MEDIA REVIEWS

SURVIVING PERSONAL BANKRUPTCY:
Your Guide to the Personal, Legal, and Financial Issues

By Nora Raum
Gotham Books, $20 (213 pp, paperback)

Reviewed by Ann Zeigler

Bankruptcy has gotten a lot more complex for individuals since October 17, 2005. This book is structured for hands-on use by individuals and families. It includes not only discussions and strategies, but also a wide variety of planning checklists and forms.
It has sections to guide users through the practical reality of analyzing their financial situation, identifying possible non-bankruptcy strategies for regaining control of their money, the critical steps in preparing for a filing, what happens in the various Chapter procedures, and how to use the bankruptcy as a point for permanently turning their lives around to a stable financial position.
The author, Nora Raum, is a practicing consumer bankruptcy lawyer as well as a radio journalist. She understands the essence of simple, but not patronizing, communication of complex legal issues. This book is not about making people feel good about using bankruptcy to avoid debt. It is about stopping self-destructive financial thinking and getting back control of one’s life.
Although it is aimed at the client, every lawyer who practices consumer bankruptcy under the new Code will find this a useful way to organize the process of pre-bankruptcy planning with prospective clients.

Ann Zeigler practices in the bankruptcy practice group at HughesWattersAskanase in Houston. She primarily represents Chapter 7 Trustees.

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