** Because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, if you responded to a Consumer Bankruptcy Project survey via postal mail, it may take us 4-6 weeks to respond back to you. Thank you for your participation, and we apologize for the delay. **

 

Welcome to the Consumer Bankruptcy Project

The Consumer Bankruptcy Project (CBP) is an on-going, long-term research project studying persons who file bankruptcy. The CBP is lead by an interdisciplinary team of professors who serve as co-investigators. We regularly collect demographic and other information about bankruptcy filers using a nationally random sample.

This website includes details about its current co-investigators, recent publications based on CBP data, news stories discussing these publications, the project's history and past works, and other sources of bankruptcy data. If you are considering filing bankruptcy and are searching for more information about filing, you can find a list of helpful websites at the bottom of this page.

If you received a survey from the CBP, that means that your name was randomly drawn from the thousands of Americans who filed bankruptcy in the past three months. Over the past decade, thousands of households have participated in our research. Your responses are confidential. We appreciate your participation. Please follow the instructions in the materials you received.

 

Current CBP Co-Investigators

The current co-investigators on the CBP are Professors Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, and Deborah Thorne.

Foohey 3Pamela Foohey is a Professor of Law at Indiana University Maurer School of Law and Chair of the Advisory Board to Indiana University’s Center for Law, Society & Culture. Professor Foohey’s research centers on bankruptcy, business, consumer finance, and commercial law. Her work in business bankruptcy focuses on non-profit entities, with a particular emphasis on how churches and other religious organizations use bankruptcy. She currently serves on the editorial advisory board of the American Bankruptcy Law Journal, which is a peer-reviewed academic law review published by the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges. Professor Foohey joined the CBP in 2016. Follow Professor Foohey on Twitter @PamelaFoohey.

LawlessRobert Lawless is the Max L. Rowe Professor of Law and co-director of the Program on Law, Behavior and Social Science at the University of Illinois College of Law. Professor Lawless specializes in bankruptcy, consumer finance, and business law. He is a co-author for the eighth edition of Secured Transactions: A Systems Approach, a leading textbook on secured transactions. Professor Lawless also joins Professors Jennifer K. Robbennolt and Thomas S. Ulen as the co-author of Empirical Methods in Law, a textbook on empirical methodologies. He served as the reporter for the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy from 2017-2019, and currently serves as an associate editor for the Law & Society Review. Professor Lawless joined the CBP in 2001. Follow Professor Lawless on Twitter @BobLawless1.

ThorneDeborah Thorne is an Associate Professor of Sociology at University of Idaho. Professor Thorne specializes in economic inequality generally and debt and consumer bankruptcy specifically. Her work spans issues such as stigma, reasons for elder debtors’ bankruptcy, medical debt and bankruptcy, effects of severe debt on couples’ relationships, financial health following bankruptcy, social mobility, gender and financial education. Professor Thorne joined the CBP in 2001. Follow Professor Thorne on Twitter @DebbThorne.

 

Professors Foohey, Lawless, and Thorne all have contributed to Credit Slips, “a blog on all things credit, bankruptcy, consumers, and financial institutions.” On this blog, we and other academics discuss and debate issues about consumer bankruptcy (among other things). Follow Credit Slips on Twitter @CreditSlips.

 

Recent CBP Publications and News

Professors Foohey, Lawless, and Thorne, along with other professors, regularly publish papers based on CBP data in law reviews, sociology journals, and medical journals. The results of our research are routinely featured in media outlets, such as C-SPAN, CBS Evening News, CNBC, NPR, The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the L.A. Times, and the Financial Times. To browse news stories, visit our In The News page.

You can read more about these recent publications on our Recent Papers page: 

Driven to Bankruptcy, 55 Wake Forest Law Review  287 (2020)

    Authors: Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Deborah Thorne

Graying of U.S. Bankruptcy: Fallout from Life in a Risk Society, Sociological Inquiry (online version September 2019)

    Authors: Deborah Thorne, Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Katherine Porter

Medical Bankruptcy: Still Common Despite the Affordable Care Act, 109 American Journal of Public Health 431 (2019)

    Authors: David U. Himmelstein, Robert M. Lawless, Deborah Thorne, Pamela Foohey, Steffie Woolhandler

Life in the Sweatbox, 94 Notre Dame Law Review 219 (2018)

    Authors: Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Katherine Porter, Deborah Thorne

“No Money Down” Bankruptcy, 90 Southern California Law Review 1055 (2017)

    Authors: Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Katherine Porter, Deborah Thorne

 

CBP History and Details

In 1981, Professors Teresa Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren, and Jay Westbrook started the CBP. Through the efforts of co-investigators, the CBP collected data in 1981, 1991, 1999, 2001, and 2007. Across these iterations, in addition to its three founders, CBP co-investigators have included Professors Melissa Jacoby, Angela Littwin, Katherine Porter, and John A.E. Pottow. The data collected in these iterations have served as the basis for five books and dozens of articles, essays, and other publications, as highlighted on our CBP History page.

In 2013, Professors Robert Lawless, Katherine Porter, and Deborah Thorne relaunched the CBP as a permanent, on-going data collection effort. Professor Pamela Foohey joined the CBP in 2016. In 2018, Professor Porter left the project to represent California’s 45th district in the U.S. House of Representatives. At present, since 2013, the CBP has collected data from the court records of 5,600 bankruptcy filers and surveys from about 2,000 of these filers.

 

Other Consumer Bankruptcy Data Sources

To the best of our knowledge, the CBP is the only ongoing project that regularly collects demographic and other information about bankruptcy filers using a nationally random sample. Other sources are available for basic data about consumer bankruptcy filings, as detailed on our Other Data page.

 

Searching for Information about Filing Bankruptcy?

The co-investigators on the CBP do not provide legal advice, and nothing on this site should be construed as legal advice. That said, we fully understand that being in debt can be very stressful, and we understand the desire to reach out for help. These resources may prove helpful:

If you are seeking crisis support for yourself, a loved one, or a friend, these resources also may prove helpful:

 

Thank you for visiting the CBP website. If you have questions about this website, please contact Pamela Foohey (website admin).