Expert: Terry Leeders - 11/26/2007

Question
I filed bankruptcy in 2003. My bankruptcy was dismissed as of Sept 2005 due to late payment, we worked it out and have been paying on time ever since until June 2007, we fell behind and our case was dismissed. I told my attorney he filed a motion to reinstate and it was denied.  My attorney has been a joke since the beginning.  We have lost thousands of dollars in this. After our bankruptcy our refund check of 5000 was kept by the court.  With the advise of our attorney we tried to get it back of course we were denied.  Since the bankruptcy we have sold our home.  The only thing of value in bankruptcy is our cars.  We only Had 5 payments left, our case would have been discharged March 2008. When we filed the motion to reinstate our attorney wanted a fee of 500 plus that late payment plus we have made two payments for the month of Oct and Nov.  On Nov 8 our case was dismissed. I don't know what to do? We have two cars. One i really need and the other one my husband was planning to get a new one.  Besides that we did not have much credit card debt and the reason for filing primarily was to save our home and our cars.  We can work out something with the credit cards.  I just hate to loose so much money.

Answer
You are not really 'losing' the money, but you are in fact paying down your creditors with those funds, including the tax refund.  If you have tried to reinstate your case but were denied, then your next option is to either file a new case and bring a motion to extend your court protection (it ends after 30 days) otherwise, you can look to work something out with your creditors.  if you were that close to finishing the case, you might not owe that much, and the lenders may work with you.