Filing My Own Bankruptcy

[IvoryAngel]

Hello, I want to file bankruptcy. Can someone tell me the disadvantages and advantages of filing on your own? Today I went thru a free consultation. And I am confused and lost.

Thanks!

[SinkingFast]

Hi Ivory and Welcome to the Forum!

I moved your thread to this section as it is more appropriate for your question and you'll likely get more answers here.

Filing on your own, without an attny is known as Pro Se. And Yes you can. It's allowed by Law and several posters here have done just that.

You will need to take time to learn about BK and how to complete the forms properly.

If you have a straight forward, no asset case, filing Pro Se could be fairly simple. But if you have a complicated situation or assets you cannot cover with Exemptions, you might want to seriously consider using an attny.

Why don't you tell us what you remember of what the attny said to you today during your Consultation.

Another thing that will help folks to help you is tell us what State you live in. Are you filing single or Joint with a Spouse?? Do you have kids?? Some general info about your types of debt. House?? Car?? CC's?? Student Loans??

Folks here are more than glad to help. We're all rowing in the same boat. We just have different oars.

[lrprn]

Hello, I want to file bankruptcy. Can someone tell me the disadvantages and advantages of filing on your own? Today I went thru a free consultation. And I am confused and lost.

Welcome to BK Forum - glad you found us!

We need some detailed information about your current financial situation in order to help you sort things out. What state will you be filing in? Are you filing alone or do you have a spouse who will be filing too? How about dependent children? If you look back the last six months, how much income did you make from all sources? If your spouse is filing too, how much did he/she make? What secured assets (house, car, etc) do you have? Do you have loans on any of your secured assets? If yes, are the payments current? How much unsecured debt do you have? (credit cards, unsecured loans, pay day loans, etc) Do you have judgments or liens against any of your assets?

Sorry to have to ask so many questions, but having this information helps us understand your current financial situation a lot better. Hang in there! Bankruptcy can be very confusing when you first start learning about it. We'll help you understand things better any way we can.

[FilingOnMyOwn]

Read My Name...

And my signature too.

You will have to do all the research on your own. If you're willing to do the work, it can happen for you.

[IvoryAngel]

Thanks For the Warm Welcome

Hello Everyone, Well lets see I am just taking a guess here, I will have the exact totals by the end of the weekend, but I can give a round about total of debit 15000.00 maybe less. Not sure how it all works and what is included.

Here is my story, in 1998 I bought my first vehicle through a finance company, being young and unknowing, I got snickered. From what I gather the repair shop and the car lot was in cahoots with each other. To make a long story short, the finance co reposessed the car, it was auctioned off and around $2000.00 left on it. Well, they told me not to worry about it of course not a wise thing to do, but anyway now I have some attourneys office calling and threating to sue me for like $6000.00. So much time having pasted I do not think it would be worthy to try and find all the paperwork and fight the charges. And I cannot afford for them to take my money.

Last summer I had another company sue me for near $3000.00 and my son and I almost starved. So I cannot bare to do that again. I have however considered bankruptcy in the past and with that charge and various other charges it would be a good time to clear it all off and start over. I am a single mother of one son, I do have a significant other. We currently split the bills, however she is part time so from time to time I will pickup the slack.

I make about 2200.00 a month before taxes and around 1400.00 after taxes and insurance etc. She makes about 800.00 a month after taxes. We both are starting part time jobs in a month are so from home and that will significantly increase our income, unfortunately for me, in this situation. I do not recieve child support or any other income. Our household bills average 1300.00, groceries 300.00 or so. All of these of course fluctuate.

I have a car that I have been paying on sold via bill of sale. I do not hold the title and nothing has my name other than bill of sale. A good friend sold me the car he has excellent credit and pays 1% interest, which I could never get. Then my girlfriend I bought her a car when she moved here, and that one is in my name and the note is 370 a month that is amost double my note.

We live in Oklahoma. My session went something like this: she asked what I owned, I disclosed both vehicles even though technically the one has nothing to do with me until I pay it off, however I felt it be difficult to prove what the payments were coming out of my account later. She advised that I let the second car go because I am being taken advantage of, however a small price to pay for terrible credit. I did tell her that we split the bills in the household. I did not disclose that she was my girlfriend. She told me that I was barely making it under means and alot of the bills would come into play when we go to court etc.

So, here is my delima, what do I disclose and what do I not disclose. She wants to send a letter of bankruptcy to the person who I pay my car note to, which will cause him to have a heart attack. We have been barely surviving, I mean honestly we have lived in our home for almost a year now, and have not been able to afford furniture, and we sleep on air beds. And its not like we have all this money to go splurge, there are always bills to pay. And the second job that is coming up is only seasonal but might put me over the top and not beable to qualify. Not to metion she stated I had to pay the full $1300 before she would even file for me. I do know there are some other attourneys in town that are cheaper and may let me make arrangements. But, I am not sure what to do. Over the last year due to stress I have had all kinds of medical problems, I caused a buldging disk in my neck due to being uptight all the time, and recently found out I suffer from sleep apnea which has caused depression. I am just and absolute mess, but as I see it if I dont do something I will cause more medical issues and I do not have any intentions on leaving my son without a mother. I apologize this is lengthy but I thought I would give the entire story so you could kinda have an idea of what I am going through. Thanks for all and any advice.

[SinkingFast]

Thanks for all the info, Angel. It really is helpful.

You won't be able to file with your GF. Joint filing is reserved for Husband and Wife relationships.

