May14
* Consumer filings up 18 pct, business filings up 2 pct
* Nevada has most filings per capita, Arizona filings soar
By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK, May 14 (Reuters) - U.S. bankruptcy filings resumed their upward climb in the first quarter, nearly equaling their highest level since 2005, as high unemployment and a still-strained housing market squeezed consumers.
There were 388,148 filings between January and September, up 17 percent from 330,394 a year earlier, according to data released Friday by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Consumer filings rose 18 percent to 373,541, while business filings edged up 2 percent to 14,607.
Filings also rose 4 percent from last year’s fourth quarter, the government data show. That had been the first period with a quarter-to-quarter drop in filings since 2006.
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May11
By Mark Lieberman, Senior Economist
Source: FOXBusiness
During the debate over changes in personal bankruptcy laws, bankers were tripping over themselves to get Congress to agree to changes to make filing personal bankruptcy more difficult. The changes, they argued, would make borrowers more responsible – and by the way reduce bank losses as debts could no longer as easily be discharged in bankruptcy.
Now, in a classic case of be-careful-what-you-wish, a team of three economists argue “the U.S. bankruptcy reform of 2005 played an important role in the mortgage crisis and the current recession” – by increasing mortgage delinquencies and defaults by almost 200,000 a year.
“The 2005 bankruptcy reform caused mortgage default rates to rise,” the economists — Wenli Li of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Michelle J. White of the University of California at San Diego and Ning Zhu of the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Davis– concluded. “Bankruptcy reform squeezed homeowners’ budgets by raising the cost of filing for bankruptcy and reducing the amount of debt discharged in bankruptcy. It therefore increased mortgage default by closing off a popular procedure that previously helped financially distressed homeowners save their homes.”
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By Brian Allen
Tags: Bankruptcy, Chapter 13, Chapter 7, credit card, delinquency, discharge, economy, foreclosure, loan modification, mortgage, Obama, plan, prime, reform, repayment
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Filed under Housing Crises
May08
By Anna Gustafson
Three Queens homeowners filed a lawsuit against JP Morgan Chase Bank Tuesday for allegedly illegally delaying and denying their applications for foreclosure relief.
The Jamaica, Queens Village and Fresh Meadows residents and attorneys from the Urban Justice Center filed the suit in federal court in Brooklyn that alleges the bank refused to provide them the help guaranteed to them under the federal Home Affordable Modification Program.
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May08
Palm Beach Gardens firm accused of filing lawsuits just to collect legal fees.
Since starting their own collection agency, LaBovick & LaBovick has filed more than 1,200 suits in Broward court — almost all of which seek less than $50 in damages
By Jane Musgrave, The Palm Beach Post
A Palm Beach Gardens law firm stepped into the limelight at SunFest when it sponsored one of three stages at the event, pairing its name with the likes of Smash Mouth, Sean Kingston and Flogging Molly.
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