consumer bankruptcy

Although not always acknowledged expressly, exceptionalism is pervasive in bankruptcy scholarship. Some work makes no attempt to contexualize bankruptcy within the federal courts, apparently assuming its unique qualities (for example, the disinterest in most bankruptcy venue scholarship about venue laws applicable to other multi-party federal litigation). But other projects are more deliberate in their exceptionalist pursuits.

Sometimes we forget that, with all its flaws, consumer bankruptcy is still a remarkable institution, providing meaningful relief to more than two million Americans a year (counting co-debtors and dependents).

I have just finished reading Lois Lupica’s paper on her impressive
consumer bankruptcy fee study. 
This is a model of what empirical, law-and-society research should be –
it combines data from electronic court records with focus groups and key player
interviews to give a textured understanding of the role lawyer’s fees play in
this particular legal system.