I’m trying to get out of over grand of credit card debt. I was told by The Credit Exchange that debt settlement (with lawyers, when you put away a monthly fee into an account) is cheaper than consolidating/counseling. Which is safer? Did you have much luck with either? Any help would be appreciated!
My girlfriend and I have been dating for four years and we feel like it’s about time we moved out together as we have just finished college. For a variety of reasons, my parents really don’t like her. My view is (being the oldest) they view me as the ‘perfect child’ and that nobody is ever good enough for their precious son. They’re both lawyers and they rant and rave about how I could do ’so much better’ because my GPA was ‘much higher’ than hers, that we have ‘nothing in common’, that her parents are ‘rednecks’, that she is ‘disrespectful’ and *gasp* she is older than me. I think my parents are stuck in a time warp: not dating someone because of their GPA is beyond pathetic (and my girlfriend is very smart too!). While my passion is politics and hers is music, we still have loads in common (eg movies, restaurants, good food, health & fitness, travelling, similar careers) – we’re crazy about each other and talk about each other constantly. Her parents are a bit weird, but my parents are just as weird in their own eccentric and old-fashioned ways. They’re also very culturally conservative, so they don’t understand practical jokes at all – we make practical jokes all the time on each other (eg she created a fake newspaper article that the company I’m working for has gone bankrupt and must sack all its employees), it’s just they see the ones she plays on me but I don’t tell them the ones I play on her because they’d berate me for it (eg pretending to be questioning my sexuality). And despite her being a whole 18 months older than me (shock horror! lol), my parents are absolutely adamant that men should only date women younger. I think my parents are just really old-fashioned and stuck in their ways, but I still feel the need to please them (as stupid as that sounds). I love my girlfriend and we’re definitely moving in together, no questions asked, but I wish my parents approved! How can I win over my parents’ approval? More to the point, how do I move on without their approval?
My husband needs to file a chapter 7. We live in Ogden,UT. I would prefer not to do it pro se but my choices are limited. I am aware that lawyers are required to do a certain amount of pro bono work annually for people who can’t afford. How do i tap into this?
Husbands family went bankrupt. We have 80K debt which we ARE able to pay off. Husband is very influenced by sister to file for bankruptcy. He even quit his job and said he no longer wants to work because now there is no need to!I have told his sister numerous times to stay out of our families life but she continues to call him 10 times a day and tell him to file, file, file. I don’t have a lawyer and do not know how things work, but I would really like to legally have a way to tell her to get lost and stop advising and brainwashing him! Just because she has ruined her family does NOT mean she can butt into my family and ruin mine. What can I do legally with a lawyers help? Don’t want to sound stupid when I call up a lawyer, so want to see if any of you know before-hand what I can do. My husband had a really good paying job and so do I and we managed to pay off 90K in five years. If we borrowed the money, I feel like we should pay back if we are physically and mentally able to work and pay off debt. Bankruptcy is not a way out for me, especially for something we CAN pay off in a few more years!
How do you fight against the state board for sales taxes. I run a restaurant and we do OK. The state of CA audited the restaurant’s last 3 years (2007,08,09) and said we run a very very good business and overstated our sales by a lot. They came by one weekend recently (12/2010) and we were having a good weekend, around (80 fri, 100 sat, 100 sun). These were all Christmas parties and they estimated the last 3 years based on this weekend. They said we gross 15000-20000 a weekend when it is really about 3-7k a weekend and sometimes ZERO. We do not really keep good records of how many people come in to dine so they said that they have to go by their estimates. Without good records, HOW CAN WE FIGHT THE STATE AND MAKE THEM LOWER THEIR ESTIMATES??
They want 0,000 for these 3 years!!! I would have to go bankrupt.
TO THE ANSWER’ers:
Thanks for the answers!
Lupe: I said I do not run a ‘very very good business’ (I wish I did). THEY said that I do, and thats the problem.
I know that this is a problem, aside from luck, is there any lawyers or something that could help? What type of lawyers?
