What Should I Look For, And What Should I Have?

Question:
What should I look for in a bankruptcy attorney. The phonebook is jammed with adds. Anyway to seperate the wheat from teh Chaff? Also, when going for my first meeting, what should I have with me? Bankstatement certainly, also, I assume, all credit card statements that are most recent?

Answer:
You will be told what to bring after you have your initial consultation and decide on the lawyer. Your first meeting will be followed by an extremely long one as your assets and liabilities will be gone over with a fine tooth comb. Please don't chose one based on ads alone. Of course, word-of-mouth is the best way, but if you don't know anyone it's hard to go that route. You should check with the department of your State which licenses and oversees attorneys. I forget what's it's called, but there is a list that is public that will have the names of attorneys who received reprimands, accusations of misconduct etc. I know that I found one for my state (New Jersey) but simply can't remember how I did it. It showed the attorney we were presently using (and picked out of the phone book) had a number of cautions and reprimands against him. Made sense as we were having a lot of trouble trying to get his office to do anything about our case. So one of my doctors recommended someone one of her patients had used, and he is terrific. There should also be a phone number in the yellow pages that contains a lawyer referral service. And finally, sometimes it's just good luck. My advice is to call up at least 3. Ideally, you should go for free consultations, afterward, tell him/her you need time to think about it, and then make up your mind based on how confident the lawyer is, their attitude and your own gut feeling. I did this over the phone so you don't have to go in person if you don't want to. That's basically how we found ours, and we are very happy. He ALWAYS returns phone calls and answers any questions we might have. BTW, there are some places on the internet where you can plug in a name and see their record, so to speak, and it costs $10.00 and up depending on how much info you want. That's the most I can offer and no doubt others here will have even more ideas. Good Luck to you. You've probably read some posts on this board where some lawyers have not only been pretty bad but have really messed up some cases.





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