Been on the phone with several here in Carrollton, and the last one wanted $749.00 to file and another 500 plus at court-time.
Thanks to y’all we HAVE this money, but I just found a site on the internet and they only want $195.00.
(I left them and their online questionnaire when they wanted my checking account number, name of bank and how much I had on hand. They also misspelled some words, so I high-tailed it.)
Thanks
Quasi
The difference is in the amount of support staff they may have, how nice their offices are, and how much time they’re willing to spend with you. The last one is key.
Bankruptcy is fraught with all sorts of traps, challenges and thorny problems - it’s not something you want to go with the cheapest option in town.
The cheaper ones may be nothing more than one person working out of their house. Sounds good until you discover that it takes forever to get anything done because they’ve got so many clients and so little time to manage them. Don’t be surprised if something gets goofed or left off your filing, forcing an amended filing and re-scheduling of the 341 meeting. It’s annoying to you, and it tends to irritate the trustee.
At the higher end, you should find someone who’s willing to take plenty of time to explain things to you, is easily reached and can turn things around quickly. They’ll also go through everything in detail so it’s right the first time.
IANAL, but the filing fee for a Chapter 7 case is $299. I can’t think of any attorney who would do this work for anywhere near $200. Maybe you are just looking at a paperwork preparer?
You might also base your choice on how complicated the bankruptcy is going to be. A higher price may reflect someone who has more experience and who is willing to spend the time to correctly handle a more complicated situation.
Whatever you do, don’t take the cheapest option. When I’m getting bids for work done, I almost always use the following method:
Quasi, the filing fee for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy is about $297.00 or so. Anybody claiming they’ll do a bankruptcy for less than that is a scammer.
Did you talk to the folks at Atlanta Legal Aid? If they do bankruptcy, they’d probably do it for only the filing fee, without charging anything for the attorney time involved.
Otherwise, stay off the internet when looking for bankruptcy/financial information. There are tons of scammers out there, and you’re vulnerable to that sort of thing for a variety of reasons. If you are going through a private attorney, look for somebody with a real office where you can go in an actually talk to somebody. Before hiring anybody, call the state bar association and make sure whoever you plan to hire is actually an attorney in good standing.
This, for real. I have no idea what they charge in Georgia, but in NW Indiana, the going rate for a middle-to-good attorney is $1000-$1500.
Stay away from petition preparers, do it yourself forms, etc. It can be very easy to fall into a bankruptcy mess, since much of the law seems illogical from a layman standpoint.
PM if you have any sensitive questions. IANAL, but have been a Trustee/Client Bankruptcy Paralegal for 12+ years…
Oakie,
Yes I did call Atlanta Legal Aid and got bounced to three other phone numbers. The last one (404) 894-7707 was a very nice lady who told me they’re not handling bankruptcies right now, and to check back at the end of the month.
When I asked her to recommend someone with a more decent filing fee, she told me that these would be private attorneys.
Thanks to all of you for your replies.
When it comes to discharging 49k worth of debt against $1500.00 in fees, I know what I’m supposed to do.
I just didn’t think it would be that expensive.
Oh!
About that “online” $195.00 thing?
God, I gave them my social security number!!!:eek::eek::eek:
IDJIT, IDJIT, IDJIT:smack::smack::smack:
Q
That $195 may not be a scam. It just may be a petition preparer. In other words, that doesn’t cover your $299 filing fee, and the person cannot give you any legal advice: simply fills out the forms. Of course, the catch-22 is that if you didn’t need legal advice, the form filling out part would be easy.
If it were me, and I didn’t have any significant assets to protect, I would try to file the forms myself.
Of course, the attorneys here will tell you what a terrible mistake this is. And it may be. But I would do it anyways.
The $195 is just to fill out the paperwork.
The $749 is probably the best deal of those you mentioned, but get a reference for the lawyer. In any case, these fees probably do not include the Court’s filing fees.
jt,
Thanks, but it’s a chore to even remember what day this is, or what I did 5 hours ago.
Once upon a time, maybe, but no more these days.
I think I might be better off continuing to “shop”!
Thanks!
