Expert: Mark J. Markus- California Bankruptcy Attorney - 10/23/2008

Question
Hello,
I live in california and I just filed for a ch.7 less than 1 week ago with an attorney. I am very disapointed with my attorney since I was advised that I was allowed to have x amount of money in my bank account, and now it has been "froze" due to wells fargo bank receiving notice that I filed for bk. It was put on hold from the banks own bankruptcy dept. and not by the actual court. I have not been appointed by a trustee yet, nor given a court date of any. My attorney is not certain of why this has happened. My question is, are banks allowed to freeze your account even if they were not instructed to do so by the trustee? If so, will I ever get my money back since I have no debt to the bank?
Can I file a cancellation of my ch.7 since so I can stop this whole process and get the bank to release me my money?
Lastly, Can I change attorneys and proceed with my case filing?
Please advise, anything you can suggest will be greatly helpful...


Answer
This is not your attorney's fault.  Wells Fargo is the only bank that does this.  Unless you owe Wells Fargo money, you will get the money back.  They have not taken anything; they have just frozen the funds pending the Trustee's decision on what to do with them.  If the Trustee sends Wells Fargo a letter, they will most likely release those funds.   I advise all my clients to move to a bank other than Wells Fargo before filing.