JUDGES LASH OUT AT BANKUPTCY REFORM

June 12, 2006

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What happens when the credit card industry writes congressional legislation? According to the judges who have to enforce it, anarchy

By BRIAN J. ROGAL

In December, Alfonso Sosa, a house painter in Fredericksburg, Texas, fell behind on the payments for the mobile home he shared with his wife Melba. The mortgage holder moved to foreclose, and Sosa filed an emergency petition in federal court for bankruptcy protection. But the Sosa family quickly ran afoul of the country’s new bankruptcy law, which had gone into effect only six weeks before. One of the many new provisions requires all debtors to take a simple, one-hour credit counseling class before they file, but the Sosas had not known about the requirement.

Although Sosa had taken the class by the time they got back to court, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Frank R. Monroe quickly dismissed their case, leaving the Sosa trailer open to foreclosure.

Monroe was furious, not with the Sosas, but with Congress for tying his hands. “Can any rational human being make a cogent argument that this makes any sense at all?” he wrote in his opinion. He even accused Congress of colluding with the nation’s credit industry “to make more money off the backs of consumers in this country.”

FULL STORY - http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2662/