Please help as I'm ready to file

[Secretariat]

I'm set to meet with an atty. on Thursday -- no charge -- tho I'm sure he'll give me a hard sales pitch. He seems very nice. I have some questions still:

* when is the latest I can safely file without the court considering me under the new Oct. 17 laws? I was told to file by Aug. 15 -- so my first hearing would be in time.

* do I still/should I pay the taxes (state and Fed.) on my contract work so far this year? (it's just May till now)

* do I have to notify my landlord -- as I fear he'll then ask for a deposit as I now have no deposit on file -- and would prefer not to rock the boat. I am current on my rent.

* I (finally) have some money in my acct., but I need it to pay all my bills --as I become an employee in Sept. and won't see a first paycheck till October. Will the court look at my expenses or just at the money in the bank? (If I'm obligated to pay my taxes, they'll see that money will go for taxes and expenses owed.)

** My son's community college tuition (this month) and books. We don't have financial aid. If I pay before I file, will we be OK?

* My Ex owes $3K in child support but has petitioned the court to be relieved of his obligation. I listed the money in "assets" but wondered if it was/is exempt. I couldn't find anything to say it is. And, I don't have the money and may never get the money. Not sure how to handle that.

[herekitty]

These are all good questions to ask the lawyer on Thursday, as it kind of depends on location for some answers ...

Not 100% sure on the when to file question, but my lawyer said we should file before the 15th as well.

Taxes still have to be paid from what I gather, perhaps one of the lovely moderators may be able to answer that better - but from what I gather the government doesn't really get dismissed.

No, you don't have to notify your landlord if you are current on your rent. If you are including him/her in your bankruptcy you definitely don't want to tell them ahead of time. I posted similiar questions - I'm putting them in the bankruptcy but there's a wealth of information in the post. Just do a search for renting in this forum.

This probably doesn't directly answer your question about money in your account, but you need to make sure when you file that there is a minimum in there - also, you don't want to pull out a crap load of money the day before - you'll look sneaky. Mymymy informed me about this little provision in the renting post I was talking about above.

Tuition & child support I have absolutely no clue on!

Your lawyer should give you honest advice on everything, so all these questions are key when you sit down to talk with him or her.

Hope that helps! Keep us all informed, we're in the same boat

[Whittio]

By the 15TH! Holy smokes! I thought we would have until the new laws take EFFECT! Sheesh.. better hurry then! The 15th is MONDAY!

[herekitty]

Like I said, I'm not 100% sure on that. I've got a lot of other items that makes it slightly more complicated and the deadline may be because of those.

Besides, I think your mom may still qualify under the new law - her income is low compared to the median income of California.

[Whittio]

WHEW! Thanks herekitty! I was starting to panic. I have called 2 paralegals to see if any of them would review my form7.com papers to make sure they are all correct and proper before we file, but I am having phone issues now and haven't heard from them yet.

[herekitty]

Yuck. Phone issues = not good. When it rains, it pours huh?

Good luck with the paralegal - I'm sure all will be fine. It'll be a huge relief when you finally get the papers out though.

[OldKenGoat]

Whoah! Please don't confuse me any more than I already am! My impression was that if you filed Chap 7 BK on or before Oct 16th that the "old" law still applied. That seemed to be the whole reason for applying before the deadline of Oct 17th when the new law takes effect. Now it's being said that one must file by Aug 15 for the old law to be applied to your case.

So, what's the REAL skinny?

[KNECK DEEP]

bump

[Afr0dite]

Help! When is it too late to file bankruptcy under the old law?

[herekitty]

Ask a lawyer

This maybe a regional exception. Ask a lawyer.

According to my lawyer - you need to file BEFORE Oct. 17, the sooner the better. As you will see from a couple threads, a bunch of us did paperwork but are stuck in limbo waiting for the petition to be prepared and filed. Just because you do your paperwork on Oct 16 does not mean you filed before the 16th.

According to the CBS website, your petition must be completely filed prior to the deadline, therefore it means October 16th.

Sorry about the August 15th thing, as I said - I have a bunch of other elements going into place so I need file by then.

[HHM]

My understanding is that you can file at 11:59pm on October 16, 2005 and the current law will still apply.

[Whittio]

Yuck. Phone issues = not good. When it rains, it pours huh?

Good luck with the paralegal - I'm sure all will be fine. It'll be a huge relief when you finally get the papers out though.

Unfortunately my phone issues are the LEAST of my current life issues. I wish you all knew something about small claims court.

My life has been chaotic for almost two years now, including, but not limited to: new neighbors with mean dogs and an even meaner son who threatened to kill my husband, trying for over a year to move, restraining orders and "potentially dangerous dog" hearings, and most recently (July 29th) the death of my grandma, which was made even worse by the fact that her funeral was the same day as a court hearing for my neighbors dogs. Oh, and I mustn't forget my 3+ month illness earlier this year that almost killed me.

So to say my plate is full is an understatement. And on top of all my life issues, I have to deal with my mom's too. I think it's safe to say, my life really sucks right now.

BUT.. the good news today is, I found a paralegal that I took mom's papers to this morning. She won't charge more then $100 (her normal fee is $125 to do EVERYTHING, and I have done almost everything ~ wish I would have called her before I did EVERYTHING!) so she is going to look them over, then have my mom sign then, and she'll file them for us! YIPPEEEE.. it's out of my hands now!