csua.org/u/cd6 -> deseretnews.com/dn/view/0%2C1249%2C480034516%2C00.html
Dave Anderton Deseret News business writer Utah's burgeoning family size and high credit-card debt are two chief reasons why the state leads the nation in bankruptcy filings, according to an expert in the field of bankruptcy reform. Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Law School professor and former adviser to the National Bankruptcy Review Commission, said Utah's high number of bankruptcy filings per capita reflects a national problem. She also blasts Utah's congressional representatives, particularly Republicans Sen. Chris Cannon, for pushing new legislation that she believes will cast financially strapped families into a new type of underclass. After a shattering 22,052 bankruptcy filings in 2002, a record in the state's history, Utah's insolvency trend shows no signs of slowing. It's the fact that the state mirrors all that we value -- families, children, home -- that also means it's a state that has the most vulnerable segment of the population," Warren said in a telephone interview from her office in Cambridge, Mass. House approved a bill that would tighten the bankruptcy code, making it harder for some to absolve their debts. Should the bill become law, Warren believes the reforms will create an undue burden on low-income families. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, said the reforms will go a long way toward curbing abuse by those who intentionally avoid paying their debts. People that don't meet certain criteria just go through the system without any question. No, that's their business, and that's appropriate," he said.
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