Credit Slips: Bankruptcy

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Bankruptcy Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

Bankruptcy

Credit Slips

A discussion on credit and bankruptcy.
By Bob Lawless, Adam Levitin, Angie Littwin, Katie Porter, John Pottow, Debb Thorne, Elizabeth Warren

Post Frequency: 12.8/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 09:01:41

The Future of Bank Fees

Posted on February 10, 2008
The Brits may be showing us the future on bank fees. First, the pain: British banks charge an average of $57 for an overdraft, about 70% more than US banks. Second, the response: A movement has swept across Britain to...

Profit Possibilities

Posted on February 10, 2008
One of the hardest things about teaching debtor-creditor law is keeping up with all the market innovations. Subprime mortgages are in the spotlight, but credit card debt has not subsided. Last quarter credit card grew at a rapid 9.3%. For...

Creditor Calls Debtor Excrement

Posted on February 08, 2008
Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692d(2), creditors are prohibited from using "obscene or profane" language in collecting debts. Would this count? Or is truth an absolute defense? (Thanks to students in my bankruptcy class for...

Thanks to Jean Braucher

Posted on February 07, 2008
Although the caption of this post is self-explanatory, we just wanted to emphasize how much we enjoyed having Jean Braucher post for us this past week and hope you did so too. Jean's intellectual travels from Canada to Australia show...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

A Bankruptcy Passing

Posted on February 06, 2008
My colleague here at Michigan, Emeritus Professor Frank R. Kennedy, passed away. My other colleauge (and recent guest blogger) James J. White had nice things to say about him back in 1982: here. Readers old enough to remember his role...

Bankruptcies Continue Their Slow, Upward Pace

Posted on February 06, 2008
We ended the year 2007 with 826,665 total bankruptcy filings, according to the data from Automated Access to Court Electronic Records (AACER). This figure represents a 39.9% increase over 2006, but the 2006 figures were affected by the huge surge...

Treatment and the European Perspective: Why Don't We Ask Whether US Debtors in Bankruptcy Have Other Social Problems?

Posted on February 04, 2008
European debt adjustment systems have built in an assumption that people with debt problems also have higher incidence of other social problems?substance abuse, family dysfunction, weak impulse control, and perhaps also mental health problems such as depression and anxiety...

The Power of Numbers

Posted on February 01, 2008
When the credit industry lobbied Congress for adoption of the bankruptcy amendments, they made a powerful claim: Bankruptcy costs every American family $400. The number was pure fabrication, but the number was repeatedly quoted in newspapers, magazines and in Congress...

Even the US Trustee Has an Occasional "Credit Crunch"

Posted on February 01, 2008
On January 14, 2008, the US Trustee announced that it has suspended audits of consumer debtors. While consumer advocates have criticized the audits as overzealous and unnecessary, the temporary end of audits occured for a simple (if somewhat, ironic, reason)--the...

Is Greed Good? The Professor vs. The Senator

Posted on January 31, 2008
This is going to be really big picture. It's about the differences between formal economic theory, on the one hand, and ordinary thought about economic questions, on the other. It pits the views of an anonymous college professor (as reported...

Mortgages at the Dem's Debate

Posted on January 31, 2008
Hilary and Barack focus on mortgages on at the Los Angeles debate.

Credit Card Rewards Down Under

Posted on January 31, 2008
The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) was kind enough to feature my article about the social costs of credit card merchant restraints. (Sorry for the shameless self-plug...) It's worth noting that when the Reserve Bank of Australia forced credit card networks...

Worth Reading--Moral Responsibility to Pay

Posted on January 30, 2008
Two very thoughtful posts by Buce at Underbelly are worth reading. Both get at the question of whether "can pay" debtors are acting wrongfully when they don't pay. The first post looks at the issue generally. The second post is...

House Judiciary Cramdown Hearing

Posted on January 30, 2008
Highlights of the House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the cramdown bill.

Homeowners in Trouble--Don't be an industry statistic

Posted on January 30, 2008
The Mortgage Bankers Association released a study this month that touts the efforts of mortgage servicers and lenders to assist borrowers. The industry asserts that it "took major steps" to "help those borrowers who could be helped." Therein, lies the...

Good Government (Under Threat) Down Under

Posted on January 29, 2008
Australia has a bankruptcy system worth studying. Among other merits, it collects and publishes more facts about its system on line than any other. http://www.itsa.gov.au/dir228/itsaweb.nsf/docindex/about+us-%3Epublications-%3Epublications?opendocument Prior to 1996, Australia probably had the most sensible bankruptcy system in the world...

More Bogus Numbers from the Mortgage Industry

Posted on January 28, 2008
The Mortgage Bankers Association's claim that permitting bankruptcy cramdown will result in interest rates rising 1.5%-2% is demonstrably false and based on cherry-picked statistics. When the full statistical picture is considered, our study finds that cramdown is likely to have little or no impact on mortgage interest rates.

Is Financial Education a Good Idea and Whose Idea Is It Anyway?

Posted on January 28, 2008
Educators find it hard to be against education, and I am no exception to that rule. But some evidence from JumpStart Coalition, which promotes financial education for young people, is cause for pause. Its last survey of high school students,...

Thank you to Jim White and Welcome to Jean Braucher

Posted on January 28, 2008
It's Monday, and we have a changing of the guard. We wanted to thank Professor James J. White of the University of Michigan Law School for joining us last week. Professor White now holds the Credit Slips record for most...

Same Solutions, Different Problems

Posted on January 27, 2008
Economists teach that if the economy is going into a recession, lower interest rates and give people money. That wisdom is so conventional that the only quibbling seems to be over timing, amount, and who gets the money. But this...

Discussions of the Kind That I Stimulated By My First Post

Posted on January 25, 2008
Discussions of the kind that I stimulated by my suggestions on Monday (about what Congress might do) reveal widely different assumptions about the number and type of debtors that will default. Shouldn't we look for the data? The data might...

Servicing Kickbacks Alleged in Class Action

Posted on January 24, 2008
Last week, a class action lawsuit (Harris v. Fidelity National) was filed against Fidelity National Information Services, a huge player in the billion dollar world of mortgage servicing. "What? I've never heard of them," you say. Fidelity is the company...

NYT Topic Page on Bankruptcy

Posted on January 23, 2008
One of my friends--and you know who you are--gave me some serious stick for not putting up a post on Jane Birnbaum's January 12 New York Times article on the state of the bankruptcy system. It took me a while...

Congress' Response to the Mortgage Mess

Posted on January 21, 2008
Eric Sevareid once remarked that a "chief cause of problems is solutions." From a libertarian perspective at least, I suspect that we will find "problems" in the "solutions" that Congress will enact to solve the sub prime mortgage mess. At...

Welcome to Jim White

Posted on January 21, 2008
Does your employer (like mine) not give you MLK Day off? Well, then Credit Slips has just the solution to your woes: reading the musings of our newest guest blogger, Prof. James J. White. Good law nerds will be well...

Thank You to Nathalie Martin

Posted on January 18, 2008
The Credit Slips crew wants to thank Professor Nathalie Martin, of the University of New Mexico School of Law for joining us a guest blogger. Professor Martin attracted some attention around the blogosphere with her post on the reality of...

Between Life and Death, Bankruptcy Style

Posted on January 17, 2008
The Brits, in their understated way, are on the fast track to revolutionizing the balance between debtors and creditors. With no public fanfare, the Ministry of Justice announced a plan for debtors to stop making payments on credit cards for...

Will the "Real" Anti-Foreclosure Mr. Paulson Please Stand Up?

Posted on January 16, 2008
Yesterday's front page story in the Wall Street Journal was not the usual Paulson story about subprime mortgages---blah, blah Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has organized mortgage companies to make blah, blah, blah unenforceable promises to offer short-term help to blah,...

Nifong Files Bankruptcy

Posted on January 16, 2008
Courtesy of the Law Blog over at WSJ.com, I learned that Michael Nifong has filed bankruptcy. Nifong was the district attorney in the rape case against the three Duke lacrosse players. After Nifong was removed from the case, the charges...

Clinton, Edwards, and Obama on 2005 Bankruptcy Law

Posted on January 16, 2008
Adam Levitin's post and Katie Porter's comment on about last night's Democratic debate and the candidates' discussion of the 2005 bankruptcy prompted me to start writing a comment about the Democratic candidates' stand on the 2005 bankruptcy law. It started...

Previous | Next

Related Law Bulletins

More owners facing foreclosure - Many paying a price for easy credit
Timothy Duggan, Shareholder in Stark & Stark's Real Estate Gro...

Ex-Spouses Can Ruin Each Other's Credit
Ex-Spouses Can Ruin Each Other's Credit By Kimberly Palmer, US New...

How Will My Divorce Affect My Credit?
A very good overview of some of the credit issues in divorce. ----...