Surprise! Bankruptcy filers really are broke

By Michelle Singletary February 26, 2006

In what will undoubtedly be the first of many ''I told you so" reports, the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys has found that, overwhelmingly, people who file for bankruptcy protection aren't deadbeats who went on shopping sprees with the intention of shirking their debts.

That's quite contrary to what was being charged by supporters of a federal bankruptcy law that went into effect last October.

For years, those proponents argued that billions of dollars were being lost because people were simply being allowed to walk away from their debts.

On the day President Bush signed the bankruptcy bill, he said: ''In recent years, too many people have abused the bankruptcy laws. They've walked away from debts even when they had the ability to repay them."

Now, in the first analysis of the tens of thousands of people who have undergone credit counseling since the law passed, the bankruptcy attorneys association found that nearly all (97 percent) of the debtors truly couldn't pay their debts.

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