a. Efforts to Delay the Effective Date

We wanted to update you on a previous post http://www.texaslawyerblog.com/index.php?title=title_10&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 regarding legislation introduced in Congress to delay the effective date of the revised bankruptcy code.

So far, the bill that seems to be making the most progress is H.R.3662, which would delay the effective date of the revised Bankruptcy Code for two years for everyone nationwide. Status and tracking available at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HR03662:@@@L&summ2=m&

The clock is ticking for Congress to pass a law before the October 17 effective date. We’ll keep watching.

b. UST Lists Approved Credit Counseling Agencies

In the event Congress doesn’t delay the effective date, consumers will need to know where to seek credit counseling before they file. The Office of the United States Trustee has posted a list of approved credit counseling agencies. http://www.usdoj.gov/ust/bapcpa/ccde/cc_approved.htm

Hmmm … for the Northern District of Texas, of the five approved agencies only two are located in the DFW Metroplex (one in Dallas, the other in McKinney). The other three approved agencies are located in Houston, California and Michigan and provide counseling over the phone and/or via the Internet. I checked other districts out of curiosity and (just as an example), with the exception of the McKinney location, these are the same counseling agencies approved for people living in North Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, the Western District of Oklahoma and the Northern District of Ohio. In fact, it looks like most districts utilize the counseling agencies in Houston, California and Michigan. Many districts do not have a local counseling agency listed. So it appears the congressionally-mandated counseling will not be convenient, and it’s questionable whether phone and Internet counseling will have the effect Congress was trying to achieve. Interesting.

Mac