By the end of September, the United States saw nearly 384,000 bankruptcy filings, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. A 2019 study conducted by the Center for Economic Studies found veterans are more likely to file for bankruptcy. It said 14.7% of veterans file for chapter 7, and 15% file chapter 13, compared to 10.3% of the national population, ABCActionNews.com reported. Working beside the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI) Task Force on Veterans and Servicemembers Affairs, the Business Law Section of The Florida Bar is creating a pilot-program to link veterans in need of insolvency legal representation to lawyers who can help address their financial issues in Florida. "We just want to make sure that the resources are available and whatever needs are out there getting that," said Tampa attorney Steve Berman. Before an official launch, they need more lawyers to sign up as volunteers. The database connects veterans looking for a financial attorney to volunteer attorneys in the three states with the most veterans: Florida, Texas, and California. "Sometimes reaching out to an insolvency lawyer means someone has financial distress. Sometimes that's a need that can be solved with some counseling with some budgeting with some negotiation. There are lots of nonbankruptcy options out there that bankruptcy lawyers employ as first steps. And so we want to make sure that we have enough lawyers," he said. Read more.
To view the interactive website directory that was developed by the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Veterans and Servicemembers Affairs Task Force, please click here: https://veterans.abi.org/legal-resource-database. It is intended to assist veterans and servicemembers with locating low-cost, reduced-fee, and free legal services, programs, and other resources in their geographic area. Do you know of a legal services provider that should be listed here? Encourage them to sign up by clicking here..
