Central District Consumer Bankruptcy Attorney's Association

Senate Prepares to Vote on Bankruptcy Attorney Liability Legislation.
As early as March 8, the Senate will consider amendments by Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and by Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) that would remove three harmful attorney liability provisions from the pending bankruptcy legislation, S. 256.
Please call your two Senators or fax them a short letter today to urge them to cosponsor and/or vote for the Bingaman Amendment and the Feingold Amendment regarding bankruptcy attorney liability. Phone numbers and fax numbers for your Senators are located on the ABA website at: http://capwiz.com/bar/dbq/officials/.
By holding the debtors' attorneys personally liable for the accuracy of their clients' schedules, these provisions would force the attorney to hire private investigators and appraisers to verify this information, adding thousands of dollars to the cost of representing a debtor in bankruptcy. Any attorney who fails to take these costly steps--including pro bono attorneys--would be subject to harsh sanctions and civil penalties. Unless these and other related provisions are removed, bankruptcy representation will become unaffordable for most debtors and essential pro bono bankruptcy services will be greatly diminished, resulting in thousands of pro se debtors clogging up the court system.
For more information, please see: the ABA Action Alert and Fact Sheet; sample constituent letter to Senators; the ABA's March 1, 2005 letter to all Senators expressing strong opposition to the attorney liability provisions in S. 256. The actual Bingaman and Feingold amendments will be posted when they become available.

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