Good Days and Bad Days

Today was the latter. Since I'm still a new attorney, I haven't really developed the thick skin that armors most others in the rough and tumble world of consumer bankruptcy. Behind every file name is a story, a series of poor choices, easy credit, and lots and lots of regret. We do what we can, and most of the time, for most of the people, we help them.

Today thought, came the exception. The client was an older female, and unfortunately had a whole life insurance policy and a car with a little equity in it - less than $10,000 in total. Some trustees wouldn't bother, but of course we get one who is exceedingly thorough (that is, a more polite way to say something I won't state in public about a bankruptcy trustee).

We had done what we could, but there was little we could really do to help her. So, now she's going to likely lose her car and her life insurance. Perhaps she can get a loan from a family member, or figure something else out, to buyout the trustee interest, but that isn't likely.

That's the thing that pisses me off about bankruptcy. If you have horrible judgment, rack up a f*ck ton of credit debt, your chapter 7 will sail cleanly through. If you have a ton of money and income, and you just made a couple of bad calls and got behind on your mortgage, chapter 13 will help you.

If you're in the middle, and you made some decent financial decisions right alongside the horrible ones, and you have a middling amount of equity, and a car that is worth something but not a lot, you get the short end of the stick. It creates a perverse incentive for asset management.

I feel bad for the client - she was in tears by the end of it. There's only so much we can do, and sometimes it isn't enough.