Okay, need to get some advice for a family member on converting from a Chapter 13 case to a Chapter 7. I’ve analyzed this as much as I can, wanted to see if anyone else might be able to answer these questions.
TL;DR- Need to convert to Chp 7 from 13, Lawyer is terrible, need to see how to do it ourselves or with new lawyer
Situ:
My cousin filed chp13, and has been paying on time for 3years. Plan is 5years. Over the last year, they have had significant medical bills due to being underinsured and now have about 60k in new medical bills. They now have coverage that would prevent significant bills from pilling up again should another health issue come up. During the three years, no new credit debt was obtained. The original reason for a chp 13 v 7 was due to income, and house and car that were trying to be saved, and priority debt (state/fed Taxes). All of these issues have been resolved: Income has dropped due to retirement (current “income” is well below the means test limit for KS), house was sold, car was paid off by insurance after loss, and per the Trustee’s website, all priority claims have been paid, only unsecured claims are being disbursed.
Issues:
So my cousin’s lawyer is pretty much garbage. Won’t return calls/emails and when they do get a hold of them, they’re very vague with answers and advise, even gave conflicting infomation in the same conversation (wth). Originally, they paid about $1,500 to start the process, $1,500 was included in the filing and NOW they want to charge another $1,400 to covert. I know that fees vary, but geez… my Ch7 cost 1/3 of that. Also, they now live out of state from where the original case was filed (filed in KS, live in GA), so they’re trying to conduct business out of state.
Questions:
- Can a different lawyer work with a client to convert to Chp7? Does the Trustee need to approve this first?
- Could we do pro se and do it ourselves? We plan to see consultation from at least 1 or 2 other lawyers to have them gauge the situ, but if we could do it, that would save a ton of money.
- I’ve read through just about everything I can find since I did my on Chpt 7 last year and you all have been a wealth of info as well, so I know the schedules need to be amended to include the new debt. Can that be done from out of state? This would keep them from having to travel back 2x
- They’ve been current on payments, but when could (or should) they stop making pmts to the trustee?
- What about just having the Chpt 13 case dismissed in KS and, refiling in GA under Chp7?
Thanks as always and sorry to be long winded
