In April of 2001, we were sent to Mr. Harris to file a Chapter 13 (Bankruptcy). He worked with Goren & Goren P.C. Firm. As of this date he is now a partner with them, and I do not think he handles Bankruptcy. Our first meeting with him, was a little overwhelming, not knowing what to expect, not wanting to be their in the first place. (No one ever wants to be in this position anyway). We discussed why and what we needed, gave him a list of our creditors, for him to check out. You know prove the unsecured from the secured ones. Told him that the only reason why we are here is because our Mortgage Company went bankrupt on us, and we could not figure out whom to pay our mortgage payments too. When we did find out, they had already filed foreclosure on us for amount they thought we owed. (If you would like to know what I mean by that, check out the yscam I filed under Ocwen Financial Dated 7-28-06 from Jackson MI). Anyway, his comment to us was DEAL WITH IT! You made the mistakes, and now you will have to pay. MY parents attended this meeting with us, to see if there was anything they could do. But he refused to talk to them, said he did not have time too! Our second meeting, was to go over the list of creditor's and discuss what he had found and make a plan to present to the judge. We had to drive 70 miles for each visit. My father had attended these meeting with us, and even he said he was an @#$$%^&*. Can't really print exact words. We had informed him that the amounts he was coming up with on some of our creditor's were wrong or they did not exist. He even had our tenant listed, as we owed him. (We had an apartment we rented out, and our tenant was behind, he had owed us). Even the amount that was reported on our mortgage was wrong. He told us again to DEAL WITH IT! He was not going to file any about what we said, and told us to sign the papers or forget it, we were between a rock and a hard spot; we did not know what we could do or couldn't do. He was supposed to be the attorney. His main thing he kept telling us, was that the bankruptcy laws were going to change and we needed to get this filed before a certain date. In 2004 the laws changed. Not in 2001. We tried to object when we went in front of the first judge, but he told to be quiet, and not say anything. The last and final hearing, which was in front of Hon. Ray Reynolds Graves, we were not allowed in. Just Mr. Harris. Per our papers we received from Mr. Harris, we were not supposed to pay in our tax returns. I guess we were suppose to, because he contact us again, in 2002, we told him too file something asking to retain them for us so that we could pay our taxes on the house and such other bill. He only filed for one year and failed to tell us we had to do this every year. He charged our account another $400.00 some dollars to due this. Per the Trustee Handbook of a chapter 13 you are suppose to get periodically some kind of reports on what is being paid. Whether it was from the court or not, someone was suppose to inform us and give us amounts to where we stood on paying this bankruptcy back. WE only received one report for the whole 6 years. That was only because Mr. Harris made partner in his firm, and assigned us to another lawyer, from another county. If I remember right she was from Travers City. She finally informed us, that we were behind in our bankruptcy payment some how, Go figure, they took everything anyway, how could we be behind. My husband and I lived on the $20.00 a month my SS of 500 a month and our apartment rental of $450. Which was no longer rented up until this year. We have over paid our bankruptcy by $13,000.00 +, for an extension, we never should have had. They were so many things, that was wrong with this and Mr. Harris showed no compassion, or that he cared or was willing to show us any kind of respect at all. He treated us like we deserved this. A lawyer is here to help us, and protect us, aren't they, not belittle us or demean us. We pay them good money for the help we are suppose to get. There are a lot more things that went wrong with this situation, but it would take me a long time to list them all. We have hired a new lawyer to try to figure this out and help us with our discharge, so that we will not owe the same thing as we did before. But even he says that this was the worst-case handling he had ever seen. We were so miss informed about everything, and have over paid allot of things we should not have ever paid. Even our Trustee that handled the payments has been paying the wrong Mortgage Company for the whole bankruptcy. SO maybe that is why we still owe the same thing for our home. SO I recommend not using Mr. Harris that is with this firm, because all he is worried about is the almighty dollar, not his clients. Hopefully our lawsuit against him will give us some piece of mind. Ann Jackson, Michigan
Goren, Goren & Harris, PC. Reviews
In April of 2001, we were sent to Mr. Harris to file a Chapter 13 (Bankruptcy). He worked with Goren & Goren P.C. Firm. As of this date he is now a partner with them, and I do not think he handles Bankruptcy. Our first meeting with him, was a little overwhelming, not knowing what to expect, not wanting to be their in the first place. (No one ever wants to be in this position anyway). We discussed why and what we needed, gave him a list of our creditors, for him to check out. You know prove the unsecured from the secured ones. Told him that the only reason why we are here is because our Mortgage Company went bankrupt on us, and we could not figure out whom to pay our mortgage payments too. When we did find out, they had already filed foreclosure on us for amount they thought we owed. (If you would like to know what I mean by that, check out the yscam I filed under Ocwen Financial Dated 7-28-06 from Jackson MI). Anyway, his comment to us was DEAL WITH IT! You made the mistakes, and now you will have to pay. MY parents attended this meeting with us, to see if there was anything they could do. But he refused to talk to them, said he did not have time too! Our second meeting, was to go over the list of creditor's and discuss what he had found and make a plan to present to the judge. We had to drive 70 miles for each visit. My father had attended these meeting with us, and even he said he was an @#$$%^&*. Can't really print exact words. We had informed him that the amounts he was coming up with on some of our creditor's were wrong or they did not exist. He even had our tenant listed, as we owed him. (We had an apartment we rented out, and our tenant was behind, he had owed us). Even the amount that was reported on our mortgage was wrong. He told us again to DEAL WITH IT! He was not going to file any about what we said, and told us to sign the papers or forget it, we were between a rock and a hard spot; we did not know what we could do or couldn't do. He was supposed to be the attorney. His main thing he kept telling us, was that the bankruptcy laws were going to change and we needed to get this filed before a certain date. In 2004 the laws changed. Not in 2001. We tried to object when we went in front of the first judge, but he told to be quiet, and not say anything. The last and final hearing, which was in front of Hon. Ray Reynolds Graves, we were not allowed in. Just Mr. Harris. Per our papers we received from Mr. Harris, we were not supposed to pay in our tax returns. I guess we were suppose to, because he contact us again, in 2002, we told him too file something asking to retain them for us so that we could pay our taxes on the house and such other bill. He only filed for one year and failed to tell us we had to do this every year. He charged our account another $400.00 some dollars to due this. Per the Trustee Handbook of a chapter 13 you are suppose to get periodically some kind of reports on what is being paid. Whether it was from the court or not, someone was suppose to inform us and give us amounts to where we stood on paying this bankruptcy back. WE only received one report for the whole 6 years. That was only because Mr. Harris made partner in his firm, and assigned us to another lawyer, from another county. If I remember right she was from Travers City. She finally informed us, that we were behind in our bankruptcy payment some how, Go figure, they took everything anyway, how could we be behind. My husband and I lived on the $20.00 a month my SS of 500 a month and our apartment rental of $450. Which was no longer rented up until this year. We have over paid our bankruptcy by $13,000.00 +, for an extension, we never should have had. They were so many things, that was wrong with this and Mr. Harris showed no compassion, or that he cared or was willing to show us any kind of respect at all. He treated us like we deserved this. A lawyer is here to help us, and protect us, aren't they, not belittle us or demean us. We pay them good money for the help we are suppose to get. There are a lot more things that went wrong with this situation, but it would take me a long time to list them all. We have hired a new lawyer to try to figure this out and help us with our discharge, so that we will not owe the same thing as we did before. But even he says that this was the worst-case handling he had ever seen. We were so miss informed about everything, and have over paid allot of things we should not have ever paid. Even our Trustee that handled the payments has been paying the wrong Mortgage Company for the whole bankruptcy. SO maybe that is why we still owe the same thing for our home. SO I recommend not using Mr. Harris that is with this firm, because all he is worried about is the almighty dollar, not his clients. Hopefully our lawsuit against him will give us some piece of mind. Ann Jackson, Michigan