Florida Consumer Lawyers has been Florida's top consumer bankruptcy law firm for the last 20 years. In that time, we've gone to great lengths to properly advise people of all of the specific bankruptcy laws that prevent them from selling assets, transferring property, making sure that they properly disclose all property and assets including wedding rings, we've told countless clients they have to turn over tax returns received months after their discharge, and advised struggling clients as to why student loans can't be discharged.  We've always felt that bankruptcy laws and enforcement of these laws has been heavy handed against the consumer and in many instances, such as the rule against liquidating student loan debt, make no sense. So, you can imagine our frustration and disgust when we saw the move Johnson & Johnson pulled off to screw 38,000 cancer victims out of lawsuits. You see, Johnson & Johnson was being sued by 38,000 people they allegedly gave cancer to, many of whom ended up severely sick or dead, through their failure to warn and remove talc products that contained asbestos, the well-known killer, from store shelves.

Bankruptcy laws don't allow you to liquidate crushing student loan debt even though you can't afford to pay it under any circumstance. Bankruptcy court doesn't allow full exemptions for very personal items, such as your wedding ring. Bankruptcy law doesn't allow you to sell your car prior to filing. However, Bankruptcy law does allow corporations like Johnson & Johnson to set up shell corporations, transfer their liability (still don't understand that) to said shell corporation, which has no money or assets, and then file a bankruptcy for the shell corporation wiping out all the lawsuits and effectively making Johnson & Johnson judgment proof. Johnson & Johnson is a $500 billion corporation that is alleged to have knowingly poisoned and killed as thousands of American consumers and citizens. Instead of paying for their conduct, as required in any healthy free market system, the corporate lobbyists create these loopholes in favor of corporations that allow them to operate with impunity. How can consumers be held to high standards then hundred-billion-dollar global corporations?

What should consumer do? Consumers should also use the bankruptcy laws as a sword and consider running high debt numbers to make up for short falls in their budgets due to lack of adequate pay. Then, when the moment is right file a bankruptcy and wipe out all the debt and start over accumulating new debt all over again. One thing that will always be true is that in our consumption society banks and lenders will always line up to lend more money or issue more credit cards. So credit will always be there. Now with the costs of housing skyrocketing and most consumers being shut out of the home buying market, consumers that rent should use debt and bankruptcy to make up for these shortfalls. If it's good enough for billion-dollar corporations then why is it so bad for everyday consumers? Simply stated, its not. If you're overwhelmed by debt call us today.