Handling Attorney Costs

[jpdude]

I am finally ready to file my Chapter 13 case, and have my first attorney meeting on Monday...after reading this forum for the past 6 months I am anxious to find out if I might know more than him about the laws!

Anyway, I am wondering how fees are typically handled...I live in Maryland, outside of DC and imagine it will be fairly expensive. Will he let me pay him partially now, and the rest over the next 2 months? Not paying my CC's leaves me with an extra $1,000/month, so I could pay him back soon.

Thanks

[Bandit]

Will he let me pay him partially now, and the rest over the next 2 months?

Yes. If he wants it all upfront then I would get another lawyer.

Usually they take 1/3 as a deposit/retainer, will do all your paperwork but you have to pay in full before filing.
This is not from experience but making many phone calls & reading a lot of information online

after reading this forum for the past 6 months I am anxious to find out if I might know more than him about the laws!

Probably, a lot of them get people into bigger problems because they do not know what they are doing.

[HHM]

Chapter 13's typically work like this

You will pay some money up front to your attorney...depending on your case, this amount may just be the court filing fee, but usually (i.e. most of the time) is the filing fee plus about 25% of the total fee. The remainder of the attorney fee is paid out of your chapter 13 payment. Thus, if the attorney charges $4,000 for a chapter 13, you can probably expect to have to come up with $1,000 up front. But fees and payment policies vary widely.

But, the Chapter 13 trustee takes your first payments you make into the plan and turns them around and pays your attorney. Your attorney's fees are considered an administrative expense of the BK estate and take first payment priority.