Fort Walton Beach Bankruptcy Law Firm Shares Thoughts on New Personal Bankruptcy Statistics

Fort Walton Beach, Fla. – Lyle Daly, author of The Ascent, wrote “Personal Bankruptcy Statistics for 2019”, an article showing the trends in personal bankruptcy filing for the past few decades.

Martin Lewis and Steve Jurnovoy, bankruptcy attorneys in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, are reflecting on this article and the trends it has found in bankruptcy filings. Lewis and Jurnovoy partnered in 1998 to form Lewis and Jurnovoy, a bankruptcy law firm that has served the Panhandle community for over 20 years.

One of the most prominent aspects of the article showed a steady decline in bankruptcy filings since 2010. The highest year for bankruptcy filings to date was in 2005. There were over two million filings that year. Daly asserts that the Bankruptcy Abuse and Prevention Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) was the cause of the overwhelming filings and the decrease in filings since.

The BAPCPA prevented Americans from filing for bankruptcy if their income was not below their state’s median income. Daly states, “A massive number of consumers filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2005 to get it done while the laws were more lenient. Since so many people filed in 2005, it led to a natural drop-off the following year.”

Lewis and Jurnovoy experienced a decline in their own office. However, they are thankful for the BAPCPA and its aim to protect individuals who earnestly need bankruptcy as an option.

The Chapter 7 bankruptcy attorneys in Fort Walton Beach explain, “An individual should consider {bankruptcy} in terms of the hardship it may avoid for his or her family. It may be that it is the only way to provide them food, clothing, and shelter in hard times. One must often decide that his or her obligation to provide for children or loved ones outweighs the obligation to pay his or her creditors.”

For more information about personal bankruptcy, contact Lewis and Jurnovoy today. Call their Fort Walton Beach office at (850) 863-9110 or visit their site at www.lewisandjurnovoy.com/.