Don’t Always Believe What You Hear About Bankruptcy from Law Experts on the Radio

This afternoon, I was running errands and I turned on the radio and caught a few minutes of the well known radio show “Handel on the Law.”  The host, Bill Handel, brings a high energy and fast pace to his show, and he covers a wide variety of legal topics.

In today’s show, a listener called in with a question that elicited factually incorrect advice about bankruptcy.  The caller stated that her son had been seriously injured in a car wreck involving a drunk driver.  The drunk driver was at fault and, in fact was a repeat offender.  The caller stated that the drunk driver’s insurance carrier had offered $25,000, which was the policy limit, and her question was an injury as to whether her son had other options for recovery.  The caller asked if it would make sense to sue the driver individually for damages in excess of his insurance coverage.

Mr.  Handel discussed the insurance issues and then he concluded that it made no sense to sue the driver for hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars because the driver would run and file for bankruptcy and discharge the debt.  He then considered for a minute whether there might be a possible challenge to the bankruptcy if the accident was considered an intentional tort, but he concluded that such a determination was not likely and that the caller’s son was basically out of luck.

Unfortunately, Mr. Handel failed to note that the Bankruptcy Code specifically provides for non-dischargeability of a debt arising from drunk driving at Section 523(a)(9).  This Code section excepts from discharge a debt arising from “death or personal injury caused by the debtor’s operation of a motor vehicle, vessel, or aircraft if such operation was unlawful because the debtor was intoxicated from using alcohol, a drug, or another substance.”  Given the facts as stated, I think that it is very unlikely that any bankruptcy judge would allow any civil claim against the drunk driver to survive bankruptcy.

Now, Mr. Handel may be correct that the plaintiff in such a personal injury action may not ever collect, especially if the drunk driver ends up in jail or is unable to hold a job.  However, a determined plaintiff may very well want to use the leverage of a civil judgment to pursue wage garnishment or liens against property to collect his judgment.  What if the defendant won the lottery or inherited property?

The point here is not to castigate Mr. Handel, who, by in large does a service to the public with his radio s how.  However, it does demonstrate the problem of relying on a radio program or a book or anything other than personal legal advice for your personal legal issues.