Bankruptcy filings soar ahead of  law changes

updated 2:54 p.m. ET Sept. 27, 2005

CHICAGO - File bankruptcy now — before the law changes!

That's the message — or exhortation — that attorneys are making across the country, in TV commercials, print ads and mailings, urging Americans to seek bankruptcy court protection before a new law makes it harder for them to walk away from their debts.

Debtors are responding. Counting down toward the Oct. 17 effective date for the biggest reform in U.S. bankruptcy law in a generation, personal bankruptcy filings have jumped this month to the highest on record. Filings averaged more than 9,000 per day, up roughly 50 percent from last year's average daily volume, during the first two weeks of September.

The number is expected to keep climbing, reflecting a growing sense of urgency as the deadline nears.

Attorney Melvin James Kaplan, who runs a consumer bankruptcy practice in Chicago, hasn't seen a rush this big in his 48 years in the business. The volume of calls to his office has been increasing all month and tripled in the past week.

"It's just getting insane," Kaplan said. "The information has been out there for months. I guess people are just waiting till the last minute."

The rush is on in every region and most states, based on data compiled for The Associated Press by Lundquist Consulting Inc., a Burlingame, Calif.-based financial research firm.

The intensified interest comes from the bankruptcy law makeover signed by President Bush on April 20, a 501-page bill that bears the markings of the Republican-dominated Congress that passed it after an eight-year campaign headed by the banking, credit card and retailing industries.

Among the most noteworthy of the changes are new limitations on filing for personal bankruptcy, including barring those with above-average income from Chapter 7 — where debts can be wiped out entirely — except under special circumstances. Those deemed by a "means test" to have at least $100 a month left over after paying certain debts and expenses will have to file a 5-year repayment plan under the more restrictive Chapter 13 instead.

People also will be required to get professional credit counseling before being allowed to file.

Proponents welcome what they say is a long-needed crackdown on those who rack up credit card debts recklessly only to shed them in Chapter 7. They maintain that abuse of the bankruptcy process results in higher interest rates for everyone else, a "tax" averaging $400 per family per year.

"We've got greater fairness now" under the new law, said Wayne Abernathy, executive director for financial institutions policy at the American Bankers Association, an industry group representing banks and credit card issuers. "Where people have the means to pay, they're going to have to pay something."

Opponents, however, contend it will unfairly box in people who become buried in debt after unexpectedly losing their jobs or suffering serious health problems. They say it rewards and encourages the tactics of card issuers and other lenders enticing consumers into easy debt.

Travis Plunkett, legislative director of the Consumer Federation of America, called the law "harmful and mean-spirited." While it will halt some abuse by high-fliers who shouldn't be filing for bankruptcy, he said, it also will trap people and businesses that got into financial trouble through little or no fault of their own and block people's realistic chances at starting over.

And some economists say that taking away the traditional "fresh start" option from those middle-income people will be harmful to the U.S. economy, which has benefited greatly from entrepreneurial and other risk-taking.

Businesses seeking to reorganize could feel the law's changes more acutely than many consumers.

Big businesses must complete their debt overhauls within 18 months or lose control of the process, with mom-and-pop ventures also put on a fast track. Severe restrictions on pay packages now routinely awarded to top employees in bankruptcy may make it difficult to keep senior management in place.

But it's the impending change in personal bankruptcy requirements that have struck the biggest nerve with the public.

The number of personal bankruptcies leaped to an all-time high in the second quarter, when the legislation was passed, and the surge has since accelerated. About 1.24 million filings had been made nationwide in 2005 through Sept. 17, reflecting a 9.2 percent increase over last year and closing in on the record of 1.62 million filings in 2003, said Lundquist Consulting.

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