Okay, so we have $40,000+ in medical bill debt, plus my husband has about $20,000 in student loans.  I've finally been able to find some work, but we basically live paycheck to paycheck.  We have no savings.   We don't own a home.  We have one car that runs ony 1/2 the time and is older than I am.  And, the day after payday when the bills are made out and groceries and prescriptions bought we're lucky if there is $50 left in the checking account to live off of for the next two weeks.

My husband called to talk to a bankruptcy lawyer to see if this would be an option for us.  He was told he'd need $2,000 minimum to start working the case.  Seriously?  If we had $2000 don't you think we'd pay it towards the bills istead of calling you?

This has to be some kind of bad joke.

I forgot to mention, we don't have any credit cards currently.  We only have about $500 in left in credit card debt.

I have heard of people using credit cards to pay off the lawyer.  Is their anything you can do about the hefty medical bills, tell them you can't pay.  Your credit might be better with unpaid medical bills than with a bankruptcy.  Good luck, and this is a sad case to have.

How can the lawyer charge you $2,000 to start filing? You're right if you had the money you wouldn't need him. There must be a free lawyer somewhere near you. I'll be going to one of those places soon. They do free legal work for people. You should definitely look around. Who can afford that much money when you're thinking of filing?

I'm sorry to hear about your situation, sacback. I'm surprised that it would take $2,000 to get help.

I've known a few people who've filed for bankruptcy, but I haven't heard of a charge like that before.