Debt Free or Bust

Chapter 7 Bankruptcy in Louisiana, an In-Depth Look Part I

This is part I of my experience. I’ll post additional parts as I continue through the process. Right now I’m guessing this will be about a 3-part article based on what my attorney told me.

I met with my attorney Wednesday, May 28. She went over the laws of Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the State of Louisiana and we discussed my income sources and expenses, and why I want to file for bankruptcy.

My attorney’s name is Elizabeth Hall. She specializes in bankruptcy and I found her name on a bus stop bench that I’ve been driving by for the last 2 years going to and from tutoring. I checked with the Louisiana Bar Association and found she’s been practicing law here for 20 years and specializes in bankruptcy. The entire process costs $799. That includes her fee and court costs. There are very few things for which she charges an extra fee, and so far, none of my information requires them.

Her retainer fee is $100 and she’ll file the case when the full $799 has been paid to her office. She accepts payments until your case is paid for before she does all your paperwork and files your case. She says all bankruptcy attorneys do it this way because all the clients are in financial trouble and no one will take on any credit risk with people like us.

I had another attorney, but he raised his prices considerably and I decided if I don’t have enough money to pay my bills, I don’t have enough money to line his pockets. My previous attorney also does a lot of other work, so I figured I needed someone who specializes in bankruptcy to handle my case.

It’s a really small world. I’ve met my attorney’s dad. He was a chemical engineering professor at LSU when I was a student. I never had Dr. Hall as a professor because I was in chemistry, not chem-e, but many of my friends had him and really liked him. He was like me. He got a bachelor’s degree and worked in industry for awhile before he went back and got his Ph.D. and decided to teach. I don’t have the Ph.D., but the teaching with industrial experience is similar. My industry experience is what gives my students the edge above their classmates.

Anyway, the meeting lasted about 45 minutes and she gave me a lot of paperwork to fill out and bring back. I retained her that day, so she is writing letters to the two creditors who sued me to cease and desist from collections calls and letters. Capital One Bank and Eaton Group attorneys sued me. Eaton Group is in Baton Rouge and Elizabeth knows them personally, so getting that taken care of is easy. I have to locate and bring the law suit papers from Capital One to her. They weren’t in my stack of paperwork and I’m not sure where they are. I seem to lose things so easily these days. As soon as I find them, I’ll bring them over to her so she can write to them as well.

Bankruptcy in Louisiana

Here is a list of the what you must have to file:

• Take a Pre-Bankruptcy Credit Counseling course dated within 6 months of the date of filing and obtain a certificate of completion
• Sign a contract with the attorney that acknowledges you understand that bankruptcy fraud is a felony, all bankruptcy cases are audited, any questionable documents or acts are investigated by the FBI, and if cause is found, you will be prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney General (scary, but part of the new law)
• Personal information and list of dependents
• Current employment information (including spouse if married)
• A list of all sources of income, the amounts and when you are paid
• A list of all real estate you own
• Details about your home’s value and mortgage(s), including any foreclosure proceedings
• Vehicle information, including debt owed and whether in danger of repossession
• A list of all checking and savings accounts
• A list of all asset accounts, including retirement and college savings accounts
• Child support (paid to you or to whom you pay it)
• A detailed list of your material possessions, exempt and non-exempt
• Any tax debts you owe
• A complete list of secured and unsecured debts (some information is collected more than once), including creditor or collector, address, approximate balance, interest rate, co-signer information, and monthly payment if applicable
• A list of monthly expenses
• Answer several questions about your financial history
• Answer several questions about your family, such as if your parents are living, and if not, when they died, how much you inherited and where the money and assets are
• Copies of the following: driver’s license, Social Security Card, Vehicle registration, Vehicle title if owned outright, bank statements, pay stubs, the previous two years of tax returns, and your credit counseling certificate

Exempt items are all your basic household furniture and appliances, clothing, and computers, especially if you use them in a business or to earn any sort of an income.

Your house is exempt if you have less than 25% equity in it and your paid-for car is exempt if it’s worth $7500 or less.

Non-exempt items are TVs, DVD players, DVRs, VCRs, stereos, alarm clocks (WTF?), game systems, iPods and any other non-computer electronic devices. Non-exempt items are valued at thrift store prices. For example, TVs are valued at about $50 each. An alarm clock is valued at $0.50.

