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 led 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.
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. 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.
The current co-investigators on the CBP are Professors Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, and Deborah Thorne. For more details about the co-investigators, the students serving as CBP Fellows, and the project's history, visit our CBP People page.
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:
Portraits of Bankruptcy Filers, 56 Georgia Law Review (forthcoming)
Driven to Bankruptcy, 55 Wake Forest Law Review 287 (2020)
Graying of U.S. Bankruptcy: Fallout from Life in a Risk Society, Sociological Inquiry (online version September 2019)
Medical Bankruptcy: Still Common Despite the Affordable Care Act, 109 American Journal of Public Health 431 (2019)
Life in the Sweatbox, 94 Notre Dame Law Review 219 (2018)
“No Money Down” Bankruptcy, 90 Southern California Law Review 1055 (2017)
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:
- Bankruptcy Basics, Administrative Office of the United States Courts
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) – Consumer Information, United States Trustee Program
- Consumer Bankruptcy Guide, National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys
- Guides, Brochures, Fact Sheets For Consumers, National Consumer Law Center
If you are seeking crisis support for yourself, a loved one, or a friend, these resources also may prove helpful:
- Talk to Someone Now – Suicide Prevention Lifeline
- Crisis Text Line
- National DV Hotline
- Free Online Counseling
If you are looking for the City Bar Justice Center's Consumer Bankruptcy Project, which provides legal assistance to low-income consumers in New York City, you can find that same-named project here. We are not affiliated with the City Bar Justice Center.
Thank you for visiting the CBP website. If you have questions about this website, please contact Pamela Foohey (website admin).