What if case is dismissed before confirmed?

[vleisme]

My atty is doing a very poor job and he has until 1/8/08 to correct his mistakes with our plan and re submit it to the trustee or we will be dismissed on the 8th. If he does not get the corrections made to the plan and submit it on time what recourse do we have? I already looked up the CA Bar online to see about filing a complaint against the atty but it says you need to file a complaint if your atty did something illegal not just for doing a poor job. He just seems too busy to do a good job and if it is dismissed because of him I am wondering what will happen.Would he be able to file again (at his cost )if he does not meet the deadline? Is there some penalty we will suffer because of his poor job like a time we will have to wait to file again?

[aa06a47]

You can definatly file a complaint with the bar. An attorney has a legal obligation to defend the interest of his clients and being too busy to do so is not a good reason. Perhaps this attorney needs that type of wake up call.

Given a deadline by a judge often gets the attorney off there a$$. I have a feeling your attorney will comply and you won't get dismissed.

[HHM]

First...are these true "mistakes" or is this the usual tinkering of the plan that ALWAYS happens in a chapter 13. The chapter 13 trustee will ALWAYS find something in the petition or chapter 13 plan that needs to be changed or modified, so that, in itself, is not a bad thing. The 8th is still a few days away...but, you would probably be able to refile without too much difficulty if the case does get dismissed, the court only needs an explanation for the refiling.

[vleisme]

The mistakes he made were with the numbers and figures. He had some secured debts listed twice and he had made a mistake on the amount listed for taxes withheld from our pay checks, that amount was double what it actually was. There were other errors and the atty didn't show up to the 341 meeting, the trustee called him from the hearing on speaker phone in front of the whole room and asked where he was he. The trustee was nice enough to let us wait the hour for the atty to get to the court house.The atty said it was a problem with his software that the atty's use to fill out all the forms but it was all mistakes he would of caught had he checked his own figures instead of the trustee finding the mistakes at the 341. The atty mailed us what he thought were corrected figures and as far as we can tell the numbers are still wrong for things like our 6 mnth avg pay. I finally got an appt. today to see him in person and to ask him where in the heck he is getting his numbers from so I am hoping he can correct it and send it off to the trustee before the 8th. I do not have very high hopes he will get the figures correct. The atty is doing sloppy, rushed work and I don't know what I can do to make him take the time to check his work.Do you think the trustee would talk to me in person so I can explain my problems with this atty? The trustee is an atty also and I have a feeling he would side with his fellow atty.

[Minnymouth]

The Trustee is not interested in your problems with your attorney but the Bar Assocation would listen real close........

Hopefully, you can meet with your attorney, go over the figures and get this straightened out.

[lrprn]

The mistakes he made were with the numbers and figures. ... The atty is doing sloppy, rushed work and I don't know what I can do to make him take the time to check his work.

Please keep in mind that your attorney is not filing for bankruptcy....you are. It's up to YOU to check your Ch 13 forms for accuracy before signing them. If they aren't accurate, don't sign. Provide the correct figures right there on top of the incorrect forms and return them to your attorney.

If your attorney is asking you to sign forms that are not complete, then refuse to do so.

As hard as it is sometimes and as much as we would like to put everything in the hands of our lawyers, ultimately we are responsible for our own bankruptcies. It is not the sole responsibility of your attorney to ensure your forms are accurate.

If you still want to report your attorney for misconduct, here's where to do so in California -
State Bar of California
Office of the Chief Trial Counsel
1149 S. Hill Street
Los Angeles, CA 90015
P. 213-765-1000
F. 213-765-1029

Excellent idea to make a face-to-face appointment with your attorney to get the inaccuracies corrected. Hope everything smooths out for you this time. Keep us posted, ok?

[vleisme]

The appointment with the atty went well. He spent two hours with us and we went over everything line by line. We have learned a hard lesson about this kind of thing.When he originally created the plan he did not go over each line and explain where the numbers came from and all we cared about was the bottom line- what we would have to pay monthly. That is why we hire attys for ch 13 because the forms and formulas are so complicated.You give your atty all your pay stubs and statements he enters the information in his computer and generates the plan .I understand it is our bk but what do we pay an atty for if he cannot do the work accurately? I feel like we finally have everything correct ,now it is up to the trustee. I am sure he will come back with some problem but at least this time it is not just simple mistakes with the figures.

[MajorMike]

First...are these true "mistakes" or is this the usual tinkering of the plan that ALWAYS happens in a chapter 13. The chapter 13 trustee will ALWAYS find something in the petition or chapter 13 plan that needs to be changed or modified, so that, in itself, is not a bad thing. The 8th is still a few days away...but, you would probably be able to refile without too much difficulty if the case does get dismissed, the court only needs an explanation for the refiling.

Why do you say something "ALWAYS" happens. Nothing happened with ours. It was fine.