On the day you file, you can only have $500 worth of cash, savings, money in your checking account and non-exempt assets. If you have more than that, the trustee will take it to stand against your debts. Any tax refunds and stimulus checks will also be seized unless you can show you spent them on necessary items or paid for normal living expenses with them. Since I just got my 2006 refund and I’m expecting my 2007 stimulus check and possibly a refund, I’ll need to wait until I’ve used that money up before I file.

Between the time you start the filing process (retain an attorney) and get everything ready for the trustee, you have to keep track of all your spending, especially any amount over $500. They look back into your financial life and accounts 6 months as well. Since I use the MyTMMO website for budgeting, I have a record of all our expenses since April of 2007. You can sell any items for cash as long as you account for the spending of the cash, so garage sales are okay. You can also buy exempt items if you can show a real need for them, like a new refrigerator if your old one breaks down and can’t be repaired for less than the cost of a new one.

Since tutoring hours are down over the summer and delivering pizzas only pays about $1,800/month, I’ll have to wait until August or September to file. The tax refunds are what I’m using to live off of this summer along with part-time tutoring and delivering pizzas, and what little I earn online which isn’t much yet. I’ll also have to reduce my savings and use that money to pay for living expenses.

If my income goes up considerably over the next few months I may have to file for a Chapter 13 bankruptcy. Your debts aren’t discharged. The trustee negotiates with each of your creditors and comes up with a payment plan with them. You pay a certain amount of money each month for 5 years and at the end of 5 years, all debts that were in the bankruptcy are discharged. If my income goes way, way up, I’ll negotiate and pay the debts myself. I hope that happens, but I’m a realist and don’t think it will. If I thought that, I wouldn’t have retained an attorney.

I still owe my attorney $699, so some of my refund money will go to pay her. My car needs two new tires and my transmission needs to be flushed. I also need a couple of things done to the house that will cost a few hundred dollars. She said to just keep all receipts for car repair and the like until the whole process is over.

From the day you file, it takes the trustee about 3-4 weeks to complete your bankruptcy, discharge all your debts and reaffirm any debts you plan to keep. I’ll be keeping my house so I’ll be reaffirming my first and second mortgages. The trustee will also require a full accounting of the student loans I co-signed on and whether I’ll have to start paying them. He or she will set up a payment plan with them if I have to pay. I’m not sure I’ll have to pay because I haven’t heard from those companies in quite awhile and my friend is working 60 hours a week, so I think she’s paying them herself. She says she’s paying them. I would have heard from the companies if she wasn’t paying. I heard from them late last year when she was laid off and wasn’t making payments.

Conclusions

Basically, your earnings, living expenses and spending habits will be scrutinized, but you’ll be fine as long as you’re behaving yourself and not hiding assets. Most of us in this boat who tried to pay our debts but can’t aren’t going to have trouble here because we’ve been budgeting, not eating out, working extra, and covering basic expenses of daily living and getting to and from work first. Most of us have also sold most of the non-exempt items to help pay down our debts.

I looked up the statistics comparing the percentage of people who file for bankruptcy legitimately and those who abuse it, and the maximum percentage of people who abuse the system or commit fraud is 10%. Those who commit fraud are being caught, prosecuted and put in jail. The statistics were the same before the new bankruptcy law took effect. The difference now is you have to have both pre and post bankruptcy financial counseling, and the U.S. Attorney General’s office is much more aggressive about tracking down those who commit fraud and prosecuting them.

My To-Do List

• Find Capital One law suit papers and take them to attorney
• Complete pre-bankruptcy credit counseling and obtain certificate
• Fill out the 26-page packet of paperwork from attorney, make copy for my records and return to her office
• Collect all required supporting documents
• Copy all required supporting documents and take them to attorney
• Pay attorney’s fee each month until paid in full
• Continue living on a frugal budget
• Keep all receipts
• Keep all expense records up-to-date

I hope you never have to go through a bankruptcy, but if you do, it’s not as horrible as many make it out to be. Many call it a life-changing experience, but for me, the weight of the debt was the life-changing experience and this is relief from that weight. Please leave your thoughts in the comments.

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June 4th, 2008 Posted by joubess | Bankruptcy, Debt Reduction | 7 comments