Confessions of a Consumer Bankruptcy Attorney

I practice in a struggling, small New England city.  Some say it’s already dead.  Springfield lost 5% of its population in the past seven years.  In the previous decade, Springfield led the country in losing the highest percentage of its young adults (ages 18-34), at 28%.  Second place was a distant 18%.  The people leaving town took with them their education and ambitions, in my opinion, leaving behind a population somewhat less educated and/or less ambitious, with less ability to make ends meet during difficult financial times.

I started practicing law, something short of a thousand years ago, doing a lot of domestic disputes.  It’s a painful, unforgiving area where few clients are or can be satisfied.  Over time I changed over to bankruptcy law.  I was now the hero.  I could promise results, and at a fixed fee.  My clients got out of debt and moved on with their lives.  It was a happy practice.

The mortgage crisis has changed a lot of this.  I am consulting with more and more clients whose homes are in jeopardy.  Clients with families in the home.  Clients with children, clients with older parents and relatives.  Their resources are gone.  They’ve been laid off, or downsized, or injured.  The adjustable mortgage payments increased a shocking amount.  Food prices are up.  Gasoline is no longer affordable.  Heating fuel oil for next winter is a vague dream.  They can no longer borrow to make ends meet.

It becomes my job to suggest that the home cannot be saved.  It’s a necessary job.  It can be a positive job, by recommending rental housing at more affordable rents, with no maintenance (show shovelling!) or furnace repair costs, and an opportunity to save up a real down payment for another home in two years with real equity from the beginning.  (See Bankruptcy, Mortgages, and Miracles and Is Chapter 13 the Answer, or Are You Kidding Yourself? among other posts at this site.)

It’s not as much a happy practice as it used to be.