chapter 7 costs

[michael.foutz]

I know each case and each area the price is going to be different. But I was wondering what most of you paid to hire a attorney and all costs associated with bankruptcy process.

I'll be looking for a attorney soon for bk and kinda wanted to know a ballpark figure of whats a good price. What services do I need to know that will be included in the price and what services he doesn't do that I will have to do.

My case is a no asset case and our income is below poverty.

[Runnin on empty]

If I recall correctly, everything came to about $1700 for ours, and that includes the mandatory pre and post BK counselling.

Doesn't matter if it was $5K, it still would have been worth it, even if for the peace of mind alone.

Good luck.

[michael.foutz]

If I recall correctly, everything came to about $1700 for ours, and that includes the mandatory pre and post BK counselling.

With the stimulus check and the money me and my wife have saved we got about $2k for it, just hope thats enough.

Is it possible to get a quote from attorneys before you use them?

[HHM]

The filing fee (charged by the court) is $299
Then you have the pre and post debtor education courses: price varies depending on who you use, but the average seems to be $35 per.

Attorney's fees vary WIDELY. Also, the axiom, "you get what you pay for" does apply. If you go with the cheapest of cheap, expect to get that level of service. Granted, the flip side, paying more does not guarantee better service, but almost without doubt, paying a cheap price will get you cheap service.

For most routine chapter 7's, you can expect to pay $1,100-$1,800 (plus filing fee).

Also, keep in mind, the services you get when signing up for a chapter 7 are limited. You are not hiring an attorney that will help you with "anything" that could happen.

The typical attorney fee covers
1. Receiving and reviewing your paperwork.
2. Means Test Analysis.
3. Preparation of the Petition.
4. Consultation with you to review the petition, make changes, and advise you about possible issues.
5. Filing the petition.
6. Attendance at the 341 meeting.
7. Some attorney's will limit the amount of phone time you get with the attorney.

Anything beyond those items can, and typically does, cost extra.
For example:
1. Amending a petition after it is filed.
2. Dealing with Reaffirmations
3. Dealing with Objections
4. Filing additional motions (i.e. Motion to determine dischargeability of a debt).
5. Adversary Proceedings, etc.

[Teddy]

my attorney was $700 (plus the $299 filing fee).

I did call around and got several prices on the phone - some gave a range of prices and some gave a quote (assuming the case was fairly cut & dry).

[HHM]

my attorney was $700 (plus the $299 filing fee).

I did call around and got several prices on the phone - some gave a range of prices and some gave a quote (assuming the case was fairly cut & dry).

Yep, but based on some of your other posts...

http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.php?t=23137

Sounds like your fee fell into the..."you get what you pay for category"

[gophermn]

I paid $2300 for my attny. Been awesome thus far!

[my4devils]

We paid 1500 plus 299 filing fee. All counseling costs were included. Our experience has been worth every penny so far. They have literally taken care of everything and nothing unusual has occured. I have been tracking on Pacer and doing my homework too- nothing to complain about. I hope everything stays the course and I dont have to eat my words as we go into our 341 on Friday. Great people- in fact there daughter is sleeping in my bedroom now (even got a well paying babysitting gig out of it)!

[justplaintired]

$1324 for attorney and filing fee. Filing fee was $299. So that's what, $1025 for our attorney. Seemed to be about the normal rate for this area. All the others we met with were very close to this fee. This was for a Straight C7 with reaffirming only our home, both 1st and 2nd mortgage. Anything extra would cost us more. As HHM stated. So I guess that seems to be close to the average cost, slightly on the low side, but so far so good. Our attorney's paralegal is awesome! Smarter then heck and very helpful with any questions we have.

[Teddy]

HHM - I think you're right - sadly. I should have gotten more consultations but I guess at the time, I thought he would be fine. Then as I get further into things, reading here, etc., I come up with many questions that I didn't foresee. Which is why I ask so much here.

[michael.foutz]

I got some prices today and the highest wast $1300 and the lowest was $1099.

I decided to go with the lowest price because that lawyer could fit me in faster and I got to speak to him directly instead of a secretary. The first two I called wouldn't let me speak to the lawyer instead all questions had to be directed to the secretary.

I go in Wednesday and start everything. He told me to bring in all my old collection bills. The thing is most of of them were thrown away. How can I go abouts of finding who I owe money? I'll probly just do a credit report for me and my wife and get most of them that way but some aren't listed on there, like my cellphone collection and some of the debt has been sold to other debt investors.

Thanks to this great forum I now have the confidence to file bankruptcy.

[justplaintired]

I think everything you need will be on your credit report, atleast ours was. We had already put a retainer fee on one attorney and when I called to speak with an attorney, I couldn't, instead they had me speak with a customer service person. This person scared me to death, they knew less about BK then I did and I hadn't even found this forum yet. So I started looking for other BK lawyers. The one we went with has the most awesome paralegal, very smart and very nice. She explained so much to me over the phone, I pretty much decided if the lawyer was half as good as the paralegal I had found my attorney. He was.

After hiring this attorney, I found this forum. It's helped me ask the right questions and be more prepared for what is to come.

Our attorney pulled our credit report on our first meeting, had us review it to make sure we had everything on there, my guess is your's will too. If not you will have time to add before you file. We brought home papers to fill out which took some time, probably took me too long to fill it all out, but I wanted to be accurate.

Good luck and welcome to the forum, there is so much helpful and useful info on here, I am sure you will find this very helpful when you're filling out your papers.

[Cali]

Filing fee 299$
Attorney fees, which includes the 2 counseling sessions, 2100$