Measuring Success in Chapter 13: Five Years Later

By Brian D. Lynch, Bankruptcy Judge, Western District of Washington

Five years ago, I wrote an article for this publication, “Measuring Success in Chapter 13,”1 where I criticized some media and academics for repeating an outdated and misleading statistic about the success of chapter 13 cases. So it was disconcerting to see John Oliver recently on Comedy Central’s Last Week Tonight talking about consumer bankruptcy and parroting the same one-third chapter 13 success rate mantra, a not-so-subtle pitch for the proposed legislation, which would write chapter 13 . . .

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