Something Wrong Here??? Or is it me??

[SinkingFast]

Good idea, Lesa!!

We could organize under a 501C 3 status. Instead of payments, we'd get "donations" that would tax deductable for our "clients".

[Minnymouth]

IT'S A THOUGHT, BUT you probably couldn't do it without a lot of red tape from the govt.......................... They would demand a EXPERIENCED legal team to answer all questions.......

And you would have to have a bunch of extenions for all the calls.........LOL..... Somebody would have a phone glued to their ear 24/7 +.....................

Nice idea though.....

[SinkingFast]

I told this to Hubby and he thought it was a good idea, but,......... Many of us couldn't benefit financially from it.

The Trustees would be taking our proceeds as we are in the process of BK, in a Ch 13 plan, or aren't beyond our 180 days from a Ch 7.

[Lesa13]

Ha ha - just joking about the business, guys. You aren't supposed to offer legal advice if you aren't a lawyer....even if you HAVE gone to the School of Law for Hard Knocks :>

[lilgoose]

That is me with all my bumps and bruises!!

Why don't we all go into business together and HIRE a group of lawyers to take care of the phone calls???

We could always write out a script and send it to the overseas companies that ALL the US based companies send their tech questions to...Isn't India one of those???

But, seriously, it is sad that this is one area that people are getting the run-around....Maybe it is the govt in general...Kind of sounds like filing taxes.....hmmmmm

[SinkingFast]

I think it all goes back to the Old Old days. When scribes got paid by the word.

You try to read the IRS codes when you do your own taxes and they don't make sense lots of times.

Much of the legal jargon doesn't make sense either.

I'm shocking myself that I'm starting to understand some of it.

The other day a poster got a note about something that said, "stricken without prejudice to re-filing". Why couldn't the Trustee have just said, "Form filed incorrectly. Please correct and resubmit." Same thing.

[StaciMM]

The sad truth is that the only way to get the real info is to get out there and find out for yourself. Some people will not bother no matter what, and others are just too trusting that someone in such-and-such a position should be trusted 110% and would never realize the need to question everything.

[SinkingFast]

The sad truth is that the only way to get the real info is to get out there and find out for yourself. Some people will not bother no matter what, and others are just too trusting that someone in such-and-such a position should be trusted 110% and would never realize the need to question everything.

You nailed that one, Staci!!

[bubbly]

I agree 100 % !!

I'm so peeved at my (former) lawyer I could scream.

After getting the "turns out you have assets and I want them" letter from the Trustee over our pitiful non-exempt items, I tried for two weeks to get a return call from my lawyer. When I finally got a hold of him yesterday he basically said he's done what he was paid for and anything "extra" is gonna cost us extra; to the tune of at least $400 - to start !

I told him I was disappointed to hear that as I had to spend 1 1/2 hours on the phone at work one day arranging for the auto finance co's to send reaffirms to the lawyer. Then I had to call repeatedly to get the lawyer to file them and one of them didn't even get in on time.

He was COMPLETELY unrepentant and just blathered on about how "actually I had to spend much more time than usual on your case, yada, yada, yada.........." I wanted to DECK the guy.

So needless to say, we will be dealing directly with the Trustee from now on because 1) we don't have any money to pay the damn lawyer and 2) he's a dinkhead anyways :-(

He absolutely did NOT tell us everything that could happen. Was VERY cavalier about every single "scary" thing that came up ("OH, that's nothing to worry about, everything's fine........") and basically wrote us off as soon as he had his full fee in his pocket (immediately following the 341 meeting).

So, does that mean I'm "pro se" now?

Anyone have any experience dealing directly with their Trustee? How'd it go?

On the plus side, I called another attorney's office to see if they would "pick up" our case (the answer is a resounding NO - and nobody else is going to want to either !) but the legal assistant was awesome - talked to me for 1/2 an hour and gave me lots of advice and information. She basically told me it should be okay to deal directly w/ the Trustee, that our Trustee is one of the best ones in our district and to just be sure to do everything in writing.

