Attorney is useless

[gymbofreak]

So I tried to call my attornies office in reference to the stupid stimulus check. I of course can never speak to the attorney just the darn secretary/parralegal im assuming. I tell her I have not heard anything about my stimulus check. She says "did you get it before filing or after?". I say "after" She says who is your trustee, I give her his name. SHe says your probably going to have to give it up. Granted a stupid question I say "why"? All condescending she replies "because you filed bankruptcy" Duhh...... Anyhow I say can I amend my petition to claim it as an exemption?, she says no. I say why again, and she says you cannot for this. She further tells me no one is bing allowed to keep them, I say no...many people are and are amending their petitions if they can. Long story short she says she isnt going to argue with me and to the the trustees office. I hung up..... I gues si should just let it go, its only $900.00 but Im just fed up with the assistance and contact with this office.

[jerzey]

Just wait and see what happens
Keep the $900 in the bank just in case

[gymbofreak]

Thats my plan...but when would I hear something either way? Like I dont want it to be closed and discharged and then he come back looking for it.kwim?

[Flamingo]

What most people don't know about lawyers is that they are hardly in the office and spend the majority of their time in court, attending depositions, etc. In an emergency or urgent situation, the assistant or paralegal knows how to reach them but for a regular phone call, it's best just to leave a message about a situation, state you need advice ASAP as to what to do, and follow-up as necessary if the return call is not as quick as you want it to be. Just like reaching your doctor, it can be frustrating. Keeping your stimulus check is probably a regional thing for you and it appears your district is requiring that yours be turned in. I would not take the advice of the assistant or paralegal answering your call but insist on speaking with the attorney directly to get the correct advice and not guesswork. Call the assistant back, state you are paying the attorney for his services and advice and want an answer from him as to what what are you supposed to do with your stimulus check.

Not all attorney's are "useless" as you state in your title to this message. I can apply that term to many other professions also as there are bad seeds in every bunch that puts the entire profession to shame. I hope you get to keep your check but it appears your district is stating otherwise...

[jerzey]

If that was to happen and I doubt it, IMO your Lawyer would need to deal with the matter and its something up for debate, But the trustee knows if they want it or not

[gymbofreak]

I didnt say all attornies are useless..Attorney is useless, meaning mine Thats the thing, I cant get an answer about what my district is doing, it should be all or nothing in my district then. She asked what my trustees name was..if it was across the board thn it wouldnt of mattered.. Oh well thank you for yor reply

What most people don't know about lawyers is that they are hardly in the office and spend the majority of their time in court, attending depositions, etc. In an emergency or urgent situation, the assistant or paralegal knows how to reach them but for a regular phone call, it's best just to leave a message about a situation, state you need advice ASAP as to what to do, and follow-up as necessary if the return call is not as quick as you want it to be. Just like reaching your doctor, it can be frustrating. Keeping your stimulus check is probably a regional thing for you and it appears your district is requiring that yours be turned in. I would not take the advice of the assistant or paralegal answering your call but insist on speaking with the attorney directly to get the correct advice and not guesswork. Call the assistant back, state you are paying the attorney for his services and advice and want an answer from him as to what what are you supposed to do with your stimulus check.

Not all attorney's are "useless" as you state in your title to this message. I can apply that term to many other professions also as there are bad seeds in every bunch that puts the entire profession to shame. I hope you get to keep your check but it appears your district is stating otherwise...

[bmcmull]

My atty is a jack ass, pardon my language, now that 's out of the way. You have to play by the rules. It will take you a year to figure them out though because ALL trustee's are different. I had a 6k income tax check taken in 05, found out it had to be under 2k to keep it. No problems in 2006 or 2007, just adhusted my deductions and will refile amended returns in 2009. Got my stimulous check as well but it came 3 weeks later than scheduled. I think people in ch13 are getting theirs and people in ch7 are loosing. Good luck.

[deafbroke]

I filed pro se and also did my taxes after I filed. We did not know at all that we would need to surrender the state and federal tax refunds as well as the stimulus check and we spent them all on neccessities. After readin on this site we gathered all our reciepts for proof of what we spent the money on. The trustee didn't even want to see the reciepts and said we had to pay the bankruptcy estate all $2500 back one way or another. He even cleaned out our checking accounts when he found I didn't exempt them. That did it for me. I hired an attorney who ammended most of the petition and exempted the refunds, stimulus, and checking accounts and according to my attorney I will be getting the money back the trustee took out of the checking accounts and not have ot repay anything to the court.
Some attorneys are so busy they are impossible to contact. Don't accept the paralegals answer. Tell them the attorney needs to contact you ASAP, no exception.

