Hi all, I'm starting the down the road of BK, very nervous, and have many questions. I spoke with a Lawyer last week and I am saving up the first deposit so I can hire her. Saving up the cash will probably be 2 to 4 weeks. In the meantime the calls have started to roll in, and many of them. I have 17 creditors...some still current, and the rest are quickly defaulting. the Lawyer I am hiring told me that once I fill out the forms and pay the first deposit I can refer all calls to her office. At this point can I do anything to lighten up the load of phone calls? There seems to be one collector who keeps calling, probably because I have picked up the phone and said I wasn't home. Basically just looking for any tips on stalling creditors until I can hire the Lawyer. If I do answer the phone do I say anything about the debt they are collecting? I also received the first account turned over to collection. Do I respond to this letter in any way? Sorry for the long post...Just my mind going in many directions
If you're only 2-4 weeks away from hiring your BK attorney, I would just ignore the calls. Don't say anything to your creditors about your intentions to file for BK protection. In fact, if you can, I'd unplug your phone altogether for the next 2-4 weeks (only plug it in when you need to make an outgoing call). I don't think there is very much your creditors can or will do to you in such a short timeframe, at least from my experience with a BK 9 years ago. It usually takes several months before it gets to the point of lawsuits, garnishments, etc. Good luck.
Thanks for the response..... I guess a related question would be is when you hire your attorney and foward any calls to them, is this a form of cease and desist to contact you anymore, or will they still contact you until they receive their letter from the BK court?
When I filed 9 years ago, my attorney told me that creditors were supposed to stop calling me once they were informed by him that I intended to file. So, it sounds as though communication from your lawyer is all it should take to stop the calls. I know there are a few lawyers who read this board, so maybe one of them will respond. There are also lots of people on here who've gone through a BK themselves and they should be able to relate their experience with the process.
once you give them your attorneys name and number they CANNOT contact YOU anymore. (when i hired my attorney, i had fun answering the telephone. the minute you say i am filing bk and here is my attorney info, the creditors/collectors tend to be like "can't we work this out?!?!?!)
hi, im new here, but i lived this so i can tell you. as soon as you file you will get a case #. when CA's call just give them your lawyers name and number and your case # and tell them you filed. by law they must sease and desist calling you. within 3 days no one called me, so i would say its quite effective. (this is all the stuff my BK lawyer told me to do by the way). it will be so nice to make them stop calling, you wont be scared to answer the phone anymore! if you have any more questions about your stage of BK let me know and i will do my best to share my experiences. good luck!!! zack
I was 3 months late when my attorney finally decided to file my papers. I was used to getting a few calls. The best thing to do is just say that "Bob is not here right now, can I take a message?" Sometime I would just hang up on them. Funny thing happened with a National City collector. This girl kept calling and leaving messages. She was really, really snotty in her messages. "Mr. XXX you NEED to call me back so you can take care of YOUR obligations." Just really nasty. Well, I knew my attorney had filed the papers, and all the calls stopped except for 2 calls. This same girl calls and I let the voicemail get it. I listen to the message and she says, "Look Mr. XXX, you can't keep avoiding this. I know you are getting these messages, and you had better call me back at, blah, blah, blah." The message was just downright rude. So I'm thinkin, if the papers were filed 2 weeks ago, they must have received the notice. Why are they calling? Well, about 10 minutes later the phone rings again, and I see on the caller ID that it is national City again. I let the voicemail get it, and when I listen to it, I hear the same woman speaking, but now she has the best sounding, most polite voice I have heard. Her message goes, "Mr. XXX, this is XXX from national City and I would like to apologize for the last message. Please disregard that call, and the message related to your account with National City. Have a wonderful day." I guess that after leaving the nasty message, she looked through my file and found the notice from the BK courts. She knew she was violating the stay, and wanted to cover it up. I just laughed it off.
