I have been witnessing some rather strange decisions being made with bankruptcy clients.
Most of my bankruptcy clients come from pre-paid legal plans, so all they have to do to file an emergency case is pay the costs of a bankruptcy case, i.e., $299 filing fee (mandatory but can be paid in three monthly tranches of $100, $100 and $99), $40 for credit counseling (mandatory), $35 for credit report so I make sure all the creditors get notice, and thus, all it takes to file a case is $175 in cash (cash means we can advance the funds without waiting for them to clear) or money order or cashier's check.
If their wages are being garnished, in Virginia there is a garnishment "return day", which is the day that the court pays the money to the creditor.
If I file bankruptcy before the garnishment return day, they get all the money back.
So far in the past month or so, I've seen one client let $3700 go, another let $1700 go, and I've got another allowing herself to be evicted, rather than scrape up $175 in cash and come see me with all the data I need to file.
I told the eviction lady that I'd work nights and weekends to save her from eviction but she never called back, and my services are "free" to her in the sense that they're prepaid (part of her union dues -- she's been in the union eighteen years so I am very frustrated).
Which suggests to me that I am dealing with a class of people who just can't get it together to protect themselves from catastrophe.
I am also seen people willing to pay bills they don't owe, rather than deal with the idle threat of having their credit ruined. Debt collectors have become very aggressive and dishonest lately, I mean more than usual.
I had to respond aggressively against my own bank on behalf of a client who was the recipient of very aggressive practices -- or it might just be a company that bought the debt and misrepresented themselves, as they vanished as soon as I got involved in the case.
Much weirdness.
Could be in large part due to "offshoring" collection of debts to other countries but not training the collectors on US debt collection laws, I dunno. |
