How did you successfully find a good bankruptcy attorney?

[PaKettle]

Man, I'd have never thought it would be this difficult in the age of internet reviews and so on, to find a recommendation for a bk atty!

I spent the entire day - well, from about noon until 5pm - searching on the internet for a few attorneys to talk to.

I looked at http://www.martindale.com/ but even though they have tons of listings, only a few are peer reviewed and those are all Big Business type law firms. Otherwise, they're just listings, and I may as well throw a dart at the phone book.

I tried searching via google for reviews of attorneys and could not find any sites except where each attorney had only one review and it was written in such a way it sounded like that attorney himself wrote it.

I have asked almost everyone I know if they know of any attorneys for bk and no one knows of any.

At this point I have 2 that I could call: one is an attorney who was a former trustee and she now also works for creditors, so this makes me rather nervous. I don't want an attorney who works both sides of the fence, I want one that works only for debtors! However she has a high rating at martindale.com (peer reviewed) and at least does only banktruptcies (I found a few others that list bankruptcy among 4-5 things they do, but I don't want one of those, either.) This one also makes me nervous because she has a very high profile on the net, she comes up everywhere and she may be doing a very high volume.

Then I got one referral from a guy in an internet group. He said "I used this guy and he did a good job" but when asked further, he admitted his case was very straightforward, so it could be that any idiot could have filed for him... whereas I may have a complication or two and need someone GOOD.

So anyway, sorry this is so long. The point is HOW the heck did you find your attorney?! I am about to give up and just close my eyes and point my finger at the yellow pages!

Someone really should put together a good bankruptcy website that rates bankruptcy attorneys!

[SinkingFast]

Long story short,............ Luck!

When we realized BK was gonna be our solution, I got on the Net and found this Forum. In addition to all the info you learn about BK, there are lots of different posts here on what to look for in an attny.

I found Martindale. Used that as a Guide. You have to remember that younger attnys won't be listed in Martindale. Attnys have to practice a minimum amount of time in order to be considered for Martindale.

I used PACER too. I took the Yellow Pages and looked up attnys to see how long they'd been practicing and how many cases they'd filed. We didn't want to be with a "Mill Attny". Someone who had so many cases they wouldn't remember who we were.

Then I started calling attnys for Consult appts. That eliminated a bunch right there. When the Law changed, many BK attnys just quit practicing BK Law. Our area, town and surrounding communities, had had probably 50 practicing BK attnys prior to the Law change. Now it's down to about 15 or so.

From there, we went to Consult after Consult. I think we chatted with a dozen attnys. Taking each attny's "Required Document" sheet and compiling our needed papers. We were below the Median, so any attny trying to push us into a Ch 13 was OUT. That whittled the eligible list to 2 attnys.

The first attny we retained was a BUST.

The LAST guy was/is GREAT. Laid back. We clicked. He has a good rapore with the Trustees and is well respected. According to Martindale, he's won some Decisions in his career but I don't know what. You have to be a member there to read those. He has great paralegals who've been doing BK's for a number of years each. No rookie wrong answers from them. And if they weren't sure of the answer, they referred to the attny for how he wanted to handle our particular situation and got back to us.

All in all, it took us nearly 2 months of Consulting around to get to THE ONE we decided to work with.

[lrprn]

Sounds like you've done a lot to find yourself a good lawyer, PaK - good detective work!

I wouldn't worry about the trustee bk/creditor lawyer. When a lawyer works for you, they put that hat on. Frankly I'd be looking seriously at this one - having someone so familiar as an insider in your bankruptcy court is a huge advantage in Ch 13 cases.

One more suggestion for you....if you have friends who have used a lawyer of any kind in your community, ask for that lawyer's name. Contact each of the lawyers and ask who they would recommend to a family member to file Ch 13 bankruptcy. In most communities lawyers know each other and who's good even when they aren't in the same practice area. That's how we found our Ch 13 lawyer, and he's excellent! We couldn't be happier with our choice.

Hope you find your excellent lawyer soon!

[familyof7]

what district are you in ?

[SinkingFast]

I wouldn't worry about the trustee bk/creditor lawyer. When a lawyer works for you, they put that hat on. Frankly I'd be looking seriously at this one - having someone so familiar as an insider in your bankruptcy court is a huge advantage in Ch 13 cases.

Our attny doesn't do many BK's per month. I wondered how in the world he made any money, let alone pay 2 paralegals and his share of a Partnership.

Turns out,......... Our attny is a Creditor's Rights Law attny who turns a few BK's on the side each month. Maybe 50-60 a year, total.

A Trustee or a Creditor's Rights Law attny give you a representative who knows the perspective of the other side in one sense or another.

[HenriettaHen]

I'll echo Sink's advice - see them all. I saw seven, over a long period. I spaced them out as I learned more about it. Seven is all there was in my reach and BOY! I learned a lot seeing them.

