Elizabeth Warren

Illness and injury as contributors to bankruptcy.

In 2001, 1.458 million American families filed for bankruptcy. To investigate medical contributors to bankruptcy, we surveyed 1,771 personal bankruptcy filers in five federal courts and subsequently completed in-depth interviews with 931 of them. About half cited medical causes, which indicates that 1.9-2.2 million Americans (filers plus dependents) experienced medical bankruptcy. Among those whose illnesses led to bankruptcy, out-of-pocket costs averaged dollar 11,854 since the start of illness; 75.7 percent had insurance at the onset of illness. Medical debtors were 42 percent more likely than other debtors to experience lapses in coverage. Even middle-class insured families often fall prey to financial catastrophe when sick.

Financial Collapse and Class Status: Who Goes Bankrupt?

Every policy prescription, economic analysis, or news report about consumer bankruptcy rests on one or another unspoken image of the estimated 1.6 million families that will file in a single year. Data from the 2001 Consumer Bankruptcy Project permit a systematic analysis of the composition of those who file for personal bankruptcy, focusing on their educations, occupations and home ownership status. These attributes serve as a proxy for class identification. Based on these indicia, more than 90 percent of the families in bankruptcy qualify as middle class. These data are a powerful reminder that whatever else might be said about those in bankruptcy, these people are not some sub-group of Americans safely distanced from the middle class, but instead are co-workers, neighbors and families woven throughout the fabric of American society.

The Untenable Case for Repeal of Chapter 11

If. WHAT THE DATA SHOW ...................................... 440 A. Applicability of the Data .................................. 440 B. Analysis of the Filing Data ................................ 443 1. The Rise in Bankruptcy Filings .......................... 444 2. Testing the Effects of Management Replacement Laws .......... 446 C. The Management Incentives Hypothesis ........................ 448 1. Managerial Control After the Code ....................... 449 2. Managerial Control Before the Code ...................... 452 D. Data Biases ........................................... 455 E. Multiple Causation ...................................... 460

Economic Versus Sociological Approaches to Legal Research: The Case of Bankruptcy@@@As We Forgive Our Debtors: Bankruptcy and Consumer Credit in America

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The Use of Empirical Data in Formulating Bankruptcy Policy

250,000 study may be the most extensive empirical study of consumer bankruptcy ever undertaken, taking some six years to conduct. The authors describe the law and the statistics in clear, nontechnical language, combining a thorough statistical description of the social and economic position of consumer bankrupts with human portraits of the debtors and creditors whose journey has ended in bankruptcy court. The book devotes several chapters to hidden sub-groups in bankruptcy. One focuses on women, analyzing the desperate financial circumstances of single women and the increasing pressure on one-income families. Another reveals that more than half of the bankrupts are homeowners and discusses the anomalies in the way they are treated by current law. Other chapters examine the surprising role of medical debts in financial collapse and give a new account of the financial pressures on small businesses. The book also provides a detailed analysis of the position of various types of creditors of bankrupt persons.

Une prospérité précaire [Sur les situations financières critiques dans la classe moyenne]

Copyright ? 1987 by Law and Contemporary Problems The authors acknowledge the assistance of Grant No. R-0015 (Urban Studies Program) and No. R-0009 (National Policy Program) from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, Policy Research Institute of the University of Texas. Completion of this article was facilitated by support from National Science Foundation Grant No. SES-8310173. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

The Consumer Casualties of Capitalism@@@As We Forgive Our Debtors: Bankruptcy and Consumer Credit in America.

Les annees 1990 ont ete une periode de grande prosperite aux Etats-Unis et cependant les faillites ont, paradoxalement, augmente de facon importante durant cette periode.Cette etude analyse les donnees fournies par des questionnaires aupres de menages endettes, afin de comprendre les raisons de leur faillite. Les problemes d’emploi ont ete la cause principale de leur endettement, mais le divorce, la sante, les problemes de logement et de cartes de credit ont egalement ete des causes importantes. Les endettes appartiennent a la classe moyenne et ont un niveau d’etudes superieures legerement plus important que la moyenne de la population. La recherche suggere qu’un grand nombre d’Americains pourraient etre en situation financiere precaire en raison de niveaux d’endettement eleves. En l’absence d’un fort systeme de protection sociale, l’endettement fonctionne aux Etats-Unis comme un filet de securite. De breves comparaisons sur l’endettement sont faites avec l’Europe et le Canada.

Medical Bankruptcy in the United States, 2007: Results of a National Study

In 1986 over 400,000 Americans filed for bankruptcy. Their contribution to the USAs growing debt crisis is indicative of the changing economic climate in the country. This study aims to uncover the legal, economic and social reasons for bankruptcy in America. Besides stories of single mothers, unlucky entrepreneurs, foolish investors and the suddenly unemployed, are the stories of those who deliberately attempt to manipulate the system through legal loopholes. The authors examine these stories from a moral, as well as financial, viewpoint and suggest legal reforms that could point to a way out of the economic jungle.