My Lawyer Appointment

[MEA2]

We saw a new lawyer today.He has 30 yrs experience with bk and came highly recommended.Last week we saw someone that told us we'd need to do Chapter 13 and he took our case very lightly and he was very unorganized!Boy,was today a different ball game.This lawyer was awesome,so professional and informative.When he saw our list of debt(3 high interest cc's totaling $45,000)he said "this is it ?"...because he had looked at my dh's annual income he thinks we should try to consolidate the debt.He really thinks BK would be so involved for us and cause us more harm than good in the long run.He said to try that and see how things go.We can always come back to him ofcourse,he spent an hour with us.
Has anyone else been told this?To actually not file?My dh was beyond stressed about BK and was thrilled this lawyer had another idea...Now I need to find reputable loan companies if anyone knows of any that would be great..
Opinions?

[lrprn]

We saw a new lawyer today.He has 30 yrs experience with bk and came highly recommended.Last week we saw someone that told us we'd need to do Chapter 13 and he took our case very lightly and he was very unorganized!Boy,was today a different ball game.This lawyer was awesome,so professional and informative.When he saw our list of debt(3 high interest cc's totaling $45,000)he said "this is it ?"...because he had looked at my dh's annual income he thinks we should try to consolidate the debt.He really thinks BK would be so involved for us and cause us more harm than good in the long run.He said to try that and see how things go.We can always come back to him ofcourse,he spent an hour with us.
Has anyone else been told this?To actually not file?My dh was beyond stressed about BK and was thrilled this lawyer had another idea...Now I need to find reputable loan companies if anyone knows of any that would be great..
Opinions?

I think you've been remarkably fortunate to find an very honest lawyer, MEA! It's so easy for the bk lawyers to say you must file even if you might reasonably have other options - that's direct $$ right into their pockets. For your very experienced bk lawyer today to say he thinks it's premature for you to file bk is wonderful! Thank him profusely and ask if he recommends a reliable debt management or credit counseling program in your area.

If he doesn't have one to recommend, then check with the Better Business Bureau in your area and do online searches for debt management company complaints - those are good ways to tell who NOT to use! There are lots of scam artists in this area with more being added every day, so be VERY CAREFUL who you decide to go with. A reputable debt assistance company should provide one-on-one credit counseling and advice on managing your debts and help with creating a budget, and create a debt management plan for you that is approved by your creditors. Together you work out how much money you can afford to spend retiring some of your debt every month, then you deposit that sum with the debt management company every month. The company then divides and distributes the money to your creditors every month by the due date.

If you do figure out in the future that debt management didn't help and you do have to file bk, if I were you, I would head directly back to the lawyer you saw today and retain him immediately! Good luck and we all hope that debt management works out for you!