Your bankruptcy case is filed.  It’s not going as smoothly as you expected.

In fact, you’re worried you’re going under.

Can you change bankruptcy lawyers after your case is filed?

Certainly, you can always fire your lawyer.  It may be disruptive.  It will certainly cost more money.

To decide you need to know how big are the stakes?  Are your worries real?

How do you know if you need a new lawyer? [Read more…]

Pick the cheapest bankruptcy lawyer and it could really cost you.

It seems the newest specialty for bankruptcy lawyers is fixing mucked-up cases from other  lawyers.

The extra cost of repairing a case gone bad is only half the problem. Not all the problems created by the bargain basement lawyer can be fixed.

Even when the case can be saved,  the clients will end up paying twice: one to the cheapo lawyer, and once to us to clean it up.

Undoubtedly, they’ll pay more than if  they’d paid for competent counsel to do it right the first time.

Bankruptcy mistakes

Right now, in my office we have three conversions from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7 involving significant real estate assets.

We have cases where big ticket assets were omitted.  We have cases where the initial attorney just didn’t persist with the debtor to get the schedules right, and ones where counsel didn’t explore the choice of chapter.

Almost without exception, the debtors chose counsel based on price.  They went with the lower price for their bankruptcy case, and they bought a rat’s nest.

Cost conscious only at the end

Why is it that notions of economy only surface after a client has wracked up tens of thousands of dollars in debt?

Many of the debtors gave more thought to credit card expenditures or purchases of investment real estate during the boom than they give to picking a bankruptcy lawyer.

The influx of lawyers to this field and the prevalence of lawyer advertising suggest bankruptcy law is a commodity.  Lawyers with no track record to tout or past clients to spread the word  compete on price.  If you can buy a $15 toaster, why pay $30? goes the thinking.

What a lawyer adds

The existence of non lawyer petition preparers and do-it-yourself books reinforce the idea that bankruptcy is more like playing Go Fish than contract bridge.

Bankruptcy no place for do-it-yourself

Then, there are the official forms, suggesting that filing bankruptcy is all about the paper and not about the disclosure the paper requires.

What the bankruptcy papers require

And disclosure is what the forms are all about, and the system wants disclosure because there may be consequences to the stuff disclosed.

Quality of counsel is not reliably correlated with price:  I’ve seen some utter newbie lawyers charging more than highly skilled veterans for an inferior product.  But capable counsel is seldom the cheapest.

So, my charge to those needing bankruptcy relief is to consider that hiring the least expensive lawyer is a poor bargain.

Figure how much should you pay for bankruptcy

Another time, I’ll talk about how to assess a lawyer’s suitability for your case.

Questions to ask a bankruptcy lawyer before you file

Image courtesy of purpleslog.

The problem even the best bankruptcy lawyer can’t fix is the one you hide.

Sometimes  it’s a problem you don’t want to face yourself, or a debt your spouse doesn’t know about.

Maybe it’s a claim you hope to bring after the bankruptcy.

You’re tempted just to say nothing to your bankruptcy lawyer.  Who will know?

Think again.

When the truth is threatening

You’ve probably heard lots of the myths about bankruptcy floating around.

Then there are the stories from people who knew someone whose friend’s cousin  filed bankruptcy some time back.

He didn’t tell everything and it worked out.

Maybe or maybe not.

People visiting a bankruptcy lawyer for the first time often are tempted to conceal debts, property, or transactions from their lawyer in the belief that if the lawyer had the facts, they would be barred from bankruptcy relief. That is seldom so.

Your lawyer can’t protect you from problems created by secrets you keep. With all the facts, your lawyer can provide meaningful advice that maximizes the relief available in bankruptcy.

Hide your secret from your bankruptcy lawyer and you may have a problem far bigger than the one you’re trying to hide. [Read more…]

It’s happened again: there’s an email in Monday morning’s inbox from a client whom I first met weeks ago.

He tells me they want to file before Wednesday’s mediation in state court! I have no creditor information, representation agreement, money, or credit counseling certificate.

Just as inconvenient, I’m not sure I have staff who can drop everything (related to clients who planned ahead and played by our rules) to make this happen.

Clearly I’m not communicating to clients what is involved in getting even a skeleton petition on file.  Lots of clients seem to think that I may be able to file the petition without any involvement on their part beyond providing info and money.

Wrong.

The bankruptcy paperwork is filed with both the client’s signature and my signature We are both attesting to the accuracy of the information and the debtor’s eligibility for bankruptcy relief.

The full filing is even more information intense: budgets looking forward and backward; recent financial history; intentions with respect to secured debts. All of it is doable, just not with a snap of the fingers.

Got to go: got a skeleton to assemble before Wednesday.

Image courtesy of Jonathan Bliss and Flickr.