Expert: Mark J. Markus- California Bankruptcy Attorney - 12/8/2004

Question
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Followup To
Question -
I am in the state of California. When we first filed we had our home included in the plan to keep it. The payments were to high in our budget.So we decided to give up our home, let foreclosure begin on that property. Now our budget is lower we were late on that payment and it could be dismissed. I was wondering if you can file Bankruptcy in the state of California twice in one year? due to the fact that this would be dismissed. Then we would go again to a better lawyer who would inform us on the laws and file it again.Is that legal to do? If we would of know from the beginning from our attorney, when we first filed that during that time between our first court date for bankruptcy not to pay our bills at all or creditors. Then we would not have the problems of paying the court on time or at all, today. We were still paying all those creditors and they made no adjustments (our attorney) to our payment due.We took them all receipts but the refused to help us.

Thank you,
Hope this is more clearer.

Answer
If your Ch. 13 case gets dismissed, you can file another Ch. 13 bankruptcy as long as the court's order dismissing the case does not put a prohibition on refiling.  You need to make sure your attorney requests that the court just dismiss it without a prohibition on re-filing.  If the house was your only reason for filing a Ch. 13, you could just convert your current case to a Ch. 7.   But again, I don't know all your specific circumstances, so you need to discuss that with your attorney or with a new attorney after a comprehensive consultation.  I will be happy to provide you a free phone consultation when you are ready.  If interested, please visit http://www.bklaw.com/consult.html and once you have gathered all the information, contact me to schedule an appointment.

Regards,
Mark