The person filing BK is under a lot of stress (at least I was); this is one of the reasons you hire an experienced lawyer. To help you with advices, with the papers and to be on your corner when stuff happens. We hired the Big Kahuna and we talked with him for a while until, very subtle, a 2nd lawyer started to be CC-ed to our e-mails (let's call him The Little One - TLO). Suddenly, we found ourselves talking to a paralegal (let's call her The Experienced One - TEO) and, once in a blue moon , with TLO. The Big Kahuna was totally out of the picture and we never, ever met TLO in person, until 341. OK, the filing day arrived, we went to the attorney's office to go over the papers with the experienced paralegal.
Dialog:
TEO: "you have 2 accounts with money in, I see $100 in one checking and $150 in another checking"
US: "yes, you told us $300 are exempt"
TEO: "yes, but in one account, the other one has to be empty"
US: "OK, one is a regular checking, the other one is a business account. Where should we put the money?"
TEO: "IT DOESN'T MATTER !!!"
And we transferred all the money in the business account. The trustee joyfully took every penny out of that account, as we found out in the hard way that the business accounts are not protected. 1 for the trustee - 0 for us

Casually, the dialog continues: US: "we made a $1,500 cashier's check for our landlord with one day before filing. Is this OK?" TEO: "SURE !!!" And it wasn't OK. The cashier's check has to be cashed by the time you fill BK, otherwise is considered property of the estate. The trustee joyfully disputed and won and took back every penny of those $1,500. 2 for the trustee - 0 for us.

We were not informed that HOA dues continue to accrue regardless of the chapter you fill. We filled in February, they discharged 2 months, we are still responsible for the rest even if the property is abandoned. $275 to go. We could have payed the whole amount before filing.

We are now in a settlement plan with the trustee, six payments for a total amount of $1,750.00. I strongly consider that these are my attorney's mistakes and I shouldn't pay a penny out of my pocket. But I'm paying them all because is cheaper to do so than to sue my own attorney.

We finally met TLO at the 341 meeting. He spent a total of 10 minutes going over our papers and then he told us that everything is simple with our case.
Next thing we knew, the trustee got himself a lawyer and they starting going over our finances for a year back. In the meantime I discovered BKForum and I understood this is the procedure for self-employed people. Nothing simple anyway ...

The bizarre thing happened with 3 days before discharge when I received an e-mail from Big Kahuna stating the TLO was no longer with The Firm and another super lawyer is representing me. And I'm asking the Super Lawyer a question regarding the HOA, and the answer was something like: "oh, it seems that you have a BK case with our firm; well then, ..." and then I got a correct answer regarding the HOA fees, rules and regulations.

So basically, I went through 3 lawyers, 1 paralegal and 1 office assistant. I paid around $3,000 in fees and the tab is still open. I am afraid to ask a question because I don't trust the answer, but I know for sure I will be billed. I always come to this forum for information.

As of know I am broke, I live paycheck to paycheck, I don't know if I will ever be able to save a pretty penny, when a doctor's bill arrives I get tears in my eyes and when my car makes a funny noise my heart stops.