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William & Mary Law School

Faculty Publications

Consumer Credit

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Full-Text Articles in Law

Bankruptcy And State Collections: The Case Of The Missing Garnishments, Richard M. Hynes Jan 2006

Bankruptcy And State Collections: The Case Of The Missing Garnishments, Richard M. Hynes

Faculty Publications

Recent bankruptcy reforms were spurred in part by a bankruptcy filing rate that has more than doubled in the last ten years and that has risen by approximately six hundred percent over the last generation. Some attribute this surge in filings to Americans' greater willingness to avoid debts by declaring bankruptcy. Most academics, however, argue that more Americans are forced into bankruptcy by crushing debt burdens and aggressive collections techniques. Surprisingly, the literature has largely ignored data on the use of these collections techniques. This Article examines the use of one of the most important collections tools, garnishment, in two …


Overoptimism And Overborrowing, Richard M. Hynes Jan 2004

Overoptimism And Overborrowing, Richard M. Hynes

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


The Law And Economics Of Consumer Finance, Richard M. Hynes, Eric A. Posner Apr 2002

The Law And Economics Of Consumer Finance, Richard M. Hynes, Eric A. Posner

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.


Optimal Bankruptcy In A Non-Optimal World, Richard M. Hynes Jan 2002

Optimal Bankruptcy In A Non-Optimal World, Richard M. Hynes

Faculty Publications

Consumer bankruptcy insures individuals against misfortune. Like other forms of insurance, bankruptcy reduces an individual's incentive to guard against misfortune and provides her with an incentive to overstate her need for relief. The "first-best," or optimal, bankruptcy system, like the first-best tax or public assistance system, solves these moral hazards without any loss of efficiency. In bankruptcy, this first-best approach would deny relief to debtors responsible for their own distress and reduce the deserving debtors' obligations to an amount commensurate with their ability to pay. While the Bankruptcy Code tries (in part) to follow this first-best approach, such a utopian …


Can Shame, Guilt, Or Stigma Be Taught? Why Credit-Focused Debtor Education May Not Work, A. Mechele Dickerson Jun 1999

Can Shame, Guilt, Or Stigma Be Taught? Why Credit-Focused Debtor Education May Not Work, A. Mechele Dickerson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.