It's estimated that somewhere between 200,000 and 1 million American won't be able to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection because they can't afford to pay $1,500 to do so, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.
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Hundreds of thousands of Americans won't have enough money to go bankrupt, according to CNNMoney.
It is estimated that somewhere between 200,000 and 1 million Americans won't be able to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection because they can't afford to pay $1,500 to do so, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.
"For lots of people, bankruptcy has been taken off the table as an option because of the severe fees involved," Jialan Wang, a co-author of the report, told CNNMoney.
Some of those fees include about $300 just for filing paperwork with the federal court, according to the article. The cost of filing for bankruptcy has gone up since 2005 due to the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act. The goal of the act was to decrease the number of bankruptcies by making it more difficult to file.
Since the law went into effect in 2004, the bankruptcy rate has dropped from 1.4 percent to 1.3 percent. But the average income of bankruptcy filers has gone up, according to the NBER study.
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I look at this from a totally different angle then most. First of all, if someone is so broke that they can't pay for bankruptcy then they are pretty much judgement proof - right? What's the difference between filing legally saying you More..
Very enlightening article. To make it impossible for those who are already in dire straits to not even be able to file for bankruptsy is a travesty. Something needs to be done to reverse the ridiculous fees required file for bankruptcy. Otherwise, More..
I am sure there a those who abuse the system no matter what the cost is, but to increase the cost of filing for bankruptcy is counter-productive in my mind. Even after the cost of filing was raised, just look how many people still had to file for More..