Craig P. Helgesen

After consulting with three other attorneys I decided to use Craig Helgesen for my bankruptcy. While he was pleasant he seemed disorganized. For instance, once I went in for my appointment and was told he was not in the office. I showed my appointment card, so they called him. He was at lunch. Th...ey had me wait over an hour and a half for him to return. He felt no need to hurry back on my account. Another time I went in and was told I did not have an appointment. Apparently, his assistant failed to log it into his schedule. Also, I was only trying to discharge debt from two credit cards. He failed to notify one of the credit card companies that I had indeed started the bankruptcy process, so when it was all said and done that credit card company did not discharge the debt and put a lien on the house. I feel that Craig should have given me that information that the debt would not be discharged even if I continued with the bankruptcy filing. I also found out after the fact that if you are without the necessary funds you do not have to pay the $250 filing fee, which could be more now that it is four years later, and there is monetary help for those who have no income. When it came time to actually go to court he had two of his colleagues call me on the phone to go over everything I had met with him and given him during the previous months because he was too busy to do the paperwork himself. I gave the information to Craig on several occasions and then had to scramble to give the same information to his colleagues over the phone. Why they did not have that information available to them I do not know. BUT I felt that I had paid for Craig and was getting the second string backup team. At the court hearing my estranged husband came to court and was questioning Craig about legal issues. Craig was my attorney only and should not have spoken with him at all. He failed to tell me important facts that I only found out later, after I went to court, that had serious consequences for me financially. I reaffirmed on a HELOC that I should not have. He was very unhelpful and I would discourage anyone who is thinking of using him. It cost me more after the bankruptcy to take care of the credit card debt that was not discharged. I would have been better off trying to settle with the credit card companies than filing the bankruptcy. There are more issues, but I am trying to just stick to the facts as per the AVVO instructions.