Bankruptcy law on the internet

Misinformation about bankruptcy abounds on the internet. It’s easy to think that everything worth knowing is on the ‘net and that a little research about bankruptcy will tell you what you need to know to do it yourself. The document preparation services and the petition preparers want you to think that filing bankruptcy is “just filling out forms”.

Much of the information on bankruptcy on the internet is suspect, if not incomplete or false. Consider two examples: a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute broadcast a piece on National Public Radio and posted to the NPR site a story about business failures and bankruptcy that got nearly every bankruptcy statement wrong. Presumably, this woman is academically trained to find and analyze information. She could not have even read Bankruptcy for Dummies, given the mistakes she broadcast as fact.

Point two: no government or academic internet site has an up to date version of the Bankruptcy Code that includes the amendments adopted in April 2005! That means that a visit to the Cornell Law Library site, otherwise a treasure, or the House of Representatives site would serve up the Bankruptcy Code without the means test, the credit counseling requirement, or the shrunken super discharge in Chapter 13, all additions to the law in 2005.

It is tempting to think that we can find “the law” on the internet and apply it to our situations without the assistance of a lawyer. It seems particularly cruel to have to pay to go broke, but the 05 amendments made a complex area of law even more so, and added additional penalties for not getting it right the first time.

This site provides sound and current information on bankruptcy. Get an overview here, assemble your questions, and see an experienced bankruptcy lawyer for an assessment of your options. It’s all about what goes in those forms that determines whether you get debt relief in bankruptcy.

Popularity: 5% [?]