-+ CONTRACT
FOR LEGAL SERVICES
Chapter 7
The
undersigned client(s) agree to employ the law firm of Michael Barnett, PA to
represent them in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding. Other attorneys may assist the firm in
representation of your case. Clients
represent that they have read and understood the agreement as set forth
below. The contract is to be interpreted
under the laws of the State of
Fee
The
client agrees to pay an initial retainer of $________, in addition to the costs
described below prior to the filing of the bankruptcy. The client should always request a written
receipt for all payments made to the office.
When the questionnaire is returned, the balance of the fee must be paid
by money order, cash, or cashier's check.
Any fees owed to this firm prior to entry of this contract are hereby
waived unless this case is a conversion from a prior chapter 13, in which case
allowed fees from the chapter 13, up to a total of $1,500 in fees for the 7 and
13 combined, may be accepted from the refund due on conversion.
The representation is limited
to representation in the general bankruptcy proceeding only, and continues only
until the discharge is entered in the case, or the case otherwise
terminates. The client should discuss
any state court lawsuits with the attorney during the initial conference, and
make written arrangements regarding the lawsuit at that time. If the client is suing anyone, or has the
right to sue anyone in state court, generally this suit or right to sue is an
asset in the bankruptcy, which the bankruptcy court may be able to take
over. Please discuss any suits with me
before the case is filed. The law office
will not be responsible for taking any action regarding state court lawsuits
absent a written agreement to the contrary.
If any adversary proceedings are filed by
the client, or against the client in the bankruptcy,
or any contested matters arise, such representation shall require additional
fees. If any dispute arises related to
accounting (for example with the IRS or balance due on mortgages), or
valuation, then the client shall be expected to retain a professional
accountant or appraisal to provide these services. If matters arise outside of
bankruptcy expertise, where there is extensive litigation regarding
nonbankruptcy issues, the client may be requested to employ counsel specializing
in such other areas.
Costs
The
client agrees to pay all court costs in this matter, including filing fees,
court reporter bills, postage costs, or charges for federal express or similar
services. The client shall pay the sum
of $299.00 as the filing fee in this
matter prior to the bankruptcy being filed.
All costs must be paid before the law office will make the related
expenditure or order any transcript.
The
firm is now filing all cases electronically, which requires the law firm to pay
the filing fee by debit or credit card.
While the client will pay us the fee by money order or cashier’s check,
the client recognizes that there may be some minor ‘premium’, such as frequent
flier miles, awarded to counsel or the
law firm from the credit card company based on the total monthly charges, and
consents to the firm retaining any such premium. This also applies to charges for ordering
credit reports.
Additional fees
The
client agrees to pay additional fees if the law office provides the following
services to the client. The client
understands that these additional services are not required in most cases and
that none of these fee will be incurred without first informing the client, and
allowing the client the option of declining such services. Any unpaid fees shall carry balances shall
carry interest at 15% or the highest rate permitted by law, whichever is less.
I. Credit Reports
We
are now able to order credit reports online from all three credit bureaus for
clients, to insure that all creditors are listed on the bankruptcy case. The fee for this is $35/client (ie $35 in an individual case and $70 for a joint
case). This fee would need to be paid
prior to ordering the credit reports, but it is up to the client whether to
order them.
II. Changes, additions
or deletions.
If
the client wishes to change information on the petition after it has been
typed, the changes will be made at no additional charge if the changes are made
prior to filing the case. If any changes
are required after the case is filed there will be a $100 charge for any such
changes, in addition to the court fee, if any.
Therefore, it is important that the clients list all information on the
questionnaire correctly, and list the current, correct addresses of all
potential creditors as well as any collection agencies or attorneys on the
initial questionnaire.
The
client should review the petition before it is filed, and make any corrections
at that time. It is very important that
all creditors be listed on the petition.
If, for any reason, a creditor is not on the petition filed with the
court, or if the address for the creditor is incorrect, that debt may not be
eliminated by the bankruptcy.
III.
Adversary and contested proceedings
If
an adversary proceeding is filed in the bankruptcy court against the client, or
if the client wishes this firm to file an adversary proceeding against someone
else, then an additional retainer will be required for the law firm's
representation in this adversary proceeding.
If
the client has some other litigation in the bankruptcy other than the
bankruptcy case itself, then we would charge an hourly rate to represent the
client in that litigation. Any
litigation over the value of the client's property or right to exempt the
property would be included as matters requiring an additional retainer.
The
client agrees to an hourly rate of $320 per hour for Michael Barnett or $200/hour
for any other attorney, and $100/hour for the senior paralegal, and $50/hour
for any junior paralegal employed by the firm which hourly fee may be increase
periodically in accordance with the prevailing standard hourly fees charged to
clients of the office for similar services.
