Debtor Discharge and Creditor Repayment in Chapter 13
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Authors
Norberg, Scott F.
Velkey, Andrew J.
Issue Date
2006
Volume
39
Issue
Type
Journal Article
Language
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
INTRODUCTION|There were nearly 1.6 million consumer bankruptcy filings in the United States in 2004. That is more than twice the number just ten years earlier and more than one filing for every seventy households in the country. Almost 29% of these filings - over 467,000 - were under Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code. With the dramatic increases in consumer filings, even in prosperous economic times, there has been much debate about the causes of the "bankruptcy epidemic." The debate culminated last year in the enactment of extensive reform of United States consumer bankruptcy laws. The core of the legal reforms is a "means test" that is designed to limit consumer debtor access to Chapter 7, requiring some debtors to file for relief under Chapter 13 or not at all. Yet, little is known about what debtors and creditors accomplish in Chapter 13 cases or how well the Chapter 13 system serves its intended purposes. The government collects minimal information about consumer bankruptcy filings, and academic research has been limited.|The first national study of its kind, the Chapter 13 Project provides a detailed portrait of the Chapter 13 system and the extent to which Chapter 13 has fulfilled its principal purposes-debtor fresh start, on the one hand, and creditor repayment, on the other. In addition, the study explores an array of debtor characteristics, Chapter 13 plan features, and district and trustee practices for their relationship to debtor discharge and debt repayment in Chapter 13. Like several other studies before it, the Project also describes the debtors who have used Chapter 13...
Description
Citation
39 Creighton L. Rev. 473 (2005-2006)
Publisher
Creighton University School of Law