In the bankruptcy world after the 2005 amendments became effective, some large portion of the public thinks that bankruptcy has been abolished. Debt collectors are apparently feeding that misconception, telling debtors that “medical bills can’t be discharged” or that they can’t file bankruptcy at all.

Meanwhile, I was part of a group bankruptcy lawyers who met with the trustee and the judges to discuss practice under the amended Code: the hypothetical case we worked through had a two income, two child family, with two mortgages, a financed car and a leased car, and a bit of priority tax debt and mortgage arrears and $150,000 a year in income. By the time we had applied the means test, designed to “get” these high earners, they had less than $20 for a monthly Chapter 13 payment! Hardly what the drafters envisioned, but it seems clear the drafters never took their new legislation for a test drive in the real world.

Bankruptcy relief, bruised and battered , does still live.