If the total due from the hourly fee exceeds the amount of the initial
fee, the client shall remain liable for the excess, and the law firm may
discontinue representation if the excess is not paid.
IV.
Conversion
If
the client wishes to convert the case to another chapter after it has been
filed, there will be an additional fee required before the conversion can be
filed. Fee arrangements for the
conversion must be made at the time of the conversion.
V.
Lien Avoidance
If
when you borrowed money from a creditor, you gave them a list of furniture in
the house, they probably took a lien on that furniture. Unless they financed the furniture, the law
firm can file a motion with the court to eliminate this lien on the
furniture. There is a $100 charge to
file this motion, and the firm must be paid prior to filing the motion. This motion must be filed before the
bankruptcy case is closed (about four months after the case is filed).
Alternatively, the client may either continue paying that debt to the
creditor, or may take the risk that the creditor will show up later to
repossess the items.
If a
creditor has a judgment against the client, and that judgment has been recorded
in the county court public records, then the law firm may be able to file a
motion to eliminate this lien from the property. If were any suits against the client that
went to final judgment, the client should check the county court real property
records to see if the judgment is recorded, and if so, should set an
appointment with the law firm to bring a copy of that judgment to the
attorney. The fee to file the motion to
eliminate this type of lien is $250 per judgment, and must be paid prior to the
filing of such motion. Again, this
motion may be filed anytime before the bankruptcy case is closed, which will
occur about four months after the case is filed.
VI.
Redemption
If a
creditor financed the purchase of furniture, appliances, jewelry or
electronics, then it is not possible to eliminate the creditor's lien without
paying them anything. In this situation,
the client has four choices: either keeps making payments to the creditor; work
out a deal directly with the creditor to keep the merchandise; take the risk
that the creditor will repossess the items; or pay us to file redemption with
the court. Redemption is a proceeding
where we have the court determine the value of the merchandise purchased from
the creditor, and then the client would have to pay this value in cash to the
creditor. Once this money is paid to the
creditor, the creditor would no longer have the right to repossess the
merchandise. Our fee to file this motion
would be $250.
VII.
Stay Litigation
If
the client wishes to keep any items securing a loan (including real estate
securing a mortgage or car loans), the client must either file a lien avoidance
or redemption; or keep making the payments on the loan. If the client does not keep making the
payments and does not file any other motion, the creditor may file a 'motion
for relief from stay' with the court.
This motion is requesting that the court allow the creditor to repossess
the items securing its loan. Unless the
client is able to immediately catch up the payments on the loan, the court will
allow the creditor to repossess the items.
The
law firm will generally not respond to these motions. If the client wants the firm to respond to
the motion and/or attend any hearing on the motion, there would be an
additional $250.00 fee, which would have to be paid prior to the law firm
taking any action in the matter.
VIII.
Missed Hearing
There will be a meeting of creditors about one month after the
bankruptcy is filed. The client will
receive a notice from the court giving the time and date of this hearing. This notice should be received between one
and two weeks after the case is filed.
If the client does not receive such notice within three weeks after the
case is filed, the client should call our office or the bankruptcy court to get
the time and date of this meeting.
The
client must attend the meeting of creditors (if the case is filed jointly by
husband and wife, both must attend the meeting). The law office will arrange to have an
attorney representing the clients at this meeting. If the client does not appear at the meeting,
then the case may be dismissed. If the
client does not appear, or does not bring all necessary documents to the
meeting, and we have to attend a rescheduled meeting, then there will be an
additional charge of $300 for attending the rescheduled meeting.
It
is also sometimes possible to file a motion to excuse one of the clients from
attending the meeting, usually due to serious medical problems (a doctor's
letter would be required) or sometimes due to the client being out of the state
and unable to return. The firm would
charge $100 to file this motion, but cannot guaranty that the court would grant
the request to excuse the client's appearance.
If the court denies the motion, the client must attend a rescheduled
meeting.
IX.
Reaffirmation
Some
creditors may request that the client sign a Reaffirmation Agreement. This agreement allows the creditor to sue the
client for the debt despite the bankruptcy.
While creditors may orally promise to allow the client to keep a credit
card or improve the credit report, unless these promises are in writing, they
are no good. If the client insists on
signing a reaffirmation agreement, there will be a hearing before the Judge,
which the client must attend and explain to the Judge why the client signed the
agreement. Our office almost always
recommends against signing the agreements (except sometimes as to vehicle loans
or leases) in that they do more harm than good to the client. In order for the firm to represent the client
in obtaining court approval of such an agreement, unless the firm recommends
that you sign the agreement, there would be a $200 charge.
