Chapter 7 "Dos and Don'ts"...help!!!

[Cali]

Yes, EVERYONE should take a real personal interest in their bankruptcy and plan it out.......... DO NOT RELY on just your attorney.......... KNOW whats going on, what to expect, and when.........

RESEARCH................ KNOWLEDGE IS POWER............. and get the opinion of several attorneys before choosing one.

ITA!!

[AngelinaCatHub]

Ms. HELP!. AngelinaCatHub here. Permission to use her pen name. At least, we are pleased you are feeling better as in fact, we have felt the very same way you did when we met. Now I see, U see, we aren't all just crazy, just made some errors.

About attorneys, my wife could not have said it better. BoooKooos of info to her over this weekend, iterating stuff previously sent as well as any nook or cranny. To date, not even an email receipt. We have our grilling 2004(b) Thursday, and going through sixteen months of email, we find that what was omitted was told to her. One other (forgive that I'm bad at names) said we are ultimately responsible for what we signed. What we signed is: Is this correct???? Yes what you have there...........is correct. PERIOD. Not withstanding that she omitted known facts. If she does not show, we are organizing all the emails and "UNDER THE BUS" she goes.

I am not qualified to take out my own appendix. I am not qualified to do my bankruptcy. I pay a professional to do these type of things. We never had fifteen minutes of civil communications with her, but many time screeching about what WE have not done. WTF? (sorry)....

So, we wish you all well and please also pray for us. Hub of AngelinaCat.

[diviaruba]

AHA!! No wonder no one seems to understand what I'm going through. I just read this thread and realized that this is not the same Ch. 7 process everyone else is going through. Our Chapter 7 is being audited!!

http://www.bkforum.com/showthread.php?t=24183

It does not appear that you are being audited under the re-instated "independent audit program", at least as it relates to the random audits by an outside accounting firm. The document requirements under these audits are much less stringent than those you've indicated in your other posts, and are really designed to "determine the accuracy, veracity and completeness of petitions, schedules and other information filed by debtors . . . "

Unfortunately, it appears you have the more dreaded "U.S. Trustee Exception Audit", which never really went away. These are cases that, accordng to the U.S. Trustee's Office, have criteria based on income or expenditures greater than a statistical norm for the district in which they were filed.

The generally accepted criteria, although not public information, is that above-median debtors with expenses that fall outside of the range allowed under the IRS standards, especially with over $100,000 in consumer debt, are the most likely to be targeted. These audits are not undertaken by an outside audit firm, but by the bankruptcy analysts and staff attorneys of the district's UST. Statistically speaking, they find material misstatements in about 38% of these cases.

[2confused]

I agree with minny mouth. My trustee was very kind, normal, down to earth and understanding. However, HELP is also correct. My deadbeat attorney kept telling me that I worry too much and not to bother bringing evidence of expenses to 341. I'm telling you right now...if i had not done my homework, and brought evidence of great business loss, we would have not got through 341 successfully.

[Minnymouth]

FOR YOUR INFORMATION..........

For those of you that filed BK after October 2005 your attorney's can be held responsible for what is in your petitions............... (that's part of the new laws)...

If your attorney failed to represent you properly, left information out of your petition that you turned into them, etc...... THEIR A*** can be on the line, instead of yours....

Go over your petition that you file closely.(make copies before you give it to the attorney)... Check all information make sure that it is info that you gave to your attorney. Look for anything else your attorney has either added, or omitted.

If you petition is not complete or has errors in it, be sure to file a complaint with the US Trustee that is auditing your case.

Do not misunderstand..... if you supply your attorney with false information then your going to have explaining to do. But if your attorney entered wrong information or failed to get information from you that's required, his A** is on the line.

At your audit if your information is not correct LET YOUR ATTORNEY explain WHY!!!! That's what you paid him for, his EXPERTISE............ not just the ability to walk to the courthouse and file your petition.

OH HOW I WISH that this law was enforced when I hired my attorney...... RIGHT NOW I WOULD BE LIVING IN HIAWAII at his expense...........for his malpractice and neglect!!

If you have a attorney that won't answer your calls, questions, etc..... REPORT THEM............ you pay them good money for their expertise, AND YOU SHOULD GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR........... nothing less.

Many bankruptcy attorneys have quit the business because they can no longer be SCUMBAGS........... and feed off their clients.

If you have a bad Trustee, that seems to act "above the law" so to speak...... report him also. He has guidelines that he has to follow.....

Don't be afraid to speak up for yourself in your own defense. You pay an attorney to represent you.... make sure he does!! And Trustees can do their jobs without be A**holes...... THEY ALL HAVE BOSSES!!!

As to be audited by the US Trustee...... sometimes this can be a GOOD THING..... This is the US Trustee checking your bankruptcy to make sure EVERYTHING was done correctly and within the laws by all parties involved.

WISH I HAD BEEN AUDITED.............. might have made a "big difference" in my bankruptcy....... and how it turned out.

