Bank Account Lien?

[blankslate]

For your 341 (Meeting of The Creditors) It is just the Trustee.

[Planetary]

Friend ,
I am so glad you got part of money at least. So If you had not bugged the Trustee, YOur money would still be tied up. Awful.

Yep, that's that's it in a nutshell.

The biggest thing that pisses me off at this point is the fact our attorney *changed* our dollar amount listed for the Wild Card exemption from over 12k to 10k and *then* faxed it to the Trustee without ever telling us of the change thinking he was doing us some sort of favor. When I asked the Trustee about the higher original amount, he had no idea what we were talking about.

BTW, can someone answer this question... Is it the Trustee himself who we'll see in person when we go to our hearing or will a "judge" preside over our case with the Trustee attending in addition and basically representing the various CC companies listed on our BK paperwork?

Also, thanks for the kind words.

[blankslate]

BTW my Trustee says he prefers email communication so if your lawyer is telling you not to bug him, it's because the Trustee is probably not happy with your lawyer and he knows it.

[Floridagail]

Friend ,
I am so glad you got part of money at least. So If you had not bugged the Trustee, YOur money would still be tied up. Awful.
Hope the rest of your bkrptcy goes smoothly. I hope you leave WF. I think you will do fine at 341 meeting. You really do not need attorney. In fact you probably could of filed on your own and done better than this bozo you had. Your little meeting will be over in a few mins and this nightmare will be over.

[blankslate]

I'm sorry, I didn't see your latest post until after I replied. I'm glad you got most of it back, please go for the rest too. Thank goodness you have *something* to survive on for now!

Dingdong - read my latest thread for an update on my bk.

[dingdong]

Holy carp Planetary! Sorry I'm late jumping in on this thread. As soon as those funds are released, withdraw and put it in a credit union account.

dingdong - I luv ya! I get charged the same "teller fee" for cashing any payroll checks at BofA. I have the same reasons for cashing them at a bank as you do.

Give it to them good! And don't kiss them on the cheek when you're done either :-D

Save your receipts for every fee that you are charged. The penalty per California labor code section 212 is 100.00 for the first offense, 200.00 for each subsequent offense, plus the fees charged.

If you are ever terminated within the SOL for filing a claim, you might have a little nest egg in violations saved up.

[dingdong]

Tell your attorney to ammend your exemtions to included the full wildcard amount ASAP on his dime.

He works for you and is supposed to protect your interests.

Glad you were able to get most of your money "unfrozen".


DD

[blankslate]

Holy carp Planetary! Sorry I'm late jumping in on this thread. As soon as those funds are released, withdraw and put it in a credit union account.

dingdong - I luv ya! I get charged the same "teller fee" for cashing any payroll checks at BofA. I have the same reasons for cashing them at a bank as you do.

Give it to them good! And don't kiss them on the cheek when you're done either :-D

[Planetary]

Un-frozen!

OK, big news today.

9am, I called the Trustee's office and of course was put on hold for 15 minutes and then told he'd "stepped out of the office." I asked for his voice mail and left a short, polite but direct message about our situation (which has been explained in this thread a few times) and to please call us back within the hour. After no return call, I called again and talked with the Trustee's temporary secretary who I think accidently put me through to the Trustee.

After a few minutes describing our situation, he pulled our paperwork, put me on hold for about 10 minutes and came back on saying after reviewing our paperwork, he'd unfreeze our bank accounts for about $10,500. When I asked why it wouldn't be the full amount of over 12k, he said that the amended paperwork faxed to his office by our BK attorney last week only showed the 10k+ as being in our accounts per the CA wild card exemption and that's what he *had* to go by. Within half an hour, Wells Fargo had received the Trustee's fax and unfrozen our accounts. Needless to say, less than an hour later, we went in to a local branch and pulled all but $50 to keep the accounts open in the hope we'll get the rest after our BK hearing next month. We basically dealt with this no money situation for almost 10 days when the Trustee only needed about 10 minutes to do his thing.

