What are the Barriers to Access? A Closer Look at Language, Income and Bankruptcy Petition Preparers
It has been a challenge to accurately study the specific correlation between different barriers to proper access to bankruptcy services in our Court. There is very little empirical data to support certain commonly held perceptions or to demonstrate where outreach efforts should be targeted. As resources for the courts appear to be diminishing, we have tried to focus access outreach and programs as much as possible to where they can help the most.
Repeated anecdotal information, situations that arise in cases and discussion with various attorneys, trustees and parties lead us to believe that debtors who do not speak English well or who are low income have the greatest barriers to access. This is further complicated by the prevalence of the use of unlicensed bankruptcy petition preparers (BPPs) by these parties. The following section is an attempt to be as specific as possible in looking at this complex issue. The available data generally supports what we have commonly understood about the self-represented population.