After declining for the last two years, personal?bankruptcies?are expected to increase in 2013. Faced with an increasing volume of bankruptcy?petitions,?bankruptcy?lawyers will have a decision to make: hire additional staff or invest in technology to manage more cases without additional staff.
Judge Julia Gibbons, chair of the budget committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States, which oversees the federal court system, told a Congressional committee earlier this year that court administrators expect?bankruptcy?filing to increase by?8 percent or more in 2013.
The court administrators? projections assume consumer debt levels will start to climb again, resulting in more?bankruptcies.Consumer spending increased by 3.3 percent in 2011 after a decline in 2010, according to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in September. Stronger economic growth forecast for 2013 by Moody?s Analytics, an independent provider of economic forecasting, could make people feel more comfortable about opening their wallets and about taking on new debt.
If housing foreclosures pick up next year with the recovering housing market, then consumer?bankruptcies?will increase at an even faster pace in 2013, Gibbons predicted.
Bankruptcy?filings are volatile. They experienced explosive growth of 29 percent in 2008, 35 percent in 2009 and 20 percent in 2010 before falling by a modest 3 percent in 2011. They?re expected to continue to decline in 2012, then increase to 1.47 million filings in 2013, Gibbons said in testimony?to a U.S. House of Representatives appropriations panel.
The History of ?Tech &?Bankruptcy
Bankruptcy?law firms initially turned to technology during the mid-1980?s when personal computers became widely available to handle the bankruptcy?petition preparation process. This required detailed calculations to total the debtor?s assets and debts, and to replace typewriters and carbon books with computers and printers.? The next big change was spurred by the?Bankruptcy?Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act in 2005, which made it more difficult to file for?bankruptcy, and increased the paperwork requirements, thus increasing the need for?bankruptcy?law firms to improve their case management practices and procedures.
During the spike in?bankruptcy?filings caused by the Great Recession that peaked in 2010, many consumer?bankruptcy?lawyers turned to technology to handle an increased volume of filings while avoiding additional staff expense.? For example, one product on the market, BKexpress, is a comprehensive practice management system designed specifically for consumer?bankruptcy?law firms that was developed with input from leading consumer?bankruptcy?attorneys and members of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy?Attorneys (NACBA). BKexpress helps attorneys, from solo practitioners to large law firms, track consumer?bankruptcy cases from the first client contact to the closing of the file. It is built on top of Lexis Time Matters, the leading legal practice management software.
As the adage goes ?time is money.? With advancements in technology the ability to streamline a firms filing systems can help free up valuable time that could be spent on the thousands of other tasks that need to be dealt with.
Andrew Miller is an avid legal blogger and manager of over 20 attorney blogs. This article was written on behalf of OTB Consulting: OTB Consulting serves clients nationally and internationally, helping install, upgrade, troubleshoot and maintain their legal practice management systems.
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