Advice Please

[yiayia10902]

What is the name of your state? OH
Does anyone know where I can go to see if my lawyer finally filed my bankruptcy petition?

Background: House in foreclosure. Mortgage lender only willing to work with me if I about double my original payments. Medical bills totaling more than my husband and I make in a year.

Lawyer filed bankruptcy end of May to stop the sherriff's sale. We were scheduled to go to court mid/late June on a Monday. On the Friday prior to the court date, the lawyer's assistant called to tell us not to go to court on Monday; they were going to ask the court to give us a new date because our lawyer was going to be on vacation. Case dismissed because we didn't show up.

Lawyer's assistant keeps telling us they are refiling, but we have yet to receive anything from the courts about a new court date (which obviously I would go this time, with or without my lawyer). New sherriff's sale date set for early October.

The lawyer never returns our calls (either about the bankruptcy or my husband's business matters). We seem to really be working with his assistant instead. This is a family firm. Our lawyer's father and my father-in-law were partners before my f-i-l passed away. I've already told my husband we should never use them again, but should I find someone else to handle the bankruptcy for me now? We've already paid the entire lawyers fee and the filing fee.

[bigun]

Register for a pacer account.

[url]http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov/[/url]

[yiayia10902]

Thanks Bigun for the link.

I now see that my lawyer has done nothing. What recourse do I have now? Every week we call his office. Every week they say they will file by Friday. Every week they fail to file. I have had it up to here with them. The sheriff's sale is scheduled for the early part of October. The lawyer's assistant keeps saying don't worry, that the longer they wait to file the longer we can stay in the house; that we could probably stay in the house until February/March now. Not a good time of the year to be moving house in the Cleveland area.

I want to find a new lawyer, and I want to report the current one for not following our wishes and filing like we asked him to. We paid him a hefty fee that we had to beg, borrow and steal to come up with. I can't afford another lawyer!

What should I do?

[bigun]

I's suggest both a complaint to the local bar association and a complaint with the trustee assigned to your case the time it was dismissed. The trustee can force him to return the legal fees.