Re: Bankruptcy Filings Rise

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I admire your optimism, but I just don't see it that way. The
problem I see with your analysis is that you assume debtors are
actually going to defend against collection suits. In reality,
they don't, not in large enough numbers to make it a viable
practice add on. As far as independent paralegals, they never
really took hold in my area, and as far as easy, cheap work,
attorneys were more than happy to do it. Client comes to me and
offers $400-500 for about 2 hours (at most) of my time for a
simple 7, and I take it happily over and over again. Well, I
used to, under the old law. I share the sentiment voiced by
others on this board that bankruptcy's glory days are behind
us. It was the easiest money I ever made, now, back to those
pesky divorce clients!
On 3/28/06, rrr wrote:
> On 3/28/06, Jiff wrote:
>>
>> Read these thoroughly. Bankruptcy filings are "rising", but
>> from virtually nothing. The current and projected caseload
>> for the next twelve months will not support the current
>> number of bankruptcy attorneys. 2/3 of the bankruptcy
>> attorneys will go out of business in the next year, in my
>> view.
>
> I think its going to push the Independent Paralegals out of
> Bankruptcy business since they were the ones doing most of the
> fast & easy petitions (at least they were the ones here in
> California). I've already seen it in the local advertising.
> Not a Paralegal advertising for BK at all. The Attorney
> who "occassionally" did a bankrutpcy will no longer do them,
> and the mills will have to change their methods, but the core
> Debtor-Consumer Attorneys are going to come out ahead. And we
> haven't even started to see the fallout from the slow down in
> real estate and consequences from aggressive mortgage lending
> practices. When the foreclosures start to hit in a stagnant
> market, it will be time to feed again. Not to mention there
> will be more Collections Defense Litigation from those who
> can't Chapter 7 because of the Means Test and lack the
> financial stability to Chapter 13, and have no foreclosure to
> prevent. This new law may actually be great news for Debtor-
> side Practitioners after we shake off the immediate mental
> shock and adapt to the change. Time to be patient and time to
> be visionary, the greedy shylocks might have just made us all
> rich.