Reports of Soaring Bankruptcy Filing Numbers Hit the Front Page
By Jonathan Ginsberg, Atlanta Bankruptcy Attorney on Feb 2, 2008 in Georgia
This past week both the Atlanta Business Chronicle and the Atlanta Journal Constitution published feature stories about the soaring rates of bankruptcy filings in the Atlanta metro area. Statistically, the northern district of Georgia ranks second only to Detroit as the nation’s busiest filing district, and it ranks in the top 5 in the per capita filing rate (approximately 6 people out of every 1000 in the Atlanta area has filed bankruptcy).
The Atlanta Business Chronicle is a weekly publication geared towards the business community, while the Atlanta Journal Constitution is Atlanta’s main daily newspaper.
Both articles featured quotes from Judge Joyce Bihary, the chief bankruptcy judge in the Northern District of Georgia.  In the Atlanta Business Chronicle bankruptcy article, Judge Bihary attributes the high filing numbers to overly relaxed mortgage underwriting and poor decisions by homeowners who took advantage of easy real estate money.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution article was a bit more expansive, serving as the page one story over two days. The AJC quoted my colleague, Atlanta bankruptcy attorney Rich Thomson, who noted that Georgia’s non-judicial foreclosure rules provide for a foreclosure in as little as 37 days, thereby giving debtors behind on their mortgage very little time to recover from a temporary crisis.
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