If you really do gross $2200/mo, not net $2200/mo, you shouldn't have a problem at all with the Means Test. You have a child, so you are a family of 2. The Median in OK for a family of 2 is $41,971/yr. If your gross is $2200/mo, you're earning $26,400/yr which is well below the Median.

If you do earn $2200/mo gross, you're a slam dunk Ch 7. Unless you have assets you cannot cover with Exemptions or need to protect due to arrears on payments.

The attny did make a valid point about the payments on the 2nd car. The Court gets copies of your most recent 60 days of bank statements. Unless you can come up with another satisfactory explanation for where the money for those payments go, you might have some problems there.

You should be able to discharge the old debt from the repo. It's gone up over the years because Creditors add on penalties, fees, and interest. If the other $3K you were sued for recently was also old, unsecured debt, BK should take care of that too.

Stress does cause all kinds of physical and mental ailments. The sooner you relieve yourself of your financial strains, the quicker you're on the road to feeling better. Or, at the very least, preventing something new from cropping up.

[IvoryAngel]

Good Information

Thanks that was good information.

The one thing though is the extra part time income? How do I handle that? I am afraid it would bring me over the top. My girlfriend wasnt going to file with me, however the attourney indicated that we would have to inlcude her income, is this fact or fiction?

Thanks once again!

[SinkingFast]

I don't see why you would have to include her income. You're not married and she's not filing. It's just not the way the paperwork was set up.

I think the way others with SO's have handled this situation is to divide or reduce their expenses by the amount contributed by the SO.

As and example,........ Rent is $1200/mo and you typically pay half the rent every month. Instead of saying you pay the whole $1200, you claim you pay $600/mo in rent.

If your arrangement is you pay the gas and electric and she pays the water and sewer, you claim what you actually pay.

With the part-time job,.......... Unless you're gonna be making $15K/yr at that, you don't have a lot to worry about there.

Rather than having problems with the Means Test, the attny may have been worried about your Schedule I compared to Schedule J. Schedule I is your Income. Schedule J is your expenses.

For people below the Median, the Court moves from the Means Test and looks to I vs J. If you have in excess of $100/mo disposable income there, the Court could push for a 3 year Ch 13 plan.

[IvoryAngel]

More Great Information

Thanks, that was more wonderful information. I guess I should just relax and give the information I have I guess. On another note what should I do about them wanting to send a bankruptcy notice to the guy I pay my car note to, he would not even understand the situation and might make the last few months prior to paying my car off miserable. Any advice??

[SinkingFast]

Well,........... About your guy and the car,............. If you do include him as a Creditor, the debt would technically be discharged. BUT, there's no statement in the BK Code that prevents you from voluntarily repaying any Creditor after your BK is discharged.

Maybe you could have a chat with the guy prior to filing and work out some sort of arrangement??!! **wink, wink**

Also, about Consults,.......... You gotta keep those in perspective too.

Running the Means Test accurately,........ Going thru all the Schedules precisely,........... That takes time. Attnys file BK's all the time so they have a good feel for which way a client's case is gonna go at a glance. But they don't know anything for sure until they actually dig into the paperwork. And you aren't gonna get that until you pay a retainer fee. Attnys have to believe it's worth their time, that they are gonna get your business, before they will invest that amount of time.

I'd suggest you Consult with a couple of other attnys. Get some different perspectives. Also gives you a chance to meet some more people. See who you'd be most comfortable working with.

[IvoryAngel]

Updated Info!

I spoke with another attourneys office and she gave me some useful information over the phone which was great. I was shocked at that. I made an appointment to go in and see them on Thurs. I wanted to clarify that I was eligible, she confirmed for OK its 33000 for a two household family. I made around 27000 last year. But she said they can work with that they can add deductions for like medical and other necessary deductions. I thought good thing, cause I promise I dont take home that much money. So, then it was just a matter of charges. She said 300 for the court fees which has been assumed. And 750 for the attourneys fees. This seems to be reasonable. However I do have to pay half down to start having collection calls to them. This is the hard part. I hate talking to these people. I am behind at least two payments behind on all of my payments, and they call everyday, at work no less. When I pay half down they will schedule my court date etc. I am concerned about a 50.00 fee she is requesting to put my info into the means test program. They will give me credit for it with my other fees. But does this sound like a good idea? Thanks for all the help and information.

[SinkingFast]

Here's a link for you Ivory, to a quick and dirty Means Test Calculator:

http://www.legalconsumer.com/bankrup...means-test.php

Gives you a good idea of how your Means Test might come out. Just change the zip code to yours, answer the questions, and it will give you a good rough result.

Here's the link to the DOJ website about the Means Testing information:

http://www.usdoj.gov/ust/eo/bapcpa/2...anstesting.htm

If you click on the Median Income link there, you'll see, the Median for a family of 2 in OK is $41,971/yr. $33,006/yr is the income level for one person. So that lady got her numbers a little screwed up.

You also have to do Credit Counseling before filing BK and Debtor Education and submit your Cert within 45 days after your 341, or Meeting of the Creditors. Here's a link to the DOJ approved list of providers:

http://www.usdoj.gov/ust/eo/bapcpa/ccde/index.htm

The $50 fee to complete a Means Test for you is understandable. The software program that attnys use to fill out BK filings is not cheap. And it takes time to enter your info. So if you don't retain that attny to represent you, then they do have something to show for the paralegal's time spent on you. Crediting what you pay to see a Means Test toward your attny's fee is customary.