This is the time that we decided to file for disability online. They were very nice and accepting, but the letter they sent me was very depressing. It was along the lines of, due to your imminent demise we will expedite your application. I was thrilled that we would not have to fight for disability now that I could not work. I did have to wonder if they knew something I didn’t, or were they just being encouraging in their own way?
I was also worried how we would pay bills as we waited out the 6 months before we started to get money. This was when we figured out we had to file for bankruptcy. To file for bankruptcy we acquired a lawyer to do the paperwork. It cost $2895 for him to file the papers and go to court. We tried our hardest to get him to file the papers as early as possible. This is because at any time I could be called into the hospital for a transplant. It seemed like he took his time.
When you file for bankruptcy you get to phone calls from the credit counseling company. They go over with you the different options you have to see if you really need to file for bankruptcy. They interview both you and your spouse to make sure you both agree. We also had to go online and take a class to see if we understood credit and where we went wrong. Since where we went wrong is that I got too sick to work, it wasn’t hard to figure out.
When it finally became time for us to have our court appearance I was in the hospital. So my wife had to go by herself to the court with the lawyer to talk to thearbitrator. On her way to the courthouse the radiator hose in the car blow a hole in it. Lucky enough she was able to make it to her father’s house. So he was able to give her a ride to the courthouse. When submitted to the courthouse she found out that the lawyer wasn’t there. He does finally arrive but without the correct paperwork. He was also the only lawyer without a suit on. So he called his office and asked them to send over the paperwork. He then asked the court officer if it would be okay to take the case that was scheduled after ours to go first. The court officer said that it was a very large case it would take a long time. The court could give him 15 minutes to come up with the paperwork. So one of the secretaries ran the paperwork down to the court office as fast as she could.
Our bankruptcy consisted of our house and that was it. So my wife confidently walked up to the table and gave sworn testimony to the arbitrator in Palm Beach County. I on the other hand was lying in a hospital bed in Gainesville. We can honestly say with the time it took our lawyer and the way he treated her case we weren’t appreciative of our lawyer. Before we received the last court paperwork, I will admit he did go out of his way helping my wife while I was in the hospitals by way of writing letters to our former mortgage holder who kept bothering my family even though they had received the house in the bankruptcy.
The time took about eight months before we got our day in front of the arbitrator. My wife took her father’s car home so she could get ready for work in the morning. Then her father fix the car and traded cars the next day. For the next three years after this we received papers from the courthouse. It took a year after the procedure before they finalize the bankruptcy procedures. The lawyer told us to keep a record of the papers, we could be receiving them for a long time. He also told us to be careful now that our credit was clear we would receive lots of credit applications.
I was very proud of my wife who had to deal with both me being in the hospital,making an appearance in a courtroom , the car breaking down and two kids still in school all by herself.