Bankruptcy killed the progress

[crayiii]

After over a year, my wife and I (through her attorney) finally signed the final orders for parenting, dissolution, and child support.  

Her attorney was to file the papers with the court this week.  Yesterday, I received the notice that my BK attorney had filed my papers for Chapter 7.  He was supposed to wait until after the divorce but for whatever reason (haven't gotten a hold of him yet) they were already filed.

My wife's attorney called yesterday after he found out about the bankruptcy and told me that that puts a hold on all the divorce proceedings until January.  He said my wife was livid as she planned to be wed by the end of the year.  He told me that I needed to petition the bankruptcy court to lift the automatic stay so he could file the papers.

Can the stay be lifted for this purpose only?  If I petition to have the stay lifted, am I putting myself at risk?

[socrateaser]

>After over a year, my wife and I (through her attorney)
>finally signed the final orders for parenting, dissolution,
>and child support.  
>
>Her attorney was to file the papers with the court this week.
>Yesterday, I received the notice that my BK attorney had filed
>my papers for Chapter 7.  He was supposed to wait until after
>the divorce but for whatever reason (haven't gotten a hold of
>him yet) they were already filed.
>
>My wife's attorney called yesterday after he found out about
>the bankruptcy and told me that that puts a hold on all the
>divorce proceedings until January.  He said my wife was livid
>as she planned to be wed by the end of the year.  He told me
>that I needed to petition the bankruptcy court to lift the
>automatic stay so he could file the papers.
>
>Can the stay be lifted for this purpose only?  If I petition
>to have the stay lifted, am I putting myself at risk?

Yes, you can move to lift the stay, but naturally it will cost you mo' money to have your BK attorney file what would have otherwise been separate motion.

Your attorney will argue that if he/she didn't get the filing in now (before 10/16/05, the new BK laws would kick in and your case would be handled far differently than otherwise, so, you're not gonna have much of an argument to make the BK attorney pay for the mistake -- because it's not really a mistake, unless you can show that you absolutely would have had everything in your disso resolved prior to the 16th.

[crayiii]

I don't mind paying for the motion and I don't blame my attorney at all, I would rather have him early than late in this case!

Unfortunately, the papers were filed as if I were not currently married and they didn't include my wife and I as having lived in Washington State (a community property state) within the last 6 years.

I hope this is a fairly straight forward amendment and doesn't throw things off track...

[socrateaser]

>I don't mind paying for the motion and I don't blame my
>attorney at all, I would rather have him early than late in
>this case!
>
>Unfortunately, the papers were filed as if I were not
>currently married and they didn't include my wife and I as
>having lived in Washington State (a community property state)
>within the last 6 years.
>
>I hope this is a fairly straight forward amendment and doesn't
>throw things off track...

If that's how the docs were filed, then I'd say it's a bit of a problem, i.e., but if you get the stay lifted and the disso signed and entered by the court, then the error will be harmless. So, get your BK attorney to have the stay lifted so the final judgment can be entered.

From a legal viewpoint, any issue over which the State court has jurisdiction and has not yet ruled, is beyond the reach of the BK course. So, for example, if you are trying to discharge a debt that is in dispute in your divorce (even if you've agreed on the resolution with your spouse, but the decision is still pending final signature from the court), then that issue cannot be discharged, and in fact, the BK court cannot rule on the issue at all, until the state court determines the rights of the parties.

This is particularly important when considering some jointly held credit card or other unsecured debt. Because if you tell the BK court that this debt is ordered to be your spouse's, and at the last minute the State court rules otherwise, then you will not get a discharge because the BK court and the creditor wasn't informed correctly re the debt's status. Similarly, if you declare an amount of a debt to the BK court and the State court finds a different distribution, then you could end up being liable for the difference between what you declared, and what you were actually awarded by the State court.

And, now you know "the rest of the story."

[crayiii]

Damn, I hope I have learned a lesson from all this...