Lakewood, NJ Bankruptcy Law Firms & Lawyers

Chapter 7 permits the debtor to get rid of all of their unsecured debt without having to make payments to that debt. It is not a good choice for people who are behind on their mortgage and want to save their house from foreclosure. It is an excellent choice if you want speed and simplicity. You must qualify for a 7. The tests are income versus ALLOWABLE expenses (term of art...need a lawyer) "liquidation" (do you have equity in property that is not protected by an exemption (law stuff again) and the "means test"...one of the stupidest things Congress has ever thought up (and I am a conservative Republican) which asks are you an above or below median (half above/half below) income household. Chapter 13 is a bankruptcy where you are required to make a monthly payment for 36 or up to 60 months. The basis of the payment is never unsecured debt. It is affected by the tests outlined above. Filing this bankruptcy will stop a foreclosure and allow you to repay the mortgage arrears at zero percent interest.

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles. There is some information in this question that doesn't seem to make sense. LEGAL FEES: Legal fees that the attorney gets for the handling the case should be spelled out in the attorney/client agreement. You would not be receiving a monthly statement from the attorney. In addition to the attorney/client agreement, there are two forms in the bankruptcy petition itself, which I assume you reviewed and signed before the case was filed, that can shed some light on this. The Rights and Responsibilities form, lists the "initial fee charged in this case". Also form called "Compensation Statement of Attorney for the Debtor(s)". This form should spell out what the attorney agreed to accept for legal services and how much compensation was received before the filing of the case. Unlike hourly attorneys, bankruptcy attorneys work on flat fees, so we agree on a price for particular work and that price and the extent of the work is supposed to be spelled out in the attorney/client agreement, plus in the forms discussed above. $3,600 is a standard fee for a consumer case. If there are services such as lien strips, opposition to relief of stay motions, and others there may be additional fees for those services, refer to the Rights and Responsibilities form. In order to receive ANY money from the funds held by the Trustee, the attorney must file an Application for Compensation and Confirmation of the case, which is reviewed by the Trustee and if approved funds are disbursed after the confirmation. Perhaps the $9,000 you are referring to are Trustee fees. This is compensation the Trustee receives in administering the case. LOAN MODIFICATION: I'm next confused by the loan modification aspects of the case. I would want to know if you fell behind on mortgage payments since the filing of the case, in other words incurred post-petition mortgage debt and hence were trying to modify the loan to add these and the pre-petition past due amounts into the principal balance? I wonder if doing this, assuming the lender would be willing, makes sense but I can't say without looking at your case. If this is for pre-petition mortgage payments, these should have been included in the Plan itself so why not just let the case take care of them? Again, this should be an interactive discussion and I would need some information here about your situation. It is true that while the case is active, in order to sell the property you would need to obtain court's approval (btw: the attorney can and will charge to file the motion on this). Whether selling the property is wise, necessary, again involves taking a look at what has happened since the filing of your case. It could also be true that the Plan payments may need to increase if the property is sold since the mortgage payments, assuming were a deduction from your income, are no longer your responsibility so there could be some potentially additional disposable income now BUT you state that this is a 100% plan so I'm not sure why the Plan payments would increase. I mean if the Plan is paying all the debt in full, why would you need to pay more? Bottom line on all this is that without looking at the details of the case, your particular financial circumstances, your goals/reasons for filing, it's impossible to advise you on how to best move forward other than to say that you could consult another attorney to review the case and give you advice. This seems a logical thing to do if you lost all faith in your current counsel.

Chapter 7 discharges the debts you would like discharged such as unsecured credit card debt and medical bills. As for secured debt, such as liened items like houses and cars, the Debtor can "reaffirm" on this debt (keep paying on it) or give back the secured item(s) and have the underlying debt discharged. Some debts cannot be discharged in Chapter 7 including student loans, child support, alimony, fines, some personal taxes, etc.