DB

[Cali]

And again, attorney's don't spend the day in the office. They have other things they have to get done during the day. That is why they have a paralegal. A good paralegal should be able to answer your questions or find the answer and get back to you.

Did you talk to the trustee about it?

I didnt say all attornies are useless..Attorney is useless, meaning mine Thats the thing, I cant get an answer about what my district is doing, it should be all or nothing in my district then. She asked what my trustees name was..if it was across the board thn it wouldnt of mattered.. Oh well thank you for yor reply

[AngelinaCat]

I wish our attny would get off her duff and amend our petitions. She knows she made some errors. My husband and I know that WE made errors as well, and that we have additional things to add. So does the attorney. This two weeks after a 2004(b) examination. Still no appointment to meet. She was to have been in court last week and was to have her assistant call for a Monday or Tuesday appointment. It is now Tuesday evening. I'll bet we get a call in the morning to come in to amend our papers, and I have already been contracted to work tomorrow--a day I normally don't. I can't afford to miss tomorrow, especially as I have a chance at going full-time.....

[FreshLikeADaisy]

Gymbofreak, I think you've gotten some great advice here as far as contacting the atty directly and getting it straight from him.

But I would like to reiterate to you that if you have available exemptions left from your filing to cover the $900, you CAN amend your schedules and you CAN keep it. A trustee saying he wants it all still does not apply to EXEMPT assets, which is what you want this $900 to become. Exempting assets and amending schedules are not a regional thing, or in any way dependent on what trustee you get: once you claim something as exempt, that's pretty much the end of it unless your claim was itself unlawful or fraudulent in some way, which is highly unlikely here. Exempting assets has the effect of removing them from the bk estate and hence, any claim the trustee may make on them.

Keeping a given asset -- in this case, your stimulus check -- generally comes down to whether you or your atty catch the mistake of leaving it off the schedules, and if he is willing to file the amendments for you and at what cost. They're NOT complex; even if you have to pay for the work you'd still have a hunk of that $900 left. He may just be lazy and not want to do it. Sad, but true. In any case, do NOT rely on this nitwit paralegal!!!

I wish you every success!!! Don't get discouraged and frustrated, save it for the atty himself. If he does not return your call, a certified letter that spells out your wish to add the stimulus check to your schedules and exempt it *should* get his attention and a return call. He works for *you*, though they occasionally forget that. Anyhow, good luck!!!

[danaf]

I agree with Daisy but will take this one step further. Find out what your state exemptions are, then look at your paperwork and see what your attorney exempted. See if you have any room to exempt the rebate. If you do - call the attorneys office like Daisy said. If you still don't get anywhere with them - if it were me, I'd try to do it myself (yeah - you paid for a lawyer BUT he been paid and in his mind has done the work and even though you'll say you'll pay for the amendment there's no guarantee they will do it). It's basically an ammendment of your petition of one form - the exemption sheet. Should be easy enough to do. You can download the form from your state bk site, fill it in including the change to reflect the rebate if it's in your exemptions, go down to the court house and file it. Doing this greatly depends on your exemption allowances, so you'll need to research it. It will probably cost around $26 to file the amendment which is much cheaper than the attorney would charge you. If you need help knowing what your state exemptions are, pm me and I can point you in the right direction.

Yes - your attorney should be doing this for you if you are entitled however there are times we have to take matters into our own hands to make sure the job gets done.

[FreshLikeADaisy]

Danaf, you said it well! I'm completely 100% agreed, with a couple minor exceptions.

First, the $26 amendment fee is ONLY applied to changes to the creditor matrix. Changing anything (or everything) else is completely free as far as filing fees go, including the schedules. Which is very cool, and yet one more reason to get the matrix right the first time.

Also, while the right to amend forms and exempt assets is federal law and the exact same practice across the board, the actual *form* of the amendments to the schedules can differ from district to district: some courts require an amendment form, some require you to resubmit the entire Form 6, some allow you to submit a single schedule with only the addition or deletion you wish to add. But like you said, it's not a big deal. Once the original schedules are completed, amending them is a piece of cake, no matter what the form required by the district.