Unless noted to the contrary on this page, the law firm will not advise
the client when a creditor requests a reaffirmation of a debt.
X.
Appointments
Normally, a chapter 7 case
will require no more than 3 appointments after the initial meeting with the
client. In order to minimize the fee
charged for the chapter 7 case, it is assumed that no more appointments will be
required. If more than 4 additional
appointments are required, an additional fee of $85 per appointment will need
to be charged. Also, since appointments
are set for 1/2 hour each, and potential clients may be turned away due to
calendaring concerns, unless the appointment is cancelled 24 hours in advance,
the charge will still be made whether or not the client appears for the
appointment. While weekend appointments
are usually available in the
XI.
Lawsuits in state courts
If the client is suing
someone, or anticipates suing someone in state court, it is necessary to get
bankruptcy court approval to continue that suit, and to approve any settlement
of that lawsuit. Discuss these suits
with Mr. Barnett before you file the case.
Usually, the bankruptcy court will take over all rights to these suits
when a chapter 7 is filed. If the suit
or right to sue is not disclosed on the bankruptcy, then you will not be able
to sue in the future, or continue the lawsuit in most circumstances. If anyone is suing you, bring copies of the
lawsuit documents to the meetings with Mr. Barnett.
XII.
Time to file
The price for the bankruptcy
shown above is good for six months from the date of the contract. After this date, we will apply any payments
made to the new price, but the price will increase correspondingly with our
regular bankruptcy rates.
If
the balance of the fee is paid, or the balance of the information needed to
file the bankruptcy is provided less than one full business day prior to the
deadline to file the bankruptcy, and additional fee of $500.00 shall be
required.
If
the balance of the fee is paid, or the balance of the information needed to
file the bankruptcy is provided less than four full business days prior to the
deadline to file the bankruptcy, an additional fee of $150.00 shall be
required.
Any
day on which the clerk's office at the bankruptcy court is open and staffed
shall be considered a business day.
XIII.
Valuation of assets
The questionnaire
provided will ask you to value your property.
Federal law requires us to inform you how to value the property at
replacement value. If you would replace
the property by purchasing other similar used property at a flea market or from
ebay, then you should value the property at what you
would expect to pay for items in a similar condition at a flea market or from ebay. It is not
clear whether the value of your household goods is at replacement or garage
sale value, and you should discuss this with us if you believe there is a
substantial difference in such values.
If you are unable to come up with values yourself, then we can give you
the name of an appraiser to go examine and value the property, but you would
need to pay the appraiser a separate fee for such appraisal. The firm will then determine which of your
property is exempt from creditors and the estate.
XIV. Audits
The Office of the U.S. Trustee is anticipated
to be performing random audits of bankruptcy cases filed, requiring
documentation supporting the items shown in the case. To the extent counsel or staff has to spend
significant additional time or resources in responding to or representing the
client in such audit, the additional time will be billed at the hourly rates
shown above.
XV. Credit
Counseling/Financial Management
The law requires that you take a credit
counseling course at least one day prior to the day you file the case, and take
a financial management course before the case is completed – to be safe within
2 months after you file the case. You
will need to pay the fees for these course directly to
these agencies. While the agency usually
forwards the certificates that you completed the courses to our office, you
should confirm that we received them within a couple of days after you complete
the course. If the credit counseling
course is not done, we cannot file the case.
If the financial management course is not done and filed with the court by
the time the court closes the case, you will have to pay a substantial fee to
reopen the case.
XVI.
Closing of Files
This office may destroy or otherwise dispose of the client's file six
months following the notice of discharge from the court, or the order
dismissing the case. The client may pick
up any court papers from the file two months after the discharge from the
court. The client should not provide our
office with originals of any important documents, but instead should photocopy
any documents requested. This office
will not be responsible for any original papers given it.
XVII.
Cancellation of case
The
client may cancel representation by the end of the business day following the
date of this contract for a full refund.
Otherwise, all monies paid by the client to the law office shall be applied
first to payment of fees, and then to payment of costs. If the firm decides to cancel representation
prior to filing, all monies would be refunded; unless the decision to cancel is
based on a determination that the client was not being honest with counsel or
insists on violating the law. The
initial fee is a non-refundable advance payment for the law firm's commitment
to file a chapter 7 bankruptcy, and once paid, is the property of the law
firm. No refunds shall be issued absent
written arrangements to the contrary on this page..
Dated: ____________________ Dated: ____________________
____________________________ ___________________________
Client for Michael Barnett, PA
____________________________
Client
Attorneys fees: $______________
Costs: $______________
Amount
Paid $______________
Amount
Due $______________
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Special
Arrangements:
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Notes: Vers. 5/09TPA