Choosing a good Bankruptcy Lawyer
How do you choose a good bankruptcy attorney?
Times are tough for many and making ends meet seems harder than ever. Cash-strapped people may find themselves needing relief from their debts. Periods of unemployment and medical expenses may also add to the difficulty in paying monies owed. Unfavorable mortgage terms combined with dropping home values often force homeowners into foreclosure.
No attorney can ever make promises beyond meeting with clients and providing representation through a bankruptcy case. The most important factors to consider while choosing an attorney are:
1) Make sure that the service provider is an attorney, as opposed to a non-attorney bankruptcy petition preparer;
2) Agrees at the start to not only prepare a petition but to enter an appearance in his name while filing and appear at your creditors’ meeting, and
3) Quotes a reasonable fee based on work necessary to be done apart from the required court filing fee.
The website for the Board of Bar Overseers in Massachusetts can confirm that an individual is in fact an attorney admitted to practice in that jurisdiction and in good standing. The Massachusetts Bar Association’s Lawyer Referral Service and local legal services offices are also good sources of bankruptcy attorneys.
A fee agreement should ensure representation as opposed to paperwork preparation. Attorneys may quote flat or hourly billing retainer amounts, but regardless of the form of fee the most important consideration is the amount of work necessary for a bankruptcy case. The Merrimack Valley Legal Services office quotes a rate of $200.00 an hour as the average for this region. Preparation of a bankruptcy petition (for a straightforward Chapter 7 case) after receipt of all required information rarely takes longer than a few hours. Your attorney should accompany you to the creditors’ meeting which is usually held one and a half months after filing on average. Thus, the retainer should take the time necessary to work on a case into account, and unusually low fees are probably too good to be true while amounts that seem larger based on these calculations are probably excessive.
