KYTV in Springfield ran a story today about bankruptcy filings being down. Go here and take a look.

Under the heading “Financially strapped families may not be getting the help they need,” KY3 delivered a message that bankruptcy is a help. Excuse me, how does bankruptcy help? Watching the story, it appears that some attorneys who aren’t getting their money felt the need to help generate this story due to bankruptcy filings being down.

The story goes on to talk about the new law that went into effect last October. How horrible that someone who makes over $47,000 per year would have to pay back “some” of the money they owe, that they couldn’t just stick it to everyone. Not mentioned in the story, but the only other significant change in the bankruptcy law was the requirement of before and after financial counseling.

I’m not a genius, but it doesn’t take one to figure out why filings are down. Last year was a record year because everyone heard of the coming changes in the law, and did not understand these changes; they just knew it would be harder to file. So everyone who thought they might some day file bankruptcy went and filed before the law change last October. That means this year, the ones that would have been filing have already filed last year. In about another two years, it will all cycle out and go back to normal.

As for bankruptcy being a help as alluded to in the story; that is just plain garbage. Bankruptcy is profitable for the attorney and it allows you to not have to deal with the mess you created. It does not help you, and in most cases it certainly is not morally right. If I can get out of my mess without bankruptcy, I can’t think of many people that need it.