Now here's the kicker. Our imbecile attorney said he wasn't sure if the Trustee would unfreeze all our funds in our account so he *changed* the amount to a lower amount guessing it would up the odds that the Trustee would be more inclined to release a lesser amount. Nevermind how absurd it sounds giving back 10k versus 12k in such a situation, nevermind the 12k amount falls far below the 21k+ wild card exemption amount allowed here in California and thus in theory should be covered as exempt and not subject to any sort of lien, *especially before* a 351 hearing, our dope attorney just "thought" it was a smart move to cut down the amount by 2k!

At this point, we'll argue for the rest of the money during our hearing. Our attorney has indicated he may not be able to attend and may have to send his assistant. Wotta shock. I'm actually kind of glad at this point as I fear the guy will just be in the way. I will say when this is done, I will be looking at whatever avenues are available to get our attorney reprimanded or whatever for his clear incompetence handling our case.

Although my BK story isn't done yet, clearly there's lessons already to be learned from my experience.

- Screen your potential BK attorney as best as you can. Interview several before settling on one.

- Do as much research as you can on the subject before you file. Don't be lazy and think an attorney will be your safety blanket when things go off script. Never take for granted that your attorney has all angles covered or in my case, even knows what the hell he's doing beyond filing the basic paperwork.

- Don't keep any more money in your bank accounts in the weeks and even months before and through filing than you can afford to lose in a lien. It doesn't matter if you don't list your bank as a creditor, it's clear a growing number of banks and not just Wells Fargo are pro-actively freezing accounts on behalf of Trustees.

These are all things we didn't fully do or understand beforehand. This thread is an example of a near worse case scenario.

[liz417]

Wow, I've been following this thread (to the OP: I'm sorry you are going through this stress right now...with NO money!) and I am pretty scared! I just opened up a WF checking and savings account this past weekend moving my checks from WaMu (now Chase) who I will BK'ing on....Here I thought I was being "safe" by moving everything...I think I'm going to find a new bank...or at least DON'T have direct deposits into these accounts!
OP: I really hope it all works out for you, please keep us updated!

[eddiep]

WOW, that's all I can say, WOW!

[Planetary]

I have been following this thread and I am unclear on who froze your account and why. Was it the trustee? Or did WF take it upon themselves to hold your money incase someone wanted to claim it, they have no stake in your money right? I'm confused.

Wells Fargo themselves froze our accounts within 3 days of our filing BK Chapter 7. My understanding is their bankruptcy Division actively monitors BK filings by social security number and any time a Wells Fargo account holder's SS# shows up in their database has having a BK filing, they pro-actively freeze funds in that person's account to "hold" funds on behalf of the Trustee until the Trustee either releases those funds in part or in whole or siezes them to pay off the creditors.

We have no debt of any kind with WF - all debt is unsecured credit card debt with other institutions such as BofA. The money that has been frozen totals a bit over 14k and was included in amended paperwork as being protected under the California "Wild Card" exemption.

We have been trying to work with the Trustee assigned to our case to get our accounts unfrozen, however, thus far he and his office has been mostly unresponsive. We were told mid last week our paperwork would be "reviewed" but nothing has changed as of today (Monday).

Our 341 hearing is June 9th.

[Planetary]

HI,

I found this for you. Read the entire case, I just posted a bit about the 5000.00 issue. It might be a little help.

http://www.nysb.uscourts.gov/opinions/alg/132113_12_opinion.pdf

Interesting read. Thanks for posting that link.

Regarding amounts, I should mention that in my two accounts, one savings, one checking, the amounts were roughly $2,000 and $12,000 totally a bit over $14k. Our debt amount is over 80k, all unsecured credit card debt, none having to do with Wells fargo. It is also worth noting that Wells fargo inexplicably left $0 in checking, but $3 in savings. Go figure.

[Floridagail]

I hope by now , your funds are unfrozen.

[eddiep]

I have been following this thread and I am unclear on who froze your account and why. Was it the trustee? Or did WF take it upon themselves to hold your money incase someone wanted to claim it, they have no stake in your money right? I'm confused.