Internet's first get-out-of-debt community - 134,000 members

Guest · Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 6:10 pm Subject: Lawyers and Debt Settlement

Has anyone gone this route? Were the lawyers fees equal to, less than or more than the 15% of the debt to be settled that debt settlement companies charge?

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 6:35 pm Subject:

Guest, I have done both first went with a law firm that does debt settlement in AZ and currently with Superior Debt their fees were both them same at 15%. But what was different was the way it was distributed, so you know the fee was build into the monthly payment and with the lawyers they were much more top heavy meaning collecting more fees and less going into savings. Superior their fees were distributed out throughout the program, that left more money going into savings rather than more money into the pocket.

The reason why I left the lawyers was because in 4 months of being with them I was sued by my creditor. Was told by teresa at superior this might happen because lawyers are a little more aggressive; I did not listen and only listened to what I wanted to..well let's just say I was happy to re-establish my connect with Teresa and now I only have 3 creditors left to settle.

Please do your research, that is what I'm advocating on this site. Do not listen to all of the good things but also listen for what they are not telling you, everything has an impact. Just glad that Teresa was still able to help me.

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 7:39 pm Subject:

"The reason why I left the lawyers was because in 4 months of being with them I was sued by my creditor. Was told by teresa at superior this might happen because lawyers are a little more aggressive"

what does more agressive mean? What happened with creditor that sued you?

Posted: Mon Aug 25, 2008 8:36 pm Subject:

Imale, more aggressive meaning lawyers send out cesist and desist letters right away and they are a little more pushy. lawyers curtail the creditors right to contact their customer which in turn upsets them. The creditor that served me the summons, I was able to fight the creditor on my court date. I showed the Judge my budget and bills, medical records, etc and I am on a payment plan with the law firm via the court for $75 per month until the debt is paid. Everything worked out.

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 4:42 am Subject:

hummm ok. I"m about to enter a settlement program with and a lawyer, very interesting to know....Thanks

Can I ask what creditor it was that sued you?

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 5:10 am Subject:

Of all creditors it was Capital One. My list of creditors that I had moved over to Superior was bank of america, chase (3 accounts), citi cards (2 accounts), juniper, discover, sears, home depot, macy's, dillards, and american express blue. There are 3 creditors left to be settled with juniper, home depot and sears.

Please be sure that you have checked out the law firm that you have choosen; I was told that cap one was really easy but they were the ones that sued me. Hope your experience with a law firm is better then mine. Good Luck.

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 5:51 am Subject:

OHHHHHHHHH Great, we have Capital ONE!!

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 5:58 am Subject:

If the fees are roughly the same and I was going to hire somebody I would go with the lawyer probably. I've also seen other posts on this board that said Cap One likes to sue so it is probably luck of the draw if they decide to go after you. If you hire a lawyer I would want it to be full service included meaning they will represent you if you are sued as part of the fee and not an extra.

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 7:00 am Subject:

My experience with a law based settlement company is aweful and horrible. It seemed like they were double dipping into the amount of fees they were targeting. because i called them when i got the summons and the first thing my rep said was let our lawyer help you file bankruptcy. UGH that was the last thing i wanted to do, now they collected fees for settlement and there was a fee to file bankruptcy of $850, they said they were reducing the fee to file bankruptcy because i was a client already. however i contacted a few bankruptcy lawyers in my area and they run 750 to 1000. so they may be charging less but the amount of fees that i had paid was well over $3k to do settlement. luckily my cap one was not all that big so i'm done with them.

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 12:42 pm Subject:

That is deffinetly one thing bad about the lawyer route if you get a bankruptcy happy one they will try to shove it down your throat instead of doing what you want them to do which is settle the debt. Frankly, I don't get the settlement fees anyway. There is no way I would pay a company upwards of 5k upfront plus a percentage to settle debts no matter what amount that debt was. Basically it takes just as much negotiation via telephone and mail to settle a 5k debt as it does a 100k debt and if you are paying 5k on a 5k then that is way too much unless it ends up in court maybe. If you think about it there is just very little work actually involved. The only benefit you gain is the cushion of having someone budget your money and field the calls.

*Name:
*Email:
*Phone:
*Zip:
*Debt

	* denotes required field

Internet's first get-out-of-debt community - 134,000 members

Lawyers and Debt Settlement

Members Area

Free Debt Counseling

Ask the community

Featured Discussions

Featured Articles

Question of the Month

Also See

Recent Forum Discussions

Recent Blog Post