Available at: https://www.ucpress.edu/books/debts-grip/hardcover
Summary:
In their new book Debt’s Grip, Pamela Foohey, Robert Lawless, and Deborah Thorne expand on years of empirical research into bankruptcy by combining statistical data with personal narratives from debtors themselves. Drawing from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project, they dismantle stereotypes of bankruptcy filers as careless spenders or “deadbeats,” instead documenting that most bankruptcies arise from crises—job loss, medical emergencies, divorce, predatory lending, and systemic inequities.
The authors present both macro-level trends and individual debtor stories to show how structural forces—stagnant wages, rising costs of living, racial wealth gaps, inadequate health insurance—drive households into financial collapse. They also examine how bankruptcy law, while providing some relief, is often inadequate: Chapter 13 plans fail at high rates, exemptions are limited and inconsistent, and non-dischargeable debts like student loans trap people even after filing. The work is part scholarly analysis, part humanizing narrative, aiming to influence policymakers, practitioners, and the public’s understanding of debt and bankruptcy.
Commentary:
For consumer bankruptcy attorneys, Debt’s Grip is both validation and a challenge. Validation, because it confirms what our clients’ stories have told us for years: that bankruptcy is less about personal irresponsibility than about the crushing weight of structural and unforeseen disasters. And a challenge, because it underscores that while we can help navigate the Code to buy relief, the larger systems producing this need—health care, housing, wages, credit regulation—require legislative and societal reform.
This book should be in the hands of anyone shaping bankruptcy policy. It directly rebuts the same narratives that underpin proposals to restrict the automatic stay, reduce the discharge, or make Chapter 13 more burdensome. By pairing the numbers with names, it forces the conversation out of the sterile realm of “means tests” and “liquidation analyses” and back into the lives at stake. In other words, Debt’s Grip reminds us why we do this work—and why the fight for a fairer system is far from over.
As disclosure is always key to bankruptcy, it is worth noting that I was fortunate to be provided an advance copy of the manuscript by its authors (which is why I'm actually a little late in posting about this very important book) and was honored to contribute a blurb for the back cover.
"Transforming cold statistics into heartbreaking stories of the people who file for bankruptcy, Debt's Grip is an important corrective to the many falsehoods which portray debtors as mere deadbeats, showing that those who seek bankruptcy protection–inadequate as it may be–have been left without alternatives by catastrophes and systemic societal failures."
My additional apologies to the authors for having shared my copy of the book with others, depriving them of some royalties.
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