chapter 7

Depends on where you live but the average is around $1500

Where I live in Florida, the total cost of filing plus legal fees is $1600. This is the contract I signed last November.

There was a difference of a couple of hundred dollars either way, depending on the attorney.

In Arizona depending on the attorney the total cost is about $2500 to $3000 as of last week when I spoke to an attorney.

That seems a little high for Ch. 7 in AZ. The attorney I spoke to said $1500.

I talked with Mari Jo Clark law offices and that figure they gave me was for both a chapter 7 and 13. they want to know if we are going to go ahead with the BK. I am holding off for now because it looks like our creditors are going to work with us, waiting on one creditor to respond to a settlement offer and another to respond on a counter offer. plus moving into a cheaper place that will free up more money to hopefully be able to either up a few offers or to settle some other accounts.

i talked to a few diffrent attorneys, the 1st one wanted 2900, the 2nd attorney only wanted 2000.

I guess like anything else you need to shop around and do some research to get the best price.

yeah it pays to shop around, the attorney that wanted 2900 said i could only retain him for 1400 that day. the attorney that only wanted 2000 said i could retain him for 100 bucks. so not only was he cheeper he wasnt trying to milk me dry.

If you've got a lawyers cap on, can fill out some forms, dot your i's and cross your t's .... you can do it yourself and file pro se for $350 ($300 court filing fee + $50 credit counseling).

i looked at that option too, but i thought after going through hell for the last 6 years 2k isnt a bad deal to get a fresh start. plus the whole dot your i's and cross your t's, i'm pretty good at paying attention to detail but i didnt want to risk it over somthing this important. 1 screw up and i have to wait like 6 months i think before i can refile.

I agree completely. I retained my attorney for $50, and make monthly payments. I looked at the forms, and was concerned that I would get something wrong. I was right. There were several things that may have been done properly, but wouldn't have fit the trustees point of view. It is good to have someone who has dealt with the local system, and knows what the trustees here atre looking for.

Most things I learn by example....

All bankruptcy records and filings are available online through PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records). You could get a login to PACER, then go look up other people's BK filings. You'll be able to see how their attorney's filled out the forms (and dotted the i's per se). It costs 8 cents per page to download case files from PACER.

Not that having an attorney is bad, it definitely gives you more comfort to know the BK will go smoothly. I am just the kind of person that doesn't like to pay for things I can do myself. So if I were ever contemplating bankruptcy, that's what I'd do.

The lawyer I talked to wanted 250 for a retainer the we could make payments on the rest but he wouldn't file until all monies were paid. that was with a cost between $2500 to $3000. so we decided to try the debt settlement and that was a bust the company we picked didn't do anything but cause more of an issue. that's not to say there aren't any gooed debt settlement companys out there just like lawyers and their fees you got to look and ask question which I thought I didn't but felt rush into going with the company I did. so now we are doing it ourselves and I have settled with one company at 30% and waiting for a reply from another company that we sent a counter offer two.

If you can settle for an acceptable amount, that is great. Most of the time when it comes to bk, the fees for attorney and filing are considerable less than settling would be. In our case, it will cost about 3% of what the total debt is. I would have to get all of my creditors to accept a 8 to 10% settlement to make it worthwhile for us.

before we decided to file bk we also tried a debt managment company. and unfortunatly for us it just waisted more time and got us deeper in the hole. glad to see you were able to settle it your self.