After a franchise business failed, on Oct. 2006, my husband and I had to file two Chapter 7 bankruptcies -- one for our business and the other personally since our attorney assumed our business creditor (the bank) would try to come after us personally as well. From the very beginning, we told our attorney that we wanted to reaffirm our mortgage. Our bankruptcy was closed in Feb. 2007. Almost a year later while looking at my credit report, I discovered that our mortgage company had stopped reporting our mortgage. After further investigation, I discovered that our attorney failed to have our mortgage reaffirmed. After feeling I had no choice, on Jan. 30, 2008, I paid our attorney additional money to re-open our bankruptcy so the Reaffirmation Agreement could be filed.
Since my attorney hadn't updated me, on June 2, 2008, I called my mortgage company. They informed me that the bankruptcy was reopened on Feb. 28 and that the Reaffirmation was filed on April 11. However, for some strange reason, there was still a problem. After several days and numerous conversations with the mortgage company, I was eventually told that the judge never signed the Order that re-opened our bankruptcy so when the Reaffirmation Agreement was filed it was considered invalid because our bankruptcy was never re-opened.
Upon finding out this information, I decided I'd try (for the second time) to inform my attorney that there was a problem with the quality of his work. Since he can't be reached by phone, I decided to try to contact him one more time. I sent him a 3 sentence e-mail with a subject line of "our unresolved reaffirmation" indicating that it was in his best interest for him to phone me immediately. Instead of calling me, he replied to my e-mail indicating "Interesting timing ... We recently contacted the Court ... everything is in order and looks just fine." He is clueless as to what has happened and I'm tired of trying to do his job for him! In the meantime, my husband and I continue to have our hands tied and can't do a thing to remedy this situation. I considered going to the media but would prefer not to do that. We can't afford to pay another attorney for a third time.
Why did the Judge not sign the order to re-open our bankruptcy? What can we do? We don't have much faith in our attorney at this point. We would so appreciate any advise or help you can offer us. Thanks for your time.
Since my attorney hadn't updated me, on June 2, 2008, I called my mortgage company. They informed me that the bankruptcy was reopened on Feb. 28 and that the Reaffirmation was filed on April 11. However, for some strange reason, there was still a problem. After several days and numerous conversations with the mortgage company, I was eventually told that the judge never signed the Order that re-opened our bankruptcy so when the Reaffirmation Agreement was filed it was considered invalid because our bankruptcy was never re-opened.
Upon finding out this information, I decided I'd try (for the second time) to inform my attorney that there was a problem with the quality of his work. Since he can't be reached by phone, I decided to try to contact him one more time. I sent him a 3 sentence e-mail with a subject line of "our unresolved reaffirmation" indicating that it was in his best interest for him to phone me immediately. Instead of calling me, he replied to my e-mail indicating "Interesting timing ... We recently contacted the Court ... everything is in order and looks just fine." He is clueless as to what has happened and I'm tired of trying to do his job for him! In the meantime, my husband and I continue to have our hands tied and can't do a thing to remedy this situation. I considered going to the media but would prefer not to do that. We can't afford to pay another attorney for a third time.
Why did the Judge not sign the order to re-open our bankruptcy? What can we do? We don't have much faith in our attorney at this point. We would so appreciate any advise or help you can offer us. Thanks for your time.