It's hard to quantify the steadying effect of simultaneously interviewing attorneys and studying BK law on your own.

[Keebler]

I took the computer nerd scientific approach and wrote about it here. I did it again for a relative in San Antonio and couldn't be more pleased with the results!

My search linked here...

And again linked here for a relative

I wish I could do it for everyone because it's a bit tough and time consuming.

[BKOnce]

Internet & local paper

[MEA2]

SF from this board gave me the advice to try to find a BK attorney that is also a trustee(we had seen 3 lawyers prior and none we felt comfortable with and they were clueless lol)Well the trustee was fantastic ,we are now discharged and closed,it's worth looking for the right one.

[Keebler]

SF from this board gave me the advice to try to find a BK attorney that is also a trustee(we had seen 3 lawyers prior and none we felt comfortable with and they were clueless lol)Well the trustee was fantastic ,we are now discharged and closed,it's worth looking for the right one.

I recommend finding a Trustee too because they seem to be sharper than the others. My relative in San Antonio visited attorneys and liked the one who happened to be a Trustee too.

In my search, I visited the three best attorneys from my analysis of the court calender. After visiting all three, the one I liked best was also the least expensive. At some point after I had chosen him, I realized that he also happens to be a Trustee. (I don't know why I hadn't figured that out earlier -- At that time I guess I didn't realize that the attorneys worked both sides like that.)

[BKTango]

Where I live in there is only 3 bk attornies.

The first one I visited was very professional, didn't give me a creepy feeling, and had been a bk attorney for 25+ yrs, majority of that time he was a trustee. He also accepted payments for his fee, and was used by my DH's co-worker's father for bk a few years ago.

The second one on the list we were told to stay away from through word of mouth. Never went there to see him. I didn't like his office location...(his home).

The third one, I walked into her office and looked at her "helpers, secretaries", who were high school age kids in raggedy clothes, painting their nails at the time. I walked out.

The choice ended up being simple and the right one.

[PaKettle]

what district are you in ?

Not sure what you mean by district? I live on the west side of Los Angeles towards Venice Beach/Santa Monica. But am willing to drive 10 miles or so for a good attorney. (In L.A. traffic 10 miles or so is a lot!)

[PaKettle]

Sounds like you've done a lot to find yourself a good lawyer, PaK - good detective work!

I wouldn't worry about the trustee bk/creditor lawyer. When a lawyer works for you, they put that hat on. Frankly I'd be looking seriously at this one - having someone so familiar as an insider in your bankruptcy court is a huge advantage in Ch 13 cases.

Thanks to all for the feedback and suggestions.
Well, I'll definitely talk to the attorney who was a trustee. But I am also wary of her because she is the #1 atty who comes up in searches, the #1 on almost every list I could find in this area. I am guessing that means she is running a paper mill.

I will go talk with her and ask how many clients she does, etc... How many is too many? How do I know if I'm at an office where they are doing too many bankruptcies?

[SinkingFast]

If they've been practicing 20 years and their cases filed is in the thousands, chances are, that's a Mill.

Our attny has been practicing 20-25 years and has filed 700-800 BK's total.

We didn't go the Trustee route because our Court is small. 2 Ch 7 Trustees and 1 Ch 13 Trustee. If we Consulted with 1 Ch 7 Trustee that meant the other HAD to be our case Trustee. If we had Consulted with both Ch 7 Trustees, the Court would have to bring in an outside Trustee to preside over our case. We didn't wanna tempt tainting the Trustee pool, so we steered clear of them intentionally.

[Cassiopeia]

I had considered bankruptcy and was in such a bad shape financially for a LONG time, and when it became obvious I really had to do it, all I did was look in the yellow pages.

The first atty. I went to was a total jerk although his ad (and his website) looked terrific. He made me feel DIRTY for getting myself into this situation.......He was awful! Not only that, but his rate was double the atty. I eventually ended up using. PLUS.....he explained all the schedules/forms that had to be filled out and said they would be sent home with me to fill out and that would probably take me several weeks at least. Well, thank goodness this was a free consultation. I left and never looked back. I was SO depressed.

So then I called another atty. from the yellow pages. His secy, however, told me that he was really tied up and that they wouldn't be doing any more BK's until the following month. I was MORE depressed! But I stuck it out and waited, called the first of the month and got my appt. for a consultation.

That lawyer was a GODSEND!!!!! He was totally, completely awesome. His wife was his paralegal and between the two of them, they made things so easy for me and they were compassionate and caring. Even sent me a beautiful dish garden plant when my Mom died. They "lived through" all my Mom and Dad's illnesses with me while we were getting ready to file. It was a horrific, stressful time for me in many ways, not just the financial hardships. They were so supportive.

I really lucked out. They were not just representing me, they ended up to be my friends.