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Should I trust my lawyer any longer?

Submitted by on Thu, 02/21/2008 - 22:33
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ok here's our scenario....

In May of 2007 we realized we were in over our heads so we called a debt consolidation lawyer group. After paying them $2000 I received a notice that I was being sued by a credit card company. This lawyers group had conveniently missed this debt and since I was being sued it was too late to add it to the "program" and I was on my own. I contacted other programs, they offered to help and we were scammed out of more money. The calls kept coming and it just went downhill from there. By October we were out of money, living pay check to paycheck and the bill collectors were hounding us horribly....so we went to bankruptcy.

The lawyer we spoke with thought he could get us in on a Chapter 7, though we doubted it we paid him the money to do it and he ran the means test etc. 6 weeks later we go into his office to sign and he informs us that we won't make a Chapter 7, we'll have to go with a Chapter 13. He also recommended that we take a couple months to decrease our income so that we had a reasonable repayment plan on the 13...thiss was right before Christmas. Since this is a slow period for me and hubby we both managed easily to have a decrease in income. Our problem was that we had already received another letter about being sued...the lawyer told us not to worry, we would be filed and if we didn't manage to file before they got a judgement and they attached it to our house then he could do a simple "cram down" and it would just cost a little more money. He said it was the least of our worries so we believed him. Last week we went in to sign the papers for our Chapter 13. He had us at a higher payment but also had some of our numbers wrong and after fixing the information he had us at a $50 a month repayment plan for 5 years. He tried to see if we could get in on a 3 year plan instead, but said our numbers were too high. Also the courts had awarded the CC company their default judgement and they attached to our house. In the meantime the first ones who had sued me...I was due to return to court for review on Feb 22nd. My lawyer told me not to worry, he would have me filed and I wouldn't have to appear and no warrant would be issued for my arrest. The he calls on the 21st asking about the remainder of his payment for the Chapter 13. He also informed me that he had not, as of yet filed the papers. I was of course upset and he said he would file right then and call me back with a case number to take to court the next day. An hour later he calls back to say there were recent changes tot he means test and not only did he NOT file the Chapter 13 papers but now he wants us to come in and sign more papers because he can now get us in on a Chapter 7 for another $1200! I now have to take my 7 year old to court...he's on school vacation and I have no one to watch him, and suddenly we're able to file a Chapter 7. I just feel like this man is out to steal my money and not actually help me out at all!


Sounds like your lawyer may be incompetent or perhaps just not very dilligent and/or overworked. At any rate, he should not be charging you more to fix his mistakes.

For those who just want to know where they stand with the means test, there is a free free and anonymous means test calculator at legalconsumer.com. There's no reason you should have to wait six week for a lawyer to tell yo whether you pass the means test.


Submitted by on Fri, 02/22/2008 - 22:34

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hi! you can always go in for a second consultation. you can visit a different law firm altogether and approach them with your problem. just remember not to mention a word about what your previous lawyer had told you. let them give their opinion. may be this is too much for your present lawyer to handle. i think you should just move on to some other better lawyer.


Submitted by laurel188 on Thu, 02/28/2008 - 02:56

laurel188

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