Pre-Filing Credit Counseling and Post-Filing Financial Education

By Professor Michaela White, Academy Editor and Advisor/Professor of Law Creighton University School of Law

The pre and post filing financial counseling and financial education requirements have not garnered much attention from empirical researchers since the Government Accounting Office (GAO) and the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys conducted their studies in the immediate aftermath of the enactment of the 2005 Amendments. These studies found that the pre-filing credit counseling was not serving the purpose Congress intended: diverting financially distressed consumers away from bankruptcy when other feasible non bankruptcy remedies and programs were sufficient to address . . .

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