Consumer Bankruptcy Reform: Debtors' Prison without Bars or "Just Desserts" For Deadbeats?

This article provides an overview of current bankruptcy law and filing trends in the United States. It then provides an overview of the major changes to consumer bankruptcy and further analyzes several of the more controversial areas of the new law, placing them in historical context and exploring the possible ramifications of these dramatically sweeping changes. Such changes are illustrated by the journey of hypothetical debtors, Ura and Ima Broke, through the new bankruptcy maze. This illustration shows the complexity and inconsistency of the amended Bankruptcy Code. Examining the reform from the vantage point of hypothetical debtors shows how the reform can be viewed from two very different perspectives: as a return to debtors' prisons and early bankruptcy laws that treated debtors as "offenders" or as just desserts for deadbeat debtors.