[laurannm]

Couldn't agree with you more Minny...was looking at a local case on Pacer yesterday that was audited by the UST. They did find some questionable expenses that had to be scaled back but also found 3-4 expenses that the debtor could have listed on their Means test but the lawyer failed to list them. The UST basically re-did the 22A for them with the corrected numbers, including the missing expenses

[Cali]

I think that is the problem, many people don't speak up yet they complain about it after the fact. My attorney will know quick if I am not happy with what he is doing or not doing.

[AngelinaCatHub]

Hey Minniemouth: Thank you, thank you. To date I have sent our lawyers emails galore. Not a response. Have we called her? NOT AT ALL. She was given all the stuff she needs and we to date do not know if she will be at our ‘inquest’ regarding our Assignment of Mortgage, although she admitted missing that. Whenever she asked us if her paperwork was correct, yes it was. Was it complete? Hell we pay her to tell us what it is or not. She muddled the fuddle when I showed an annuity and later we found out it was cashed out years ago. Her comment was to both; no asset, no money. Now we are cumulating email documents not to show the defense of the Assignment of Mortgage, but since we have not heard from her, to defend against our own lawyer. SO, NO we will not call her. She has to call us now. It is her A** per what you said in your post. We paid her for expert advice. I am 64 and ill, credit score was 820, now 5 something. I don’t take out my own appendix I hire someone who can. In the next time, I will NEVER hire an attorney. I have my own best interests at hand, they only have M O N E Y in hand. I’m looking for a very big bus to throw her under. If we fail to prevail, she goes down too.

[Minnymouth]

KEEP COPIES OF EVERYTHING..............

What you give your attorney
Dates and conversations of phone calls
Reciepts of everything involved.
Copy of your original petition.... many are handwritten out by the client first, then the attorney types them up... and files them.

Keep us posted......

[AngelinaCat]

Hi Minny:

Yes, thank God, that we have copies of almost everything. A couple of items requested for tomorrow have still not arrived by mail, but we'll have to do with what we have. There is a gap in email when Comcast bought out Time Warner, and eliminated the roadrunner email before the bugs were worked out in Comcast. But we have the most of it--especially the most damning ones where we are begging and pleading for responses and getting none. We also have copies of the ones we sent listing, "oh by the way, I forgot to tell you" items....

We'll let you know how it goes....

[danaf]

To the OP - I am sorry for your situation and it seemed to get sidetracked in this thread (to some extent).

But someone said - you've got time to plan for bk and they were right. Do what you have to do, make sure you've got a roof over your head, a reliable vehicle, food on the table, and a job (obviously)...ect - whatever it takes for you to take care of you and your child. And study on it.

Sounds like you've got divorce to factor into this equasion as well.

I wish you the best of luck. Whatever you do, don't panic. Even when you get a new job, it can take creditors quite a while to find you.

[FreshLikeADaisy]

JustMe, I would also like to suggest that you get one of the excellent books available on Ch7 bankruptcy (see my sig). These will give you a really good overview of the process and you'll have it on hand for any 3:00am wake-up-in-a-cold-sweat sudden worries. I used the Nolo book to file pro se and it was an excellent resource; I hear the Dummies book is really good too. But for an easy to understand explanation of a fairly complex process, you can't do better, IMO. Good luck to you!!!

ACH, I am hoping and praying your hearing goes well. I wish you every success!!!

Minny, I gotta tell you... for someone who has suffered the injustices you have, you sure do mix a great lemonade with the lemons you got. I haven't said this before, but I am eternally grateful that you have made the use of your misfortune that you have: helping others and keeping them out of the same traps you found yourself caught up in. I know it doesn't minimize what you went through, but I gotta tell you: if it HAD to be this way for you, I'm mighty glad it WAS you, because you have turned evil into good for many people. I just want you to know that.

[AngelinaCatHub]

Hi All:

Today is the day. It is 8:30 AM and so far nary a word from the attny. Haven't had anything back from her since an email 'read receipt' since May 12. Of course that's no guarantee she has actually read our stuff. We're going armed with four huge notebooks of stuff. Will let you know how it goes.

Thanks for all your prayers.

[AngelinaCatHub]

P.S. If she does not show up, all the better. If she does, she will be adversarial I am sure, since we have emails mentioning everything that they are going to ask us about. I forget the poster name (age thing I guess) who said after the new laws she is responsible as well for ommissions. I'm going to be checking bus sizes for the one I want to throw her under as we have made a life of paperwork for almost two years to get our 13 and now our 7. Onward now to the gallows. Will report back.

[AngelinaCatHub]

OK you gotta hear this, we're walking out the door and the phone rings. Right, my lawyer asking if we were coming there first Gainesville one hour away and then to Jax two hours away from Gainesville and it is now after nine for an 11:00 appointment. She asked if we had with what we sent to her and I said we have complied six inches of documents. She asked all the email? and I said yes, she said, "well be careful, we don't want to give them what they don't need to see". NOW SHE'S concerned? Yeppers, it's the bus. But now, I'm represented. I was tempted not to answer the phone as caller ID gave her away, but then that would be used against me. I feel better without her "aid".

I felt pretty good a bit ago but now the fear that I have to shelter my words. We are on our way, bye.