Question for filing fee payments

[Karibevan]

Any feedback appreciated......my Attorney is charging me and my husband $2000 to file a joint 7. We were under the impression we would be able to borrow the money from my father in law, but that fell thru my attorney is on vacation and I am now in panic mode. He mentioned we can do 4 post dated checks in the amount of $500, but any idea how long we have to pay the fees off by, like monthly, bi-weekly etc?? And from your experience, did your attorney file the case prior to attorney fees being paid in full?

[inutterchaos]

My attorney required full payment before he filed my case, which made perfect sense to me because why would he go through with all the work and effort it requires and file and maybe you don't pay up and he has already filed your case. I paid him in three payments and there was no set time, just when I had the money.

[Karibevan]

ok, thank you for your input. My attorney had us sign the paperwork to retain him and even said i could start fielding the creditors to him. I am just scared now, big fork in the road with the money

[spidge]

K, we took our time as there were some items to align and the attorney was good with it. It took us two years from first amount applied before we decided to pay them in full and direct them to file and set the 341 meeting.

I am sure this would be attorney specific though, so you might ask what they expect/require. Remember they work for you.

[Karibevan]

Wow.....2 years, time is not on my side, creditors are blowing up my phone

[spidge]

Wow.....2 years, time is not on my side, creditors are blowing up my phone

They called me constantly too, but once I started paying the attorney I redirected the calls. I also told them to not contact me any longer as I am represented. Also do not admit that you owe anyone rather simply tell them to contact your attorney. Give no details, period.

[Pjmax]

I do believe you need to ask those questions of your attorney. I went to 3 free consults before settling on the 3rd. The 1st wanted $800 out of $1100 to file, the second said pretty much the same but couldn't commit because she was an associate and didn't have the authority. The third is flexible on the payments, working on my income schedule, I will pay him $500 out of $1506 on Tuesday when I take my papers in, then I will make another payment when I go to sign the filing papers. i will have him paid in full by the 341 meeting date.

I hope you interviewed more than one attorney.

Don't panic, the folks here will get you through. The phone calls won't stop until you file. Block the calls on your cell, if you have one, screen the calls on your home phone.

I should mention, I didn't go with the lowest quoted price. Attorney #2 was between 1 & 3. I had the most confidence in the 3rd, and even though my case is an easy one, I wanted someone I felt could handle any surprises that may arise. It will take me a little longer to get the funds together, but I think it's worth it.

[inutterchaos]

I paid my attorney a small deposit up front the day I met with him. He was the fourth attorney I met with and it was purely a gut reaction that I had the right person. That day he said direct all phone calls from creditors to him. When they would call all I would give them was his phone number I would not answer any of their questions, not even did I have a case number, what chapter I was filing, nothing. I will say once I gave a creditor his number I never ever heard from them again.

[spidge]

I do believe you need to ask those questions of your attorney. I went to 3 free consults before settling on the 3rd. The 1st wanted $800 out of $1100 to file, the second said pretty much the same but couldn't commit because she was an associate and didn't have the authority. The third is flexible on the payments, working on my income schedule, I will pay him $500 out of $1506 on Tuesday when I take my papers in, then I will make another payment when I go to sign the filing papers. i will have him paid in full by the 341 meeting date.

I hope you interviewed more than one attorney.

Don't panic, the folks here will get you through. The phone calls won't stop until you file. Block the calls on your cell, if you have one, screen the calls on your home phone.

I should mention, I didn't go with the lowest quoted price. Attorney #2 was between 1 & 3. I had the most confidence in the 3rd, and even though my case is an easy one, I wanted someone I felt could handle any surprises that may arise. It will take me a little longer to get the funds together, but I think it's worth it.

Pj, that is pretty good that they will even file and get a date for the 341 without full payment. Also, I do like your explanation of how the attorney you chose was based on the confidence you had in them rather than the price. Great point.

[Pjmax]

I wouldn't feel good about paying anyone with post-dated checks. Things happen, then you have returned ck bank charges and a messed up account, which you don't need.

The attorney won't be on vacay for long, talk to him/her when he's back. Meanwhile, get all your paperwork together, go over your budget and figure out how to pay out of your income in a way you can live with. Stop paying anything that will be included in your BK and use that money to pay your attorney, weekly, biweekly or whatever you can do. He may not file until you've paid, but as long as you make payments, he should work with you. It might take an extra month or two, but you are taking the first step. As so many posts here have said, it's a process and you must have patience.

[AngelinaCat]

We paid a retainer of $500.00 to retain our attorney, then paid the rest of her fee about six months later. She told us once we retained her, to immediately start directing the calls to her office.

[Drazil65]

We paid our attorney in 3 installments over 3 months time ($1500 total with the filing fees). He did not file until we were paid in full. Also if you think about it once we signed the papers to retain him he became a creditor I guess and if he had filed before we paid in full the remainder of his fee would be included in the chapter 7? That might be incentive for them to collect everything first as well as it is alot of work so they want to make sure its going!

[memama]

You're going to need to speak with your attorney to get the answers that you need. Our attorney fees were $1500 and the attorney said it did not matter how long it took to pay the full $1500, we could take as long as we needed but they would not move forward with the bankruptcy until they received full payment. All they wanted was a small retainer fee ($300), and the remaining $1200 could be paid at our leisure. We were lucky and paid all at once with our tax refund money, but our attorney said that as soon as a retainer is paid, we were free to direct any and all collections calls to the attorney's office and they would handle them. My advice would be to come up with the retainer and do your best to pay the balance off in the shortest amount of time possible.

[Sammie]

We consulted with our Attorney 2 wks. ago & last week we brought all the papers back to him with his retainer. We were told at that time to field all of the phone calls to his office. Since we just stopped paying cc as of last week we have not received any calls as yet. We have a meeting this Thursday where we will sign the papers and give him the balance of his fee. He will be filing next Wed., Aug. 1st.

The sooner you are able to get the money over to your Attorney the less stress it will be for you.

We also closed our checking accts. (Wells Fargo) that were connected to loans & opened new ones so our accounts would not be frozen after filing.sammie

[Karibevan]

thank you all so much for your advice. I agree about trying to pay the attorney as quickly as possible. We really got ourseves into a jam. We were paying $1100 PER MONTH in finance charges alone on cash advances that will automatically be debited from my bank account. We have gotten behind not only on credit cards, but on the mortgage, care notes, etc. I finally placed my bank account into a credits only status and opened up a new one since I have found out these cash advance "sharks" are illegal to operate in my state. This will free up money each month so hopefully I can get the main bills current and go from there