The debtor’s attorney had him input the schedules through a subscription “bankruptcy interview” website, printed them out in his office and had the debtor sign them, apparently without change. The client got all the downside of self representation but with the cost of a bankruptcy lawyer. The trustee got apoplexy. I got a consult with […]
4 Ways To Know If You’ve Got A Bankruptcy Preference Problem
When should the debtor care about preferences? When it was family or they are filing Chapter 13, is my short answer. Everybody, debtors and lawyers, seem to know that there is something important about transfers made within 90 days of the commencement of the case. There seems to be lots of confusion about what that […]
How Much Of Your Client Are You Exposing?
Do you meekly send your client’s tax return to creditors at their request? Two different authorities suggest it isn’t necessary. One of the stick-it-to-the-debtor provisions of BAPCPA is the mandate that the debtor provide a copy of his tax return to any creditor who requests it. 11 USC 521(e)(2). [I wonder that the reform law […]
Here’s How To Charge More For A “Simple” Bankruptcy Case
Client buy- in and time records saved a Florida bankruptcy attorney from disgorging fees twice the local average for a no asset Chapter 7. How? Marilyn J. Hochman is the poster child for the benefit in keeping meticulous time records when you’re representing consumer debtors. Even though you’re likely working on a flat-fee agreement, the […]
Why A Successful Fee Application Needs A Story
Newly appointed to the bench, the young judge considering a calendar of fee applications complained to the assembled lawyers. “Before I became a judge, you used to tell me the greatest client stories in the hall. How come those stories are missing from your fee apps?” That wistful question was voiced now well more than […]
Perils Of The Courtroom
The judge approved my fee application for another $8,000 in a Chapter 13 that was never confirmed, but ambushed me on the statutory rules of conversion. It wasn’t the fight I had prepared to make over getting paid. My fee application was an inch thick; it sliced and diced the work I had done before […]
When It Doesn’t Add Up
It wasn’t a week after my friend Fredrick’s presentation on due diligence for bankruptcy lawyers that the need for one of his tricks emerged. There seems to be an ethereal convergence about such things. The client hadn’t revealed to the young lawyer bonuses that he had received in the means test look back period. The […]
