Expert: Los Angeles Bankruptcy Lawyer Leon D. Bayer - 4/7/2010

Question
QUESTION: My husband and I filed a chapter 7.  The legal aid that prepared the papers went directly from the credit report of credit card numbers and amounts for her information.I(even thought Iprovided her with the court papers that were filed). I told her and the lawyer that the credit report  was incorrect. The legal aid said that it did not matter since the cards were with the same company. When it became for the final discharge the judge in our county court said that since they had the wrong court case numbers, wrong account numbers and amounts- we have to file an ammended petiton. I live in WI. Can you tell me how to do this? The lawyer wants an addtion $300. to clear up the 2 accounts and we do not have the money for this.
Thank you very much.

ANSWER: I get furious when I read something like this. Not at you, but at the lawyer who did it wrong and now wants YOU to pay him to amend it. The nerve of some people!

I suggest you call your lawyer, and in a nice voice re-explain what you have told me, and ask him to fix it free of charge. If he says "no" tell him that you will make a complaint to the discipline committee of the local bankruptcy court and to the state bar association in your state because he did not prepare your case competently - and by all means, you should really do it.

If your lawyer refuses to fix it, PLEASE go to someone else and get this done immediately. You have already experienced the potentially expensive consequences that follow when your bankruptcy schedules are not correctly prepared. This is very serious, and is not a "do-it-yourselfer."

I know it's expensive, but you can't afford the mistake of doing it incorrectly.

Afterwards, you can sue your lawyer in small claims court to get back the extra expense.

If you are in the Los Angeles area where I am located, you come to me and I will do the amendment without charging you any attorney fee.


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I have told the lawyer  and asked him to fix it. He claims that I took too long to contact him about the problem and that I did not tell about it. I do have some emails with the paralegal tht prove I did. I have lost my job and do not have the money to pay for this amd I live in WI. Any ideas?

Answer
When did you last speak to him? Did you tell him you have the emails to prove what you say?

If he won't talk to you anymore, send him a letter and an email, to both him and the paralegal, requesting again that he fix this and attach copies of your earlier emails to prove what you are saying.

If that doesn't work, make the complaints about him.

You can certainly try to amend your BK papers yourself. It is possible that if you go to the desk of the court clerk someone there might give you a form to use and whisper some instructions to you on how to do it, (they are not supposed to give legal advice to the public).

In a column like this I can't give you step by step instructions because I don't have access to your court records.

One final thing you can also do in addition to any or all the above is write a letter to the lawyers who are suing you, and point out that they are knowingly violating your bankruptcy discharge, and that you demand that they immediately dismiss the lawsuit. You can tell them all of the following: The law says that debts that were not correctly scheduled are discharged anyway in most cases. (I assume you had a "no asset" BK case.) The court decision of In re Beezley (994 F.2d 1433 (9th Cir. 1993), states that if there is a no asset bankruptcy case and the debt is one which would have been discharged, if scheduled, then the debt is in fact discharged even if the debt was not scheduled.  

If you or other readers want to keep up with my blog postings about life in and out of bankruptcy, you can follow my blog at http://www.bankruptcyblogger.org/ and my personal web site at http://www.debt-relief-bankruptcy.com  and A Human Guide to Bankruptcy at http://www.thebankruptcyguide.net/