Quasi
Quasi–
Don’t feel pressured to file bankruptcy immediately. If you’ve got no income, or for that matter, only Social Security Disability income, and you rent your home or otherwise are not subject to a mortgage, and your vehicle payments are current or non-existent, there’s not much a creditor can actually do to you beyond the harassing phone calls and such. You can’t be jailed for not paying a civil debt–with exceptions for certain payments required by Court Order, like child support. You don’t have any wages to garnish. If you get SSD, that can’t be garnished by anyone other than the feds…but you’ll want to have those funds in a separate bank account, and not commingle them with any other funds/assets,
Keep the house payment/rent situation current. Keep the vehicle payments current. Buy food, meds, utilities as needed. Forget about unsecured creditors–credit cards, medical bills, etc. Stop using credit cards, or at least do not buy anything not clearly identifiable as a necessity, on them. Screen your calls if you like. Don’t do anything unless you know what it is you are doing, why you are doing it, and what benefit you expect to get out of the deal.
Oakie
Yes, okay, but what about all the money which has been contributed to me/us by Y’ALL and is still in my checking account? Is that money in danger?
D’s car payments and debts are separate from mine, so presently, I would be filing just an individual chapter 7.
Thanks
Q
Regarding the general question of why bankruptcy lawyers’ fees vary - I agree with everything already said. Also, bankruptcy attorneys in my area typically collect their entire fee up front, which will often cover everything except litigation. So they generally have to estimate up front how complicated a case will be (i.e., how much time will be spent on it) and determine their fees on a case-by-case basis, based on that initial assessment. Since each attorney is making their own estimation, the fee could vary quite a bit. Some attorneys have one fee they charge for (almost) every case, but around here those are the minority.
The fees vary for the type of support you get. You can file the papers yourself this is not hard, in fact you can petition the judge for a waiver of the fees if you can prove you’ve next to nothing.
The difficulty comes first in your creditors meeting. In the past creditors simply didn’t bother to show up. Now they are more apt, especially if any one debt is over 10,000 to show up and start challenging everything left and right such as balance transfers made up to a year prior, gambling debts, purchases you made once you stopped paying on one card but not another.
Anything that looks even remotely like you knew you were in over your head but charged anyway is likely to get challanged these days. This is where an attorney comes in very handy, to prove othewise. Being 49K in debt and getting 45K of it challanged makes the whole thing moot. You need a good lawyer.
If not otherwise you can’t procede then you just wasted your filing fee and will have to start over later with a different judge or different time frame.
The last thing is the final discharge. It should take between 3-6 months. But I’ve heard of bad lawyers you must keep hounding to get it discharged. The longer it takes to get all the debts discharged the longer it shows up on your credit history. You don’t want it to take two years to be final instead of three months.
So in a straightforward Chapter 7, make sure you ask about your meeting with your creditors and how long the final discharge takes in the lawyer’s past history.
As Oakminster they can’t put you in jail. All they can do is attach your wage or freeze your bank account. Now is a great time to just close the bank account and live on a cash only basis.
Mark,
As I said, IANAL, but I do work around the BK Court in the Southern District of FL. A couple of points:
The creditors NEVER show up. And I mean never. They could challenge some of the transfers, but why? They won’t ever collect, so why pay lawyers to chase bankruptees? The only time creditors show up is when it is a private party and they are unfamiliar with the process and/or think that they must show.
What would a bad lawyer have to do with not getting the discharge? So long as neither the creditors nor the trustee objects to the discharge, it is an automatic process.
Non advice, advice:
Understand that I am not licensed in Georgia. Assuming my letter reached you, you know where I’m licensed. In my state, any funds in a bank account other than one dedicated to holding social security funds can be garnished, in theory. However, a garnishment does not happen until there has been a sucessfull lawsuit against the debtor, and the resulting judgment has been entered of record and remained unsatisfied for 30 days. At that point, the creditor can go back to court seeking a writ of garnishment against any assets he can identify. Typically wages or bank accounts are targeted.
As long as there are no outstanding judgments against you, you can’t be garnished. However, in some situations a bank can excercise a right of setoff against any funds on deposit if you owe that bank money. As an example Bank A issues you a credit card, you don’t pay, but you have money in a checking account at Bank A. They can possibly seize the money in the checking account to setoff the credit card debt you owe them.
One way to avoid those problems is by dealing in cash as much as possible–but that carries other risks, such as loss or theft.
The laws of Georgia are likely different, and I don’t know how stuff works over there.
I’d have to disagree with that, at least in my state. Unsecured creditors generally do not show up. Secured creditors almost always show up, and they ask about the debtor’s intent regarding their collateral. Reaffirmation agreements are possible, or the debtor may choose to surrender the collateral.