New to BK...Should I go Pro Se?

[StaciMM]

Sinkingfast-my BEST GUESS (wanted to clarify that, LOL) is it would be a % of the amount you can pay... I am pretty sure that the trustee's fee in a 13 is based off of how much gets paid.

So, if I'm right, and your MT shows $200 available income for a plan payment and the trustee fee for your district was 7.5%, $15 of each $200 would go to the trustee. I believe that is important in determining if it will be a valid plan. (Paying enough to unsecured creditors to cover non-exempt assets, for example.)

[SinkingFast]

I read one 13 case, New Law, where the people would be making payments right at $500/month into the plan. It was actually $485 and change. Our fee here is 8.5%. At an even $500/month that would be $42.50/month Admin Fee. But in the filing papers, the fee that was calculated showed $75/month on the Means Test.

This particular filer wasn't even gonna pay back much, if any, to unsecured debt. They had some CC's and huge medical bills. It was obvious the attny put the filer into a 13 to save their home and a car. They had arrears in housepayments and car loan payments that were included in the plan payments. Then the attny gets the remaining $2K for fee in there too.

So that's why I didn't know if they used the total amount of debt, 25% of debt, or what, to calculate the Admin Fee.

[fellowpoorman]

Have to say in my opinion that you will have an easier time throughout the whole process if you have an attorny, one that you trust is very important here as even they are treading new waters. (by the way even the trustees are treading new waters),Number 1 you must be totally honest with it all. One thing I have learned and I have an attorny I trust, is that this a stressful process so be ready for that, and there are many hoops to go through along the way, the 341 is easy, and the rest is waiting, and worrying, I too worry but in reality everything should be fine.. 50 days to go. GOOD LUCK.

[kristineco]

Pro Se

I filed New Law pro se after many endless hours of researching the laws and free attorney consults. I decided to use a doc prep company and a software company where i could fill in the blanks if the doc prep company screwed up. So far it is OK. My docs were accepted by the court but i may need to make a few minor changes.

When I consulted with an attorney he wanted a similar list of docs. I took a few weeks trying to gather them all up but was impatient to file so i did it on my own. Plus the attorney i consulted with did not know as much as i did about the new laws.

Whatever way you choose to go....attorney, doc prep, software, downloaded forms....my suggestion is to research, research, research as much as you can about new laws.

One that may cause people some problems if they file pro se is the residence requirement for exemptions. If you have not lived in your state of residence for 2 yrs you cannot use its exemptions. You have to use prior state of residence or if not that then federal exemptions. Also there are new laws concerning homestead exemptions and now you have to file Statement of Intent for secured debts and there is no field for "retain" but on Pacer i have seen filings with "Retain" added in.

The most daunting part of new law is the possibility of being forced in to a chapter 13. I am praying that does not happen to me.

Take care y'all.

Kris