Attorney is ghosting us

[imtryingtho]

We contacted our lawyer a month ago when we got our tax refund because we don’t know if we have to send it to the trustee or not. He emailed us back telling us to upload our tax return so he could take a look and we haven’t heard from him since. We’ve emailed and left voicemails, no response over the past month. Our refund is required to be sent to the trustee within 30 days IF we are sending it. But since our refund is CARES money we’ve been waiting on our attorney’s advice on if we have to. I’m honestly just shocked that he’s ignoring us now when this is time sensitive. Over a month ago when I followed up on a different email to him, he made a comment “I guess you didn’t see my email” and we had no emails from him, so now we are like... who has he been emailing!? I’m pretty sure it was just a cover for not responding. What can we even do? Our case was confirmed in early February. I can’t do this for 5 years, but he also got us a great plan and knows his stuff. I feel stuck now that we’ve been confirmed and like this is just gonna be how it is with no answers and constant stress. I don’t want to do something wrong because our counsel won’t respond. We also retained him for a separate issue in January so that maybe he would give us more attention since we were giving him more business. Clearly didn’t work... Like at this point I’ll send him $200 to just answer my damn email.

Anyone else with unresponsive attorneys? This is one of those “tell me something that feels illegal but isn’t.”

[justbroke]

Generally speaking, most Chapter 13 attorneys are done with day-to-day handling of their Chapter 13 clients the moment the plan is confirmed. The Chapter 13 attorneys may appear to be, and may actually be, more difficult to reach. If you're having email communication issues regarding what your Chapter 13 Plan requires, please continue to follow up with the attorney by email and/or phone until it is resolved.

Chapter 13 plans typically specify in writing that a tax refund and/or tax return are required to be surrendered to the Chapter 13 Trustee. Whether or not your plan has that would require a reference to the contents of the plan.

The Executive Office of the United States Trustee (EOUST) has instructed Chapter 13 Trustees to not take any CARES act related payments in Chapter 13 cases. However, that's just a recommendation and a Chapter 13 Trustee may still pursue any disposable income from a (non-100%) Chapter 13 plan. How your particular Trustee or district deals with this is too fact and debtor-specific.

I would continue to send a daily email and/or call until you have a response. As a Chapter 13 debtor, you should understand the contents of what your plan requires. Until that is done, your attorney should work with you to ensure that you meet the terms of your Chapter 13 plan.

[Carmella]

Make sure he has your email correctly in his system. One of my coworkers had a problem because her last name is quite complicated and our company had it spelled wrong. Maybe he was saying he emailed when he did not, but I would call and ask someone to read the email address to you to make sure it's correct. Now if you have other emails from him, then that's another story.

I hope you get your answer soon.