The President signed into law the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) on April 20, 2005. The effective date for most of the provisions of the new law was October 17, 2005. The over 500 pages of legislation made substantial changes to the Bankruptcy Code. Included among the many changes were requirements that:

• Debtors complete and pass a “means test” to be eligible to file for relief under Chapter 7
• Individual Debtors may not file under Chapter 7 unless they have received a credit counseling briefing by a nonprofit agency approved by the bankruptcy administrator or U. S. Trustee for the district
• Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 debtors may not receive a discharge of their debts unless they have completed a financial management course approved by the bankruptcy administrator or U. S. Trustee for the district

If you would like to learn more about the BAPCPA, you can go to the U. S. Trustee Program section of the U.S. Department of Justice website at www.usdoj.gov/ust

You can also learn more about bankruptcy in general and bankruptcy terms in the Bankruptcy Courts section of the website of the U. S. Courts at www.uscourts.gov/bankruptcycourts

To learn more about CCNW’s Pre-Filing Bankruptcy Counseling, please click here.

If you need to learn more about CCNW’s Pre-Discharge Debtor Education, please click here.