timing on filing Ch7, cashing out mutual fund.....

[hatecards]

Okay, will try to make this short as possible. We are going to file Ch7. This is the deal. Discover has told me that they will send our account to their legal department for further proceedings as of July 30th. We have an attorneys office collecting for Direct Merchants(Metris) also calling threatening with a judgement. I have told both of them that we are filing Chapter 7(gave them our lawyer's name,address), yet they continue to call. We have mailed(atty's office 1 hr away) most of our forms so she can tell us what we are missing, we are mailing payment to her Friday for filing fee and her fee, assuming we will file in the next week to 2 weeks. OK, my question is. We have a mutual fund that I have asked about cashing in, and have been told it would be best to cash it in to help pay our Real Estate and Personal Property taxes that were due in December totalling $2300 if we pay them by the end of July, if not, will be more in August. SO. I would like to do this, other wise would make our Ch7 an asset case. I am worried about the timing though that by the time we contact the company to cash out our mutual fund and get the money, then file it will be past the time that Discover and the other attorney's office have given us for proceeding with getting a judgement from a court against us. Need some advice on whether we should answer their calls one more time and tell them again we are filing soon, or just keep ignoring them, cash out and hope they don't get a judgement before we file? I have called to discuss with attorney, but she is working on another case right now with another client and hasn't called back.

[LadynRed]

First of all, if the the collectors KNOW you are represented by an attorney they are breaking the law by continuing to call you. If they call again, tell them that per the FDCPA Section 805(a)(2), they have been informed that you have legal counsel and they are violating that law by calling you. Tell them to call your lawyer and hang up.

ß 805. Communication in connection with debt

collection

(a) COMMUNICATION WITH THE CONSUMER

GENERALLY. Without the prior consent of the

consumer given directly to the debt collector or the

express permission of a court of competent jurisdiction,

a debt collector may not communicate with a

consumer in connection with the collection of any

debt;

(2) if the debt collector knows the consumer is represented

by an attorney with respect to such debt and

has knowledge of, or can readily ascertain, such

attorneyís name and address, unless the attorney

fails to respond within a reasonable period of time

to a communication from the debt collector or

unless the attorney consents to direct communication

with the consumer;

They won't be able to get a judgment fast enough if you've already got the process going with a lawyer. It can take months to get a case to court and you can stall it until your BK IS filed.

Did the lawyer tell you to cash out this mutual fund to pay your taxes ?? If you're going to do it, do it NOW because if it sits until after your case is filed and you haven't spent the money, the Trustee is going to go after the non-exempt cash. See if there's any way you can expedite the cash-out process.

[hatecards]

We have not been able to get a return call from our attorney. I told dh last night that he needs to call the Mutual Fund company and request a cash out, am also considering having him cash on on the cash value, that would just about completely pay our past due taxes. We are sending her the fee for her services/filing fee in tomorrow's mail, but we don't have all of our forms filled out yet, so am not sure when we will actually file. I would rather take that money out and use it to pay our taxes than for the trustee to take it and then we struggle to try to get them paid before our next set of taxes comes due in December. :/

[hatecards]

First of all, if the the collectors KNOW you are represented by an attorney they are breaking the law by continuing to call you. If they call again, tell them that per the FDCPA Section 805(a)(2), they have been informed that you have legal counsel and they are violating that law by calling you. Tell them to call your lawyer and hang up.

ß 805. Communication in connection with debt

collection

(a) COMMUNICATION WITH THE CONSUMER

GENERALLY. Without the prior consent of the

consumer given directly to the debt collector or the

express permission of a court of competent jurisdiction,

a debt collector may not communicate with a

consumer in connection with the collection of any

debt;

(2) if the debt collector knows the consumer is represented

by an attorney with respect to such debt and

has knowledge of, or can readily ascertain, such

attorneyís name and address, unless the attorney

fails to respond within a reasonable period of time

to a communication from the debt collector or

unless the attorney consents to direct communication

with the consumer;

They won't be able to get a judgment fast enough if you've already got the process going with a lawyer. It can take months to get a case to court and you can stall it until your BK IS filed.

Did the lawyer tell you to cash out this mutual fund to pay your taxes ?? If you're going to do it, do it NOW because if it sits until after your case is filed and you haven't spent the money, the Trustee is going to go after the non-exempt cash. See if there's any way you can expedite the cash-out process.

Thanks LIR for the advice, I didn't realize that, should have, but didn't. I am going to print that out and hang it by the phone.