She said if we decide not to offer for our stuff and he decides he really wants them, that what happens is he sends a guy to the house to look 'em over and decide if they're worth anything and pick them up.

So I think we're just going to bite the bullet and give up our stuff. Whether he really wants to bother to take it and try to sell it is up in the air, but the assistant said "usually" they don't bother with much less than $1500 worth (ours is approx. $1000) so we'll see.

She did say that generally, the Trustee is looking for approx. 75 - 80 % of the listed value in an offer, if we were to make one. Well, we definitely don't think the stuff is worth $750 - $800, so we probably won't. She didn't make it sound like any big deal if we did though. Made it sound like we would just be writing letters back and forth to the Trustee.

I'll let you know how it plays out for sure. Wish me luck

Anyone with any experience dealing directly with the Trustee, please chime in w/ stories or advice !

THANKS !

Bubbly

P.S. As if life doesn't suck enough, the timing belt went on my car (newly reaffirmed ) and ruined the engine and I am in the process of getting a new motor put in my car. FORTUNATELY, my grandson's dad owns a shop and is doing it for only $800 (that I have to somehow PULL OUT OF MY ASS !!!! ) But, believe me, I know how lucky I am, because at the shop where I originally had it towed it would have been several THOUSAND dollars. And, on the even brighter side the new engine has 35,000 LESS miles on it than the old one ! Whoopee ! (I'm trying so hard to grasp at the GOOD things ! )

[GoingDown]

I don't know, Minny.

I think all the new law did was make attnys verify the info they are signing off on is accurate.

One attny told us it took no time at all to file. If we had handed him our docs at the Consult, he woulda entered all the data that night, and had the BK petition ready for us to sign the next day.

All the other attnys have said it will take a month to 6 weeks for them to verify all the info we give them.

That's with us handing them 6 months pay stubs, 6 months bank statements, 4 years of income taxes and W-2's/income statements, records of property transfers in the last year, a copy of our Credit Reports, several months statements from all our CC's and other debts, etc, etc, etc. We do the leg work, they just have to verify.

They still don't answer questions. Every one. EVERY ONE! I specifically asked about the truck. What would happen to our truck. I'm no dummy. I know we have too much vehicle value for the exemption allowable. Not one straight answer. Since they won't answer my question, my gut tells me there's a problem there. That's a simple enough question. All the attnys knew we were gonna owe taxes. I know that Trustees make deals. Maybe we could get a deal. Even if we get offered a deal, we don't have the money to settle. I don't wanna risk it. We owe the IRS big bucks. We can sell the truck, pay the lender, and hopefully have enough money to pay off the IRS.

But still, it's irritating, like Minny said. We are paying them to represent our interests. Why don't they just tell us what will likely happen and let us decide. Instead, Noooooo! We gotta play a sneaky game of "Grease The Trustee's Palm."

Is that what they require to file BK? How far back do they look at your taxes? 4 years? I was hoping it was only two years of income taxes and W-2's.

[SinkingFast]

Is that what they require to file BK? How far back do they look at your taxes? 4 years? I was hoping it was only two years of income taxes and W-2's.

Every attny we Consulted with here, and I mean EVERY attny, wants 4 years income taxes and the earnings statements.

If you filed your taxes and simply don't have them available for whatever reason, let the attny you choose know. They can arrange to get transcripts for you from the IRS. It's part of the New Law thing. BK Filers must have paid their income taxes in the past. I think the rule may be 3 years, but attnys are asking for 4 years.

How much of this stuff will actually make it to court for the Trustee and Judge to see, I don't know. One poster in another thread has already filed New Law. Said the Court didn't look at hardly any of it. May just be part of the verification process attnys are going thru to protect themselves. Attnys are liable now, to the Court, for filing correct information on behalf of their clients. Otherwise, the attny can get fined.