Do all lawyers charge about the same, and do you have to have the money upfront?
finance manager, creditors, lawyers, bankruptcy
I filed Ctp 13 bnkuptcy 6 six years ago. When I didn’t hear from my attorney after the 5 years were up, I contacted him. He told me there was a mix up with a car loan and advised that I convert to Cpt 7. I did – it was discharged and now I am getting letters of collection from credit cards that were filed on that cpt 7. Aslo found out my house was never reafirrmed on. What the hell is going on? He sure didn’t hesitate to take my money to get these done. He is retired and now has some other lawyers taking over cases. What are my LEGAL recourses? For 5 years my check was garnished for 375.00 every 2 weeks to pay that cpt 13. I get calls 10 times a day, give them the lawyers phone number and the next day they call back 10 x a day. I am out of work right now, living on unemployment and at my wits end. Someone with some knowledge, please advise me what to do. Thank you.
My husband & I were turned down today for an emergency mortgage assistance loan.And we have had several offers to buy our home from lawyers & realtors(I think that’s whe they are) but we want to try to save the house if we can would filing a chapter 13 give us an advantage to saving our home from a sheriffs sale & loosing all our belongings & home?
I am almost exactly 0,000.00 dollars in debt and I am single with one income and earn around ,200.00 per month.
The highest paying job I had after 5 years on college has been at .00 an hour where I worked for two years before getting laid off. Ever since, I have not been able to get a really good paying job with my degree.
Here are my debts:
,000.000 (and rising) to the IRS. After I bought my home, the IRS stopped working with me and everything became all threats with them answering every question with "I see you have a home, we don’t have to work with you-we can simply put the tax lien against your home) which they did.
I’m desperate to get from under this debt and I have heard stories about people making ridiculous settlement offers to the IRS and paying pennies on the dollar but the only settlement they will offer me is around ,900.00 (a 0 dollar reduction) IF I pay right away.
And this amount is originally ,000.00 with the rest being penalties and fees.
I owe ,000.00 on my home
I owe ,000.00 in medical bills
I owe ,000.00 in credit card bills
i owe ,000.00 in miscellaneous bills
I owe the utility company ,500.00
I owe Sallie mae (I had my student loans consolidated) ,000.00.
I can’t pay on any of them right now besides my home and my payment on that is 2.00 per month. I also live away from my home out of state and I pay 0.00 dollars for an efficiency.
Should I file bankruptcy? Which chapter should I file and how do you think it will help me?
PS-
I forgot to mention I just had a judgement filed against me by the lawyers for my HOA for 1,700.00 dollars and NOooooooooo I DO NOT want to sell my home. It will be lightyears before I’m able to buy another one.
The first answer given is why I want only "knowlegeable" folks to answer because they take the home if you file Ch. 7 NOT Ch. 13.
We live in Blue Springs MO, we need to file for a chapter 7 bankruptcy and so far all the lawyers we’ve contacted seem very expensive, and my husband does not have a job right now so money is very tight! So if any one knows of a good cheap bankruptcy lawyer let me know!
I wanted to know what my options are in terms of settling old credit card debt. The debt was charged off in september of 2009 and now they are looking to seriously collect as I recieved an official "summons" with no court date. I called the lawyers office who are repesenting the creditors and they said I can still mediate the account by writing a letter stating how much I can settle for or how much can I pay monthly on the account and they will report to the court the agreement and cease legal action. Is this really the case? or do i automatically have a judgement/lien against me being the fact that they took the step to start action with a summons. Called this morning and he said it is just the initial step. How do I approach this?
Should I write a letter to settle the account? For how much?
Should I pay monthly and then settle later on or pay in full over time?
I cannot afford to pay in full up front. Just graduated in 2008 but just started working full time.It is an old debt and credit cord from my college years coming back to haunt me. I use to make regular minimum payment without missing a beat until mid last year and then they charged it off.
Now it is at a collection company who is now being represented by a collections attorney company.
I am interested in pay for delete off my credit report but do understand that it would remove my oldest credit account on my report which would negatively affect me. How should I apporach this and what should I state in my general repsponse letter to them?
the account is about ,000 from student credit card from bank of america. It is now with cavalry portfolio after going through FIA CArd services.
I just could not afford the payments at the time
Does the summons and/or me sending a settlement letter to them after the fact show up on my credit report as a consent judgement or just a charged off account being paid on?
I need to file but the lawyers i talk to want 9-1600 dollars. i dont have anything at all. Isnt there something i can do or someplace i can go to that will do it for free? i mean come on im freaking bankrupt!
….after you get sued for building a faulty house for someone. The judge is in favour of the plaintiff, whose house you built. He rules that you must pay them ,000 to compensate for the cracks in the ceilings & walls and various other mishaps. You then, like a b*tch, file for bankruptcy. Don’t know how to phrase this, but: your claim for bankruptcy is accepted.
Replace the you with defendant. What prompts me to ask this is that the defendant walked out of court saying "You’re not getting one cent" to the plaintiff. Which, for comedic effect, i will add that he got punched in the face :L
Questions:
1) How does the plaintiff get his compensation, in civil law or whatever area of law? Are there alternative ways to gain compensation for this issue other than suing? Obviously the suing did not work out? Like for e.g. in criminal cases you can go to the Victims Compensation Tribunal if suing civilly does not work in your interests.
2) Does the defendant (in bankruptcy) have to sell all his assets and every cent of his future income goes to paying the defendant the compensation? Its only fair..
3) Does he get off scott free?
Thanks in advance 
Would appreciate it if any lawyers on yahoo could lend a hand in releasing me from confusion and unknowledgability.
Ps. The jurisdicton is NSW, Australia.
I am currently being sued in civil court, and have no money for an attorney, the case has gone on for a year now in federal court, and have basically lost my business because of all the time I’ve put into defending myself from something I did not do, and am being "lawyered" to death by 6 lawyers. Because of all this, even if I "would easily win" if I could afford an attorney, I will have to file bankruptcy (chapter 7 for me).
Therefore, relating to an ONGOING CIVIL case and a need to file BANKRUPTCY, here’s my QUESTIONS if you would please use the same numbering system to answer them so I can keep track (thanks thanks thanks):
I would LOVE it if filing the bankruptcy would END the case so I could go on with my life, find another job, build another company etc. I read a lot of yahoo answers and one said “If they haven’t gotten judgment against you … then your bankruptcy filing can and will stop the case.”, but I need to be sure.
1) is there any ADVANTAGE to me in filing bankruptcy BEFORE the judgment (now is preferred so that I can go on with my life which has been destroyed)?…. and what will opposition do if they know I’ve filed for bankruptcy? Will they attempt to continue the case when they know the bankruptcy will go thru? If so, why would they continue the case?
2) Since I’m going to be filing In advance" of the judgement, can I "claim" the "injuries" they haven’t yet enumerated " …on my petition for bankruptcy? …or do I just “list the case” and say “amount pending”? THANKS.
I know about the "automatic stay" (keeps creditors (I currently have NONE and a perfect credit score I’ve worked hard to build all my life) from coming after you etc).
3) After I file for bankruptcy (I know it takes so many months to go thru), these additional related questions, thanks:
3a) what happens to the current civil case?
3b) what do i tell the judge? Do i have to tell the judge or just inform the other side?
3c) will i still have to finish the case (expected one more year of my life)?
3d) if we’re currently in discovery, will it / can it stop discovery / subpoenas etc?
3e) ….or…does it just “suspend” the case until the b/k procedings are over? …or does the case just continue on in real-time?
Thanks so much for answering all of these "sub-parts" to my ‘compound" question. They’re really important to my life and my families lives.
Ryan K,
That was totally useless. I can’t believe you actually answered 195 other people. You’re a joke.
I owe 00 to the IRS from a 2005 return. I did an Offer in Compromise for this debt to find out that they will take my tax return for the next 5 years until it is paid in full. What is the point in settling a debt if they are going to take the money anyway? I need my return to keep afloat. So if I file Chapter 7 now and include this debt which many lawyers told me that I can – then after the Chapter 7 is discharged I can file my return and get my refund right? If I am going to file might as well do it now and and get an extension to the April 15th deadline. Let me know.
I have always been on time with payments and now find myself falling behind even on mortgage because of all my C/C and the slow down at work. I figure I would be better off filing for b/k. I need to get a number to someone out here in Phoenix Az that would be able to help with a b/k. I would like one of those discount lawyers that work for non-profit. Anyone able to help that would be great ..Thanks!!!
My friend’s credit was horrible destroyed after a divorce and lawyers recommended that he file for bankruptcy. Does anyone know if there are any programs that help you file or options that are less costly than the 1500.00 that lawyers want. He is in a bad situation and does not have the money to file.
to file bankruptcy is kinda expensive. Would the lawyers break the price so I could pay monthly? Or how does it work?
In November of 2006 my 00 debt with chase bank went into collections. A year later I called a lawyer who told me that if I haven’t been taken to court yet I probably would not. Well almost 3 years later and after the debt has been sold several times, I am being sued by lawyers representing North American Recovery Corp. I was told by Forward Properties (findaccount@gmail.com) that the current owner of my debt was the lawyers and gave me their phone number. I was served papers by the local sheriffs office and am supposed to appear in court on Sept. 24th. The first set of papers said that both parties had to appear on court and then i got a letter from the attorneys today stating they requested from the judge if they could be absent and do a phone conference while I still had to go to court. Is there any way to settle this if the lawyers have it and avoid going to court? The initial balance I owed on the account was just shy of 00.00 and the rest is all late charges and interest. I’m not sure how to attack this, who I should call etc etc, without incurring lawyer expenses of my own. I don’t have a number to contact North American Recovery Corp and cannot find one anywhere on the web. The one search that came up for that name was for another North American Recovery and they said there is another one out there. The debt is orig. from ohio and I now live in florida. Please help me with this headache.
I had some properties foreclosed. Now, the bank wants me to pay a very big difference on each properties. Is bankruptcy the only option? Lawyers said we’re making too much for Chapter 7. Any alternatives?
I filed Chapter 13 in 2004 while I was in the military. Now I’m out and am about 0,000 in debt for medical bills. Will I be able to file for a Chapter 7 since I’ve already filed once before?
The lawyers that helped me file the first time never said anything about a Chapter 7. They told me that Chapter 13 was the only option available for filing bankruptcy.
I am trying to do my own bankruptcy but I keep running into sites that get my information then I get this phone call from lawyers. I want to file myself and all I need is a website that shows me how and what to file. Do anybody know where I can go online to get instructions on how to file a chapter 7 bankruptcy?
If I just filed bankruptcy but I get a judgment against me by default, will bankruptcy take care of it?
I cant include that in bankruptcy because i don’t owe that person anything, but I cant afford a lawyer and the plaintiff got one of the best lawyers in town…. So the case is pending right now.
Ok so I’m in the middle of a chapter 7 bankruptcy, and I had applied for FAFSA online for school. It came back with a Direct Loan through William D Ford Direct Loan. Now this is a government loan based on my need, not on credit or anything. Is this going to mess with my bankruptcy? My lawyers aren’t available to talk to for another few days and im freaking out. HELP
It seems to me a lot of lawyers are touting that you have to file bankruptcy in conjunction with the foreclosure timing.
My wife and I don’t want the house anymore, can we just let it go through the foreclosure process and then file bankruptcy 6 months down the road?
I am planning on filing bankruptcy, and I have been calling around to check the fees. But some lawyers are charging as much as 00. is this right? Is there another aalternative fee-wise?
I have about 40K in credit card debt that I haven’t paid in over a year. I want to settle it once and for all. I don’t want to have to deal with collectors or lawyers. How can I get the best possible settlement? I want to pay them off and get on with my life. Is it true that debt management companies can reduce my debt to up to 50%? If so, who do you recommend?
I just posted a question a few minutes ago about my wife having to go to court over her credit card. Like I said before we have all ready settled 2 w/ a debt settlement company. Her’s is the last one we are settling and now she has to go to court. She has lost her job because of plant closure. We have a small amount built up in our acct. with debt settlement company, but nowhere near what the lawyers say we may have to pay. Does anyone have any thoughts of what might happen?