I paid $1500 for a new engine and these people were supposed to ship the engine to the mechanic who was doing work on my car. The mechanic calls me saying that they never got the engine and that when they tried to call them about it their phones were disconnected and their website is now shut down so I had no way of contacting them about it. Then today i get a notice in the mail of them filing for Chapter 7 bankrputcy...what exactly does this mean? Are they going to sell their assets to pay me back? Is there any action I can take to get my money??? What they did seems HIGHLY illegitimate...please give me your advice.

Have you browsed through the information in LawInfo's Free Legal Resource Center to learn more about your issue yet? See: http://www.lawinfo.com/consumer.html and http://resources.lawinfo.com/en/index.html. You can certainly try to speak to a lawyer to determine what legal options may be available. In the meantime, you may be able to learn more on your own. Search the "Free Legal Resources" tab, or browse the Consumer Resources. Good luck.

You need to contact an attorney.

A chapter 7 bankruptcy is where an actual person or possibly a dba files bankruptcy. A bankruptcy extinguishes most debts of the the debtor. This debt would probably be eliminated unless your attorney establishes fraud and here s/he probably can. The attorney will probably attend the 341 bankruptcy meeting and assert your rights properly.

The problem with not doing anything about this is that the debtor probably has o assets to sell off to repay you. The business is going out because it has no money and you can count on that the business has a lot of other debts that probably have liens on the equipment it uses. This means you will probably get nothing becuase you will below the other creditors in terms of priority.

You need to see an attorney.