Russ Feingold: “another amendment I have pending is really concerned with making the bankruptcy system work better for both creditors…”

“another amendment I have pending is really concerned with making the bankruptcy system work better for both creditors and debtors. It is amendment No. 90, dealing with notice. The bill contains three separate notice requirements which seem to create significantly differing procedures for notice. The first provision requires debtors to send notice to the creditor at whatever preferred address the creditor has specified in correspondence with the debtor shortly before bankruptcy. The second provision says that debtors and the court must send notice to the creditor at an address the creditor files in each individual case. And the third provision says the court must send notice to an address the creditor files for all cases, with an exception if a different address is filed for an individual case. The first requirement, that debtors send notice that bankruptcy has been filed to creditors at the creditors' preferred address, is actually unworkable and unfair and serves no apparent purpose. Debtors often do not receive correspondence within the last 90 days prior to filing for bankruptcy, and even when they do, they may not know that the correspondence is significant. Essentially, debtors might end up having their cars repossessed despite the fact that they filed for bankruptcy and repossession should be prevented by the automatic stay because they threw away what appeared to be junk mail from the creditor.”