Some major changes have happened to bankruptcy law in the last several years. The law was often called "bankruptcy reform." What was that all about?
The change in the bankruptcy law was labeled a "reform," but that is a slippery word. "Reform" intimates that something is being "improved" and that what existed before was "inferior." You see this "reform" mumbo jumbo anytime someone wants to change the balance of rights under an existing law. You see it in the phrase "tort reform" which actually means taking away individuals' consumer rights to be made whole while giving those rights to some other group, usually a group with the money to "convince" legislators that "reform" is needed. We saw this in medical malpractice "reform" that puts a cap on a patient's right to recover for damages from real, actual medical malpractice, but nothing in the new law placed any limits on the severity of the actual malpractice performed by the offending doctor. I am not talking about imaginary, manufactured malpractice. I am talking about real, proven-in-court, permanent damages to the unfortunate patient. There is a cap on what the patient can collect. This is not a slam on doctors but on the phrase "reform," which is tossed around and used to mislead people into rallying behind changes in the law that actually hurt them. This is the kind of "reform" the new bankruptcy changes brought. Good for the rich companies; not so good for the ordinary guy.