Chapter 7 -when The Lawyer Does Not Show Up

[patstrat47]

What is the name of your state? PA

Hi
Heres what happened.. I filed a Chapter 7 July 18th.. My 341 Meeting was on Sept 26th at 1:00pm..Was there the required 15 mins to go over papers with lawyer.... Problem is he never showed.. When the Trustee called my name I was ready with or without lawyer..but as you know he had to be there... guess what? there were 2 other clients for him waiting also...We discovered that we all had the same lawyer!
Well we all had been calling his office to see what had happened to him and his office staff told us that he should have been there by now..

Well after a half hour and seeing that no lawyer for us was present..the Trustee put the other clients on hold while he called around to see what happened to this lawyer... ( which he said that he was not supposed to do) The trustee came back saying that the lawyer could not be found anywhere...
and the Trustee was upset... he had to reschedule all of us for the Oct 11 meeting and told us that we HAD to be there.. and he also told us that we would have to call our lawyer and let him know when the date was..

Well we cornered the Trustee out of the office and he could not advise us but a lawyer came into the hallway and the trustee explained the situation and what we could do...the lawyer said that this was not the first time that this lawyer had done this and that he would take care of this... This lawyer also told us that our lawyer would have to give up his fees for not showing up
So after 2 days and still no explaination... we get a motion in the mail saying *UNTIED STATES TRUSTEE'S MOTION TO COMPEL DISGORGEMENT OF COUNSEL FEES* telling what happened that day..
Now I am understanding that he would have to give up his fees to us for not representing us on that day..

We have been trying to get in contact with said lawyer and the trustee but to no avail with these questions"

By all of us having a Chapter 7 in the works.. does this mean that this lawyer is no longer representing us? Do we have to get a new lawyer?
what happens to the Chapter 7 if this person does not show up again? My mortgage payments are late..I have been getting the money together to catch up ( 4months) will this affect the chapter 7?
My mortgage company has asked for a relief of stay... so does this make them exempt? I want to do a forebearance agreement with them but they will not talk to me until the judge grants the stay....

As I said I would ask my lawyer these questions but none of us can get in touch with him... When asking other lawyers about this they dont want to touch it.....

thanks

[patstrat47]

I did hear that if my lawyer does not show up for this hearing that he could be disbarred...

thanks anyway for listening

[ice5146]

Have you considered refinancing? I don't know how much equity you have availalbe in your home but it may be worth a shot. I have assisted numerous borrowers w/ refi's that are currently IN Bankruptcy and Foreclosure.