Chapter 13 attorney fees in the Central District of California are set by the court's no-look schedule: $7,000 for a consumer case and $8,500 where a business is involved, under the Rights and Responsibilities Agreement, or RARA. At Bamboo Law Group, $1,000 to $2,000 of that is paid before filing and the rest comes out of your monthly plan payment through the trustee. You don't need $7,000 to start.
What a no-look fee is
Every fee in a bankruptcy case has to be approved by the court. In most districts that means a fee application, billing records, and a hearing. The Central District decided years ago that consumer Chapter 13 fees were predictable enough to set a standard figure that the judges approve without reviewing hourly records, as long as the attorney signs the RARA. That agreement is a court-drafted contract listing what the attorney has to do for the fee and what the client has to do in return. Those figures have been $7,000 and $8,500 since May 2024.
Nearly every consumer Chapter 13 attorney in Los Angeles uses it, which means the fee itself isn't something to shop. What differs is who does the work, how the pre-filing portion is structured, and what the attorney does when the case gets hard.
Before filing versus through the plan
| Item | Paid before filing | Paid through the plan |
|---|---|---|
| Attorney fee (non-business case, $7,000 total) | $1,000 to $2,000 | $5,000 to $6,000, disbursed by the trustee over the plan |
| Court filing fee | $313 | Not eligible for a waiver; installments possible |
| Credit counseling course | Roughly $15 to $50 | |
| Debtor education course | Roughly $15 to $50, before discharge | |
| Trustee's percentage | Set each year; applied to every dollar the trustee disburses | |
| Contested motions, lien avoidance, conversion, hardship discharge | Quoted in writing when needed | Often payable through the plan by court order |
The pre-filing amount depends on the case. Someone filing the morning of a foreclosure sale with $1,000 in hand gets filed for $1,000 plus the court fee. Someone with a month to prepare and more room usually pays $2,000, which lowers the plan payment slightly. Either way the number is agreed in writing before any work starts. Our firm-wide cost page puts this alongside the Chapter 7 flat fee.
How the trustee pays the balance
The plan lists the unpaid attorney fee as an administrative claim. The trustee pays it from your plan payments, usually ahead of most other creditors, over the first year or two of the plan. If the plan pays $960 a month and $92 of that is the fee balance, the fee is paid off over 60 months; many plans front-load it faster. You never write a second check. The trustee's monthly disbursement report, which you can see online, shows exactly what went where.
If the case is dismissed before the fee is fully paid, the unpaid portion is owed but in practice we rarely pursue it, because the money usually isn't there. If the case converts to Chapter 7, the unpaid Chapter 13 fee is generally discharged, which is one reason the pre-filing portion exists at all.
What the RARA fee covers
The agreement is specific, and it's the same one every attorney signs. For $7,000 you get the consultation, the analysis of which chapter fits, preparation and filing of the petition, schedules and plan, attendance at the Zoom 341 meeting (Naomi attends every one herself), the confirmation hearing, responding to the trustee's objections to confirmation, reviewing claims and objecting to the ones that are wrong, handling the mortgage servicer's Rule 3002.1 notices, one routine plan modification in many cases, and the paperwork at the end that gets the discharge entered. Five years of a lawyer answering the phone is inside that figure.
The Chapter 13 overview walks through the case from the client's side. This page is the invoice.
What's extra
The court's schedule contemplates supplemental fees for work outside the ordinary case, and we quote each one in writing before doing it:
- Motions to avoid a junior lien (lien stripping) or a judgment lien
- Defending a motion for relief from stay when a mortgage or car payment is missed
- Post-confirmation plan modifications beyond the routine, and moratorium motions
- Adversary proceedings, including student loan hardship cases
- Conversion to Chapter 7 and the second 341 meeting that comes with it
- Hardship discharge motions
- Amendments needed because of information that wasn't disclosed at the start
Supplemental fees in the Central District are usually approved for payment through the plan, which means the plan payment rises modestly rather than you paying out of pocket in the middle of a hard month. The court has to approve them, and the trustee reviews every one.
Whether it's worth it compared to Chapter 7
Seven thousand dollars next to $1,850 looks like a big gap. It's closer than it appears. The Chapter 7 fee is paid entirely before filing; the Chapter 13 fee is mostly paid inside a payment you'd be making anyway, and the fee balance often displaces money that would otherwise go to unsecured creditors at pennies on the dollar. What you're buying with the larger figure is five years of representation and a plan that can save a house, a car, or a co-signer. If none of those is at stake and you pass the means test, we'll tell you Chapter 7 is the cheaper and faster answer, and we'll say it on the first call.
the fee is the same at every competent office on Wilshire and every mill in the Valley, so I tell people to stop comparing that number and start asking who's going to be on the Zoom at the 341 meeting and who answers the phone in year three when the servicer misapplies a payment. In a five-year case, the fee buys a relationship more than a filing. I've never had a client remember what they paid up front. Every one of them remembers whether someone called back.
Questions people ask about this
Do I have to pay the full $7,000 before filing Chapter 13?
No. In the Central District the standard is a portion up front, at our office $1,000 to $2,000, with the remainder paid by the trustee out of your plan payments. That structure is written into the court's own fee agreement.
What if my case is dismissed before the fee is paid?
The unpaid balance remains owed under the agreement, but the trustee will have paid part of it from the plan, and we don't chase the rest in most dismissed cases. If you refile, we talk about a new agreement based on what was already paid.
Is the $7,000 fee negotiable?
The no-look figure is set by the court, and reducing it below the schedule isn't the way to pick a lawyer. What is negotiable is the pre-filing portion and how quickly the balance is paid inside the plan, which affects the monthly payment a little.
Does the fee include the court filing fee and the courses?
No. The $313 court fee and the two required courses, roughly $15 to $50 each, are separate. The court fee can be paid in installments after filing in some cases, though Chapter 13 filers can't get it waived.
Why is the business-debtor fee higher?
Business cases involve profit-and-loss statements, ongoing operating reports, and questions about the business's assets and leases that a wage-earner case doesn't. The court set the higher $8,500 figure to reflect that work. A rideshare driver or a sole proprietor with no employees is sometimes treated as a consumer case; we'll tell you which applies.
Talk it through with the attorney
If you're unsure what you'd need to file, book a free video consultation. Naomi will quote the pre-filing amount for your situation in writing and show you how the balance fits inside the plan payment.