[WSBARP] Did I miss something? Bridge Program?!?!?!?

[Kary Krismer]

On 6/30/2021 9:09 AM, Paul Neumiller wrote:
>
> This reminds of when the feds greatly revised the bankruptcy laws to 
> make it harder to declare bankruptcy.  The bankruptcy rules got so 
> complicated, byzantine, and frustrating that many bankruptcy 
> practitioners left the field.  I’m getting phone calls from potential 
> clients with units in other counties because they can’t find an 
> attorney in their own county who wants to address this morass.
>
>
Having been one of the bankruptcy attorneys that left the field, I don't 
think that description of what happened is quite accurate.

For me it was primarily two concerns.  First, that automobile loans 
would have to be reaffirmed or the car returned, with reaffirmation 
requiring the attorney to attest that reaffirmation was not an undue 
hardship.  Having only reaffirmed one auto loan in my entire career 
where the vehicle was modified for handicap use, I did not want that 
repeated ethical dilemma.  That was particularly true given the fact 
that many auto loans are negotiated at auto dealers and hardly on the 
best terms.  Congress completely sold out on that one.  Unfortunately 
our state legislature had sold out several years earlier and did away 
with statutory provisions preventing collection of a deficiency on such 
loans.  Banks are apparently very good at dishing out money to politicians.

Second was provisions allowing creditors to come after debtors' 
attorneys personally, akin to CR 11, but on much looser standards.  
Fortunately the courts pretty much shut that one down, but I did not 
know that in advance.

As to others leaving, that was likely also due to a severe drop off in 
case filings due to the press completely misrepresenting the effect of 
the changes.  Everyone and their brothers who even thought the word 
bankruptcy filed before the new Act went into effect, whether they 
needed to or not.  There was a long dry spell in filings.

Kary L. Krismer
206 723-2148

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