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Most bankruptcy lawyers tell you to stop paying your bills when you go in for your free initial consultation. Then you take awhile to get together all your paperwork, and pay the lawyer what you would've paid to the bills that you just stopped paying. There is a legal reason for this. If someone keeps paying bills, but only pays some of them, it looks like preference, and can get the whole case thrown out.
It's not about convincing a judge. There are standard forms and IRS calcuations that have to be done. Even if a judge wants to, he/she can't let someone file chapter 7 who doesn't qualify.
In Texas, if you make more than the median income, and have more than about $200 (there's an exact number, but I don't know it) of disposable income a month, after all your debts are cleared, then you CAN NOT FILE CHAPTER 7 No matter what.
So if eliminating my dischargable debts leaves me with $201 a month, I can't file chapter 7. I would have to file chapter 13.
I have a family member who filed chapter 13, and is paying back every single penny. The chapter 13 put her on a payment plan for 5 years, stopped the interest and finance charges, and she'll pay back every single penny in the next 5 years. She only weaseled out of the interest.
That is why it is so important for the OP to file a proof of claim. Many people in BK pay their debts back.
My friends monthly payments are significantly lower than if she didn't file, because of the stopping of interest. It is saving her about $1000 a month.
Minimum payments set by credit card companies stop. They just take your total balances and divide over 5 years, and that's your payment.
HOWEVER, if you only have $25 of extra income a month, you only pay $25 a month for 5 years, then the rest disappears.
Basically, you pay what you owe, or what you can afford, whatever is less.
It is hard for people to file and get debts wiped away. Many pay back some or all. Not all people that file are deadbeats.
Someone might have medical bills from a spouse's cancer, spouse dies, funeral expenses, loss of spouses income, then they themselves get laid off... ect.
This seems like a concocted story. You can have NO cash advances 90 days before you file. If you get a $ 1,000 Cash advance and then one month later file BK , you are in BIG trouble.
So any attorney ( if he is GOOD ) will NOT tell the client to charge his services on a Credit Card or to tell the Client to get Cash Advances off the card to pay him.
And any smart attorney would NEVER tell the client to MAX out his cards right before the filing ! Ludicrious ! If he did then he will set his client up for FAILURE and possibly losing the Case !
Now who's leg are you pulling ?
This is a true story--------1988....Little Falls MN
I know you got a letter saying you shouldn't contact her......BUT she is a "friend" and what's wrong with one "friend" calling another to inquire about the wedding plans, expressing sympathy about her having to file bankruptcy, and assuring her that you know she won't stiff you and how much can you expect each week as payment? I think the formal letter from the bankruptcy court is written more for businesses, credit cards, etc and not a "friendly" loan. If it were me, that's what I would do. And if my "friend" reported me to the bankruptcy court for contacting her, I would just play "dumb" and say I thought the letter didn't apply to loans between friends!
Whatever you decide, good luck in finding inner peace to forgive yourself. We all have to forgive ourselves sometimes for things we do, no matter how good our intentions were at the time.
The poster above had it correct. The debtor stops paying his bills as directed by the Attorney. Most of his income is payed to the Attorney weekly , bi- monthly , until the Attorney Fees are paid off.
The Debtor pays his utilities and if he is keeping his car and house he continues to pay on them , if he is surrendering them to the Court he stops.
You should not borrow money to pay the Attorney because then it is listed as * Gift or Loan * It must be reported. It makes BK tricky because if you got a gift or loan , its reported and treated pretty serious as something that could be claimed or taken from you to pay your creditors.
Cash gifts ONE YEAR before the BK must be reported.
It is Debtor not * deadbeat * .
How would you like if your brother got into serious trouble ( heart attack, lets say ) wiped through all his savings , could not work and then society called your brother a * deadbeat * ?
Its nice to know that SOCIETY knows your entire history regarding your BK and can label you then a * deadbeat *.
Yes, some of those deadbeats are close relatives of mine.
No sympathy whatsoever.
They lived a much better lifestyle $$$$$$$$ than me, and it finally caught up with them.
--DEADBEATS--
If I make $30K a year, and am living within my means, get laid off through no fault of my own, have a medical emergency with giant bills, maybe my dogs get sick and costs a lot of money, and then a car accident with a deductible, and who knows what else, and still can't find a job, and I have to file bankruptcy, that doesn't make me a deadbeat.
Not everyone who files has bad intentions. What would happen to you if you lost your income, and then had a family member with huge emergency medical bills, and then had other unlucky things happen. Maybe your fridge dies, someone breaks a house window (not covered by insurance), and then someone sues you for something and you incur major legal bills? And still have no income? Eventually savings will run out. You could find yourself in that situation, and have to file. Calling everyone who files a deadbeat.... karma might just come and get you.
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