Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Monday, January 23, 2012

Blacks Face Bias In Bankruptcy, Study Suggests

Blacks are about twice as likely as whites to wind up in the more onerous and costly form of consumer bankruptcy as they try to dig out from their debts, a new study has found.


The disparity persisted even when the researchers adjusted for income, homeownership, assets and education. The evidence suggested that lawyers were disproportionately steering blacks into a process that was not as good for them financially, in part because of biases, whether conscious or unconscious.


The vast majority of debtors file under Chapter 7 of the bankruptcy code, which typically allows them to erase most debts in a matter of months. It tends to have a higher success rate and is less expensive than the alternative, Chapter 13, which requires debtors to dedicate their disposable income to paying back their debts for several years.


The study of racial differences in bankruptcy filings was written by Robert M. Lawless, a bankruptcy expert and law professor, and Dov Cohen, a psychology professor, both with the University of Illinois; and Jean Braucher, a law professor at the University of Arizona.


More

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is because the banks were forced by the government to give blacks preferential treatment for home loans many took the loans with the banks knowing all to well they couldn't afford the amount but the government forced them... social justice.HA

Anonymous said...

I swear sometimes it seems like its always the blacks never get treated equally. Lmao.they get treated more than equally.it's the whites that need to scream foul.