Years from now October 17 will be an anniversary. Today is the day the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) of 2005 finally takes effect. Today follows years of fighting on Capital Hill between consumer advocates and the credit industry. Today follows weeks and months of what time will reveal was a mad rush to the bankruptcy courts to file bankruptcy petitions by both consumers and businesses. It will be an anniversary of the day everything changed.
First and foremost, know that I will not refer to the new law as BAPCPA when publicly expressing my disdain for the law. Certainly, if I am discussing legal cases and decisions on the this blog, I will appropriately and respectfully refer to the law by its given acronym: BAPCPA.
However, as many of my colleagues can attest, BAPCPA is little more than a Bankruptcy Abuse Reform Fiasco. Thus, I shall use the term BARF when appropriate (and in fairness, I admit that I was not clever enough to think of this acronym myself).
While the statistics are not out yet, I can say from my own experiences and from those shared by my colleagues all over the country that in the last several weeks thousands of people dashed to the bankruptcy courts trying to get protection under – what can now be referred to as the “old law.” Why? Well, it’s simple: the war in Iraq, Katrina and the credit card industry, but not necessarily in that order. Or, as Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign astutely noted: “it’s the economy, stupid.”
