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Local and national attorneys fear a wave of personal bankruptcies may emerge in 2021, which would threaten a faster economic recovery as the region recovers from the pandemic's financial fallout, the Orlando Business Journal reported. So far this year, personal bankruptcies have fallen compared to 2019 due, in part, to emergency government assistance programs. However, without additional help, it's predicted a nearly 100 percent increase in personal bankruptcy filings will occur in 2021, said Denise Dell-Powell, chair of Dean Mead’s bankruptcy and creditors’ rights practice group. Other factors that will feed this rise in personal bankruptcies include more layoffs, the pandemic's worsening and a potential loss in protection from eviction. "If the federal government does not provide additional stimulus to individuals, individuals who are still unemployed will be forced to file bankruptcy," Dell-Powell said. Nationally, there were 37,024 consumer filings in September, down 36 percent from September 2019's 57,966 filings, according to Alexandria, Virginia-based American Bankruptcy Institute. That said, commercial chapter 11 bankruptcy filings — where businesses seek to reorganize their debt — jumped 33 percent nationally through the first nine months of 2020 compared with the previous year. That shows the business community has experienced financial pain due to the pandemic faster than individuals. However, renters in particular may start to feel the financial pain from the pandemic soon. The federal eviction ban may expire in January, meaning renters who have fallen behind will have to pay back what they owe or be forced to leave their residences.

As stimulus checks and other forms of temporary relief run out, experts are projecting an increase in personal bankruptcy filings, which have so far been muted during the coronavirus pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reported. Only a new stimulus program targeting individuals or government actions forgiving or deferring student loans can keep individual filings from rising, panelists said Tuesday at an American Bankruptcy Institute conference that took place online. The $2.2 trillion Cares Act that Congress passed in March broadened jobless benefits, extended their duration and boosted the amount by $600 a week — but those extra payments have expired. Congressional Democrats and the White House continue to negotiate another economic-relief package, which could restore some of the jobless benefits that have lapsed, though prospects have dimmed for a deal before the election. “It’s clear that when it comes to bankruptcy filings by individuals, it’s all about access to liquidity,” said ABI's Ed Flynn. “With the end of the Cares Act, there will be an uptick in filings. The only question is whether it will be a sharp uptick or a gradual one.” Personal bankruptcies are projected to fall this year to 560,000, the lowest number since 1985, said Mr. Flynn, citing data collected by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. But next year that total could climb to over one million, he said. President Trump has extended temporary relief for federal student loan borrowers, allowing them to defer payments until the end of the year from the end of September. “I do worry about a flood of filings by working families,” said Deirdre O’Connor, head of sales and corporate restructuring at legal-services firm Epiq Systems Inc., speaking on the conference panel. Moratoriums on evictions have also been a factor in keeping personal bankruptcies in check, said Christopher Kruse, senior vice president at Epiq, as part of the same panel.

Fifteen years ago, Senate Republicans thanked Joe Biden for helping them pass a new bankruptcy law over the objections of consumer advocates and liberal Democrats. But this year, with millions of Americans out of work and buried under mounting home, medical and student loan debt, the former vice president changed his position on the 2005 bankruptcy law, saying that he supports many of the protections he rejected then, the Washington Post reported. As president, Biden says, he will push for letting people who enter bankruptcy discharge their student debts and protect the equity they have built in cars and homes. He embraced a plan put forth by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) that would also make more people eligible to file for bankruptcy and allow them to file without paying exorbitant legal fees. Those commitments may carry greater significance as experts are predicting a wave of bankruptcy filings from individuals and business owners who are burning through their savings and federal stimulus benefits, leaving them unable to pay their bills and make loan payments.

Boris Becker, a six-time Grand Slam champion and former No. 1 ranked player, has been charged with failing to hand over trophies and medals as part of his bankruptcy filing from 2017, the BBC reported. Becker appeared in a London court on Thursday and faces a total of 28 charges, including for not turning over the hardware to pay debts. It includes Wimbledon and Australian Open trophies. Becker entered court already facing 19 charges for failure to comply with legal obligations to disclose information, per the Guardian. Nine more charges were added on Thursday alleging he hid the trophies and medals so they could not be sold. One new charge relates to hiding the 1985 Wimbledon trophy, per the Guardian. Becker was the youngest Wimbledon men’s singles champion when he won it at the age of 17 years and seven months. He was also the first German and the first unseeded winner. Another charge is for the 1989 Wimbledon trophy. He also won at Wimbledon in 1986. Becker is also accused of hiding two President’s Cups (1985, 1989), a 1988 Davis Cup gold coin and 1989 Davis Cup trophy, both Australian Open trophies (1991, 1996) and a 1992 Olympic gold medal.