Finally found my Lawyer+Adversarial Question

[Winger19]

After talking to many and meeting with a few I've found my Atty! He's done thousands of BK's and is well versed in the new laws.

He asked me to get together a list of household goods, monthly expenses and quite a few other things. Thanks to you guys I had already brought all of this with me. He said I was the most organized and informed client he's ever had! Thank you to everyone!

He also said that through and Adversarial Proceeding he can sue the organization that has been garnishing my wages and get back whatever they have taken in the last 90 days. I've only had 4 checks garnished so I should get it all back. The fee for this will be included in my payment to him.

Has anyone ever done this? I've heard of creditors doing this but not the debtor.
Thanks again!

[Winger19]

I forgot to mention how I found my Atty.

I called the BK Court and asked a few questions about going pro se. The woman was very nice and said that people are still filing pro se but of the cases that end up having problems, over 90 percent are pro se.

She said she could not recommend an Atty so I asked her for the names of the Atty's they see in BK court on a regular basis. She gave me 5 names and said the first one is the Atty they see the most often and that's the one I've went with. They were very nice and informative.

I think I may have just gotten lucky and found a nice person on the other end of the line.

[Minnymouth]

When you file bankruptcy it will stop any garnishments....... But being able to go back and recoup money that has already been garnished under a judgement, that is a whole new ballgame....... I don't see this happening - then I could be wrong also.....

Its great that you feel comfortable with your attorney.....

Be sure to ask him lots of question and don't say too much about "what you do know" and compare them........

Attorneys do not like clients that use Pacer and know a lot about the rules and laws...... then they think you don't know what's going on......

Stay on top of stuff, just keep a low profile doing it....

[Winger19]

Thanks for the advice Minny! I had the feeling that an Atty wouldn't want a know it all client so I kept quiet and just took it all in.

It does seem too good to be true about getting the money back. He said he's been in the BK business for over 25 years. He knew exactly what law book to grab and had the page marked for the adversarial thing.

He said most Atty's in this area either don't know about this or don't want to deal with it but he's used it succesfully on other ocasions....I'm keeping my fingers crossed as this would really help us get back on our feet.

[keepmine]

You can get your money back. It goes to the preference payment issue. The thing is, it'll likely become property of the bk estate and will be distributed to all of your creditors. Unless, your state laws have a high enough cash on hand exemption.

[Winger19]

He is using the federal exemptions. I believe he said something about being able to use the remaining housing exemption as a wild card. Not sure if it pertained to this or not. He was talking so fast

We have minimal equity in the house and did not have enough property to have to use it for our household goods.

[FoolAndHisMoney]

You did good! Of course no celebrations until it's over .You did your homework and came prepared. I always have repeated that one should file as if they are filing pro se, but certainly hire a good attorney. This way you can fix his errors and he can fix yours. What's almost as bad as pro se is one that gives the stack of stuff and money to the attorney and forgets it and thinks that's it. Wrong thing to do! If he screws up it's your ass no matter what anyone says.
Wishing you a fast discharge