The following questions and answers were submitted to 713Training.Com either at a teleconference or by email during this past week. The answers are provided by Victoria Ring who is not an attorney. Therefore, the information provided in this material is for training purposes only and no whole or part should be regarded as legal advice.
DEAR VICTORIA:
If for instance I am completing a petition today, do I use the debtors income for November or December on Schedule I? I am working with 2 paralegals at a law firm and one says use November and the other says use December. Can you please clarify? Thank you and have a great Christmas.
ANSWER:
The best way to remember is to read the title of Schedule I. It is titled: CURRENT Income of Individual Debtor(s). That means that you would provide the CURRENT MONTHLY income on Schedule I.
DEAR VICTORIA:
What happens if someone needing to file bankruptcy does not have enough money to hire an attorney or even to do it themselves? What if they did nothing?? Would the debts eventually fall away? They do not own a thing and are on public assistance.
ANSWER:
I am not an attorney and I cannot provide you with any type of legal advice. All I can say is that it all depends on the debts. If the debts are credit card companies and the debts are not secure, the company could still file a lawsuit without bankruptcy protection. In many ways, bankruptcy helps protect debtors but it is not for everyone. I suppose if the people were homeless and living in a tent, I doubt they have anything the credit card companies would want. But if the person you are referring to has a bank account, automobile, home, furniture, etc; the unsecure creditors could file a lawsuit and put a lien on those items. They really need to talk to an attorney. Even if they cannot afford an attorney, they can still go in for a 30-minute consultation and get better advice than asking the opinion of people like you and me.
DEAR VICTORIA:
When I tried to strip off a second mortgage I would treat the debt under the classification of secured portion on the Chapter 13 plan tab as an Unsecured General Nonpriority. Is this the correct classification when striping off a second mortgage?
ANSWER:
No. If the debtors are proposing NOT to pay the second mortgage, the debt classification would be: NOT IN PLAN since the debt is not being repaid. Some attorneys want the debt to still appear on the Chapter 13 Plan to acknowledge the debt but they propose it NOT to be repaid. Also remember that you need to prepare the Motion to Strip the Second Lien when the petition is filed so that an Adversary Proceeding is assigned to the case.
DEAR VICTORIA:
In September I started doing petitions for an attorney here in Florida after her legal assistant suddenly left. I have been logging into her computer from my home office to do them. She recently talked with me about coming into her office 3 days a week to work on them on an hourly basis instead of being paid on a petition by petition basis. While she was very complimentary on my work, I think one of the reasons for doing this is to get the petitions done at a lower fee. She has not given me any new petitions in the last 3 weeks and I know that she is now doing her new petitions herself along with her secretary. Because I have access to her computer, I can see that the new petitions are not being done to the level that I would do them. I am truly not interested in having a commitment of being at her office 3 days a week from 8:30 to 5:30. However, I would not be adverse to helping her out on my schedule. Any suggestions on how to approach her so that I can retain her as a client? She has been very easy to work with the last few months.
ANSWER:
When I negotiate in business I am very upfront and forward. My dad taught me that PLAIN talk was EASIER understood. I would say something like: I need to be paid $___ per petition. It does not matter if you want me to work in your office or at my home office, but this is the bottom line. If the attorney likes your work and believes you to be invaluable to the growth of her law firm, she will come back with an acceptance or a counteroffer and you can go from there.
Another good piece of ammunition to use is to take a piece of paper. On that paper, make a list of the profit the attorney is already making on every petition you process. I would show the attorney how you will be able to save them money. The moment you show anyone how to SAVE MONEY, they are all ears!! I wish you the best of success. My advice is NEVER to back down from a fair offer and negotiate for the good of BOTH parties, not just you.
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