The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) of 2005 dramatically changed several aspects of individual consumer bankruptcy law. In many instances these changes are vague, confusing, and incomplete. In this article, United States Bankruptcy Judge Eugene Wedoff outlines what he considers to be the most signifi-cant changes to U.S. consumer bankruptcy laws brought on by BAPCPA. Judge Wedoff examines the changes and additions to the code for possi-ble internal inconsistencies and illuminates points of tension among the provisions. Some of the changes affect chapters 7, 11, and 13 equally. Other changes impact only discrete types of consumer bankruptcy.While avoiding any normative analysis of the overarching scheme, Judge Wedoff points out that some problematic language in BAPCPA may lead to confusion among consumers, judges, and lawyers. In discussing what the most rational reading of several sections might be, Judge Wedoff gives practitioners and academics alike a view of the new provisions from the bench.
The full text of this Symposium is available to download as a PDF.