Three provisions of the new Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-8) have been termed “pernicious to lawyers” by the Illinois State Bar Association and American Bar Association.

In letters dated Sept. 20 to Sen. Richard J. Durbin and Rep. Henry J. Hyde, the ISBA urged that the cited provisions be reversed and replaced before the act becomes effective Oct. 17, or “serious adverse effects on the nation's entire bankruptcy system” will result.

“The three provisions unfairly, unnecessarily and unproductively increase the personal liability and administrative burdens on debtors' attorneys,” the ISBA letters noted, and could drive many of them out of the practice, “leaving thousands of debtors without any legal representation.”

Durbin and Hyde sit on the judiciary committees in the Senate and House which will first consider any changes to the act.

The requirements and the ISBA comments follow.

• An attorney must certify the accuracy of a debtor's bankruptcy schedules under penalty of harsh court sanctions. This would force an attorney to hire private investigators and appraisers to verify, independently and costly, the existence and value of a client's assets.

• An attorney must certify the debtor's ability to make payments under a reaffirmation agreement. This would create a harsh new liability standard for attorneys who do not conduct lengthy investigations and appraisals of debtors' assets.

• An attorney must identify, advertise and conduct a bankruptcy practice as a “debt relief agency” subject to a host of intrusive regulations. This would discourage lawyers from providing essential pro bono services to needy debtors, including many victims of recent hurricanes.

The ISBA Commercial, Banking and Bankruptcy Law Section conducted a seminