@Andy77 wrote:
Hello,
I wanted to ask is the ch 13 payment amount standard or can a better, more experienced bk lawyer get me a lower monthly payment every month ?
I am in SoCal if anyone has any suggestions for a great bk lawyer that helped them.
Thank you.
Typically experience is important, but it's not the only factor. Some people hire attorneys that just charge a lot and don't actually help them very much because the attorney you pick can't change the law.
I hear this a lot about immigration lawyers. "Well, I paid a lot for this lawyer in Florida who takes every case even after 20 other lawyers said forget it." and then after they have all your money and your case is denied, you're no better off and they've got $20,000 they didn't have already and you're still in your home country.
Going back to bankruptcy, in 2020 I found a lawyer in Illinois that was still charging only $895 and she handled my Chapter 7 case better than I could have ever hoped for. She had about 20 years experience I believe.
My mother also filed bankruptcy in Indiana in 2017, and it was because of two deadbeat ex-husbands who didn't do anything in the divorce decree, and the divorce judge said "I'm not in charge of how he wants to spend his money." so the big item was a house that number 2 left her name on the mortgage of when he died, but another big problem was husband 3 and the IRS.
So she went to see a bankruptcy lawyer in Fort Wayne, Indiana and the lawyer said you can't discharge tax debt. And she came back and she was like (to me), "I told you that you can't discharge tax debt! The lawyer said that." I said, "Go to another lawyer and get another free consult."
So she went to his dad, also a bankruptcy lawyer, with more experience, and he said "You filed your returns on time so you can discharge tax debt for these years, but not those years. And you can discharge the fines and penalties."
Lawyers don't actually necessarily know the law just because they're lawyers. It's scary, but it's true. Most people would have let the first guy file their petition and kept paying the IRS the 60% of the debt that ended up being wiped out.
It's like this with any profession. There's a lot of bad doctors. There's a lot of auto mechanics who will screw up your car worse than when you brought it to them and still demand payment. It's buyer beware.
And the worst of them hide behind civil defamation laws so if people who get cheated by them say anything, they file a SLAPP lawsuit, so don't expect to read about all their dirty laundry on Yelp.
