American Bankruptcy Institute
REPORT
FROM THE
CONSUMER BANKRUPTCY REFORM FORUM
January 17-18, 1997, Alexandria,
Va.
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To comment on this report, send an e-mail to the ABI at info@abiworld.org.
Foreword
The ABI Consumer Bankruptcy Reform Forum brought together 51
bankruptcy professionals from a variety of perspectives for a 1 1/2 day
discussion. Represented were debtor attorneys, creditor attorneys,
trustees ( Chapter 7 and 13), judges, secured and unsecured lenders, and
government (federal and state) representatives. See list of participants.
The proceedings were held off-the-record, to ensure FORUM an open and
candid discussion. The participants were divided into concurrent
workshop groups, led by three distinguished law professors (Richard
Flint, Veryl Miles and Jeffrey Morris) who served as moderators. See
agenda. Each of the moderators submitted a
written summary of their group sessions. These papers were then
circulated to a number of participants for comment and editing,
resulting in this report.
Crafting any summary, weeks after an event and without the benefit of
a transcript, is a challenge. However, we believe this report accurately
reflects a narrative of the group impressions on a variety of issues. We
preserved the basic framework of the summaries submitted by the
moderators. Special care has been taken to limit the representation that
a "consensus" was reached on many important issues. One of the few areas
where such a consensus was reached was the opposition to a so-called
unified, single-chapter, basic bankruptcy concept, as circulated by the
Consumer Bankruptcy Working Group. However, this concept was not the
focus of any workshop session.
Throughout this document, care is taken to label clearly when views
were expressed by only some participants. We also sought to refrain from
the characterization of a "majority" view when there was a numerical
disparity in the number of debtor vs. creditor representatives in any
given workshop.
It is hoped that this report will best be used as a guide to areas
where the Commission may find future support (or narrowing of
differences) among debtor and creditor interests, upon a continuation of
this dialogue.
Samuel J. Gerdano, Executive Director
American Bankruptcy Institute
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