Need Help...New Here

[berrymom31]

Hi, my husband and I decided to seek an attorney's help with bankruptcy in April and had our first meeting the first week in May. We paid $600 to retain our lawyer and met at that time with her paralegal. We brought a lot of paperwork with us and the meeting was grueling and lasted 3 hours. When we left she said within a week she would have a sample payment so we could decide if we wanted to proceed. 2 weeks later she called and said they had been swamped and needed to know the balance of our 1st and 2nd mortgage for her calculations. I gave those to her. 6 weeks later we had heard nothing from the attorney or the paralegal. We have left at least two messages each week. Today my husband walked into their office and demanded some attention. The paralegal said she had figured our payment but it seemed high and she was going to have the attorney re-figure it and that is whey we had not heard anything. She said our payment she figured was $2000 per month. Paid back over the course of 5 years would be nearly twice as much as our debt. We bring home about $5,700 per month. Our house payment is $2,200..we have three kids...I figured it up and making a $2000 payment after our cars and utilities and insurance we would have $100 left for food and clothing. Does this sound like a terrible mistake? The median allowance for food an clothing for a five person family in my zip code is over $1,600 per month....how can this be right? Also does this attorney seem to be taking too long to any of you.

I know we make good money, but we can't afford $2000 per month. Our credit card debt is about $60,000, our house is $240,000.....I also have student loan debt but that is not factored in as I am in a hardship forbearance right now.

I have lost 15 lbs because I'm too worried to eat right. I gave myself shingles. I just don't know what to do. Now, after my husband barged into their office she said it would be a couple of weeks until we had a new calculation.

I feel sick about not being able to buy my kids school clothes or shoes when they need them. What about Christmas? How can we save for Christmas when we only have $100 each month for food and gas?

I'm so sorry this is so long, I have absolutely no one to talk to about this who has gone through it or knows anything about it. I was hoping to find some solace here.

Thanks

[drowninginflori]

Have you paid your full fee yet? That might also be holding them up. We paid in full almost four weeks ago and turned all of our paperwork in way before that and we still do not have a case number yet. I call weekly but get the same song and dance as you "we have been swamped with filings" - we need our case number desperately because we have a car that we are keeping that is paid up to date that is trying to be taken from us by our CC because we are including other loans from the CC in the bk13 (cross-collateralization really stinks!!!). I know that some posters got case numbers as quickly as 10 days. About your payment that does sound high. We have about 53K in cc debt only (cars we will reaffirm and student loans are deferred right now). The sad thing is the amount will go up over this month while we wait for the case number. The estimated payment for our case was around $1,100. That obviously could change since we have not had our 341 yet but we are planning for 100% payback and payments as high as $1,400 even though if we paid that much it would be over the amount of our original debt.

[rrockinggramma]

You should get free consults with a couple of other attorneys. If you find one you like better demand your 600 back. I imagine they are swamped but enough is enough.

yes 2000 seems high

[becky20]

Have you paid your full fee yet? That might also be holding them up. We paid in full almost four weeks ago and turned all of our paperwork in way before that and we still do not have a case number yet. I call weekly but get the same song and dance as you "we have been swamped with filings" - we need our case number desperately because we have a car that we are keeping that is paid up to date that is trying to be taken from us by our CC because we are including other loans from the CC in the bk13 (cross-collateralization really stinks!!!). I know that some posters got case numbers as quickly as 10 days. About your payment that does sound high. We have about 53K in cc debt only (cars we will reaffirm and student loans are deferred right now). The sad thing is the amount will go up over this month while we wait for the case number. The estimated payment for our case was around $1,100. That obviously could change since we have not had our 341 yet but we are planning for 100% payback and payments as high as $1,400 even though if we paid that much it would be over the amount of our original debt.

Wow, I guess I got my numbers pretty quickly from our attorney - most of the waiting time was on my end while they waited for paperwork. I think it took 2 weeks for them to run all the numbers for our means test.

I hear ya on the cross-collateralization sucking... We also have a 2nd mortgage, 2 car loans, and a credit card all with a credit union. Somehow we made it through getting the credit card charged off without the cars being repoed (not sure how we got so lucky other than God looking out for us) but when I asked our attorney if, after our 5 years of payments are done, if we'll have an issue getting the car titles, she said we'll have to wait and see... Apparently the Credit Union I have is a pain in the butt, so we may have a fight due to the cross-collateralization. We're cramming down both car loans though, and then paying the 2nd mortgage outside the plan.

[liz417]

Hi Berrymom,

I know this is a stressful time and the last thing you need is a lawyer that has too much on their plate. Yes, $2,000/month seems high, it seems as if the paralegal is too busy too. You will have paid back over $120,000 in debt (if your debt is even that high!). I know that my attorney/her paralegal is always there to answer any of my questions and my attorney told me to call ANY TIME I have questions. I just turned in my paperwork last Monday and I know they were waiting for ME to turn in everything!

I would seek out a couple of more free bk consultations before handing over anymore money to that (obviously) busy attorney! It's better to lose the $600 then to be screwed in a ch 13 repayment plan that is going to fail!!!

Good Luck and keep us updated!

[Flamingo]

I work in a law firm and, believe me, I know how busy it can be but to tell a client that you will have the paperwork to them in xx days/weeks and twice that amount of time goes by without an answer is not good business. Either they are over swamped or not paying enough attention to your matter to get it moving along. Since your initial meeting was over 3 hours long, I am assuming there is a lot involved in your case especially since you state your payment is turning out to be $2,000 per month. While that seems high, it all depends on your situation and what is involved. Our initial payment turned out to be over $1,700 per month which did not include our mortgage payments (did include our vehicles), so $2,000 is not far out of the realm depending on what encompasses your situation. First you need to find out why the delay and I would certainly obtain a full breakdown as to what encompases that payment and why it is so high. Secondly, you can always consult with another attorney if you are not happy with the first.

[justplaintired]

I am not doing a 13, but I know our paralegal seemed slow to me. However after talking to her working on our paperwork I discovered she is awesome and smarter then heck, I feel like a good attorney is worth the wait. However it does seem this paralegal may not be as bright. I definitely would think seriously about another attorney, or request to speak directly to your attorney, go over the paralegals head and voice your concerns. Just don't sign anything until your confident that it is the right thing.