The LAW & LAWYERS Blog

I’m not sure I’ve ever linked to a site that billed itself as a “tabloid” before, but some things have to be seen to be believed, and Above the Law was good enough to post a copy of the court transcript in which an attorney from a 70-year-old law firm with more than 1000 attorneys in multiple countries apparently told the judge “with respect”, that she was a few fries short of a happy meal.

She responded with a show-cause order requiring the attorney to appear and show cause why he shouldn’t be suspended from practice before her court.  That hearing is scheduled for June 25; we’ll keep you posted.

If you’re a consumer bankruptcy lawyer or a consumer who has filed for bankruptcy protection in the past year and a half…or a counselor for a credit counseling agency…it will probably come as no surprise to you that a recent GAO study raised some questions about the usefulness of the pre-bankruptcy filing credit counseling requirement.

It isn’t that credit counseling can’t be useful, but that the requirement that someone planning to file for bankruptcy protection complete a credit counseling briefing doesn’t kick in until that person sets out to file bankruptcy.  By that time, circumstances are usually dire, and credit counseling agencies have indicated that most people who come to them at that point have no realistic options outside the bankruptcy process.

Don’t look for any changes in the near future, though; the report only recommended tracking outcomes for those completing credit counseling in anticipation of bankruptcy.  The study found that the post-filing, pre-discharge debtor education course was helpful.

Four and a half months after the end of 2006, the Administrative Office of the Courts has released bankruptcy filing statistics for the fourth quarter of 2006 and, thus, for the first full calendar year since the dramatic changes to the bankruptcy code in 2005.

To no one’s surprise, filings have decreased.  However, what may be more telling is the rate at which filings have INCREASED since almost immediately after the law change took effect.   First quarter filings in 2006–the first full quarter after the law change took effect–reached only 116,771.  However, one year later, first quarter filings reached 186,788.