When to retain a lawyer?

[silverlotus]

We are planning to file at the end of April (provided there are no lawsuits before then and we are now approximately 1-3 months late on CC's) and I was wondering if I should get a lawyer now or just a month ahead of time? I plan to do consults before that by the way. I have alot of my paperwork done and one attorney around here puts all his paperwork online to download.

[PaKettle]

Do not get one until right before you are going to file, like a month. (Ask your attorney, because in part it depends on how long he needs to file.) But you don't want to hire him months ahead!

[MomIcantFindmy]

Some attorneys will want you to file within a certain amount of months after you retain them. I retained ours recently but we are not filing until Feb. We did it in part to have a name and phone number to give the creditors when they called us.

[ejny65]

What is the reason not to hire atty ahead of time???

[lrprn]

Start interviewing bankruptcy lawyers right now. Set up 3-4 free or low-cost initial appointments with experienced bankruptcy lawyers in your area. Lay out your financies and find out if there are any "sticky" aspects to your case.

There are big advantages to knowing which lawyer will represent your interests best, and it's best to not be trying to determine that in a rush right before you are ready to file. When it's best to pay the lawyer his/her retainer is determined by how complex or simple your case is. The more complex your case, the earlier you want to retain your lawyer.

[Flamingo]

We are planning to file at the end of April (provided there are no lawsuits before then and we are now approximately 1-3 months late on CC's) and I was wondering if I should get a lawyer now or just a month ahead of time? I plan to do consults before that by the way. I have alot of my paperwork done and one attorney around here puts all his paperwork online to download.

Do your homework. Start your consultations now and be informed as to every aspect possible. We were so anxiety ridden prior to filing and trying not to file that we made some major mistakes - like utilizing my husbands 401(k) funds to pay bills. Bad move - it would have been exempt. As to an attorney - I was lucky in that a former attorney I worked for back in the 80s was still in the area and I called him and explained our situation. He made a few phone calls and called back and gave us the name of a BK attorney that came highly recommended. It turned out that attorney was tops in our state for bankruptcy. I would not have done it any other way. Call your State Bar Assoc. for some top attorneys in your state that handle BKs. I was pleased with how our attorney answered email questions and even contacted us when our state exemptions changed (became higher) during our Chapter 13 to see if we wanted to refile to save money or consider buying out. A good attorney will work with you and put your mind at ease and answer your questions after you leave the office; if not right away (attorneys are insanely busy) or via their paralegal. A good attorney when you retain them will provide you with the numbers and email addresses of his/her legal assistant and paralegal.

The more you educate yourself before you have your consultations the better.

You probably have the phone calls starting from the creditors and they will get worse. We had our initial consultation in February of 2002; we filed April 2002. We stopped our CC and car payments at the advice of our attorney at retention. So when we filed we had missed our February and March payments and I was terrorized they would come repossess the vehicles. The anxiety was so unbearable I called both banks and told them the vehicles were being included in our Chapter 13 and we would be filing shortly and to please do not come to reposses the vehicles. We provided them with the name and phone number of our attorney in case they had questions. No repossession man came but the phone calls were relentless (and regular mail) until shortly after we filed. Can you deal with all that (you don't mention anything about vehicles) and last until the end of April?

[jp2861]

Set up your consults and pick one. I would put them on retainer right away. This way when you start receiving calls you can refer them to the attorney. This will cut down on some of the calls if you're the type that doesn't want to deal with collectors.