.

[Minnymouth]

Stacci,
I noticed they said they had filed a Chapter 7 in 2000 and then filed a Chapter 13 in 2001 and ending up getting it dismissed because they stopped paying on the plan......

Their options are NOT GOOD!...

Chances of them filing another Chapter 13 might prove to be a problem for them.... I'm not sure how close together you can file Chapter 13's BUT the fact that they never finished the 1st Chapter 13 may not "go good" with the Court....

I'm sure the BK Court would frown upon someone continously filing Chapter 13's but then having them dismissed.

They need to check to see what the garnishmet percentage is for their state. Some states have a "no garnishment" law on wages. They just might strike it lucky that their state is one of them....

They seriously need to speak to an attorney for any other options that might be open to them.... Attorney might be able to negoiate a payment plan with the creditor for them...

My thoughts,

[jaljayjar]

Sorry...didn't put the year we filed bk 13...2005 not 2001. We only filed BK 13 once. If we were to file again, which my old lawyer said we could, I don't think we will go through him. I just want to skip the country to get rid of this crap. They are saying we owe $11,000 for the car. I understand fees associated with repos, but it seems outrageous. We financed $11,500, paid on it for over a year, when they took it. Which means with the resale of the car at an auction...we should not owe this much. They also submitted in the ch 13 that it was an secured debt. The trustee was livid that they submitted it that way when the car was in their hands, not ours. He almost threw it out. My lawyer was going to argue the debt owed to them since he said it was outrageous also. But, the lawyer lacked in several areas...and failed to do his job. I am meeting with a lawyer in Lima, Ohio to see what options exist or atleast some advise.
Thanks to everyone for any help!! Good luck to you.

[StaciMM]

If the BK ch. 13 was dismissed, it should be possible to refile. (Unless the court put a restriction on refiling.) Generally, the time limits between filing applied to discharged bankruptcies-which is why ch. 7 is NOT an option.

One issue though-why was it dismissed? If your financial situation now is not set up so that you can complete a plan, then filing again will only postpone things (for as long as you are in the 13).

The repo can charge interest-your state may or may not have a max APR that can be applied to a judgement. DH had a judgement on a repo back in 2000. At that time, the balance owed was $3200. Fastforward 5 years, the balance was over $9000. As to your original car loan, it was probably at a high APR due to recently being out of a ch. 7, meaning that at the end of the year you probably had not made much progress. Then, they would have tacked on late fees and repo fees. And, cars sold at auction don't bring as much as you would have bought the car for.