Bankruptcy attorney Jeff Kertman has spent two decades specializing in the practice.
Among some of his observations before the CUNA Lending Council's recent annual meeting about the new Bankrptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 were:
* "It is a classic piece of special interest legislation bought and paid for by the consumer credit industry."
* "I was intrigued initially by the term 'consumer protection' in the title. Make no mistake because the title does not refer to bankruptcy filers, but rather to those non-debtor consumers who are burdened by the bankruptcies of others."
* "There is clearly a set of moral judgments at the core of the BAPCA that bankruptcy isn't just bad for business, it's just plain bad."
* There are no statistics on the true cost of bankruptcies to consumers. There was a sound bite that it costs $400 per family per year, but where is the statistical source for that."
* "I used to counsel filers that whatever misgivings they might have had going in, they would come away with the feeling this was too good to be true. And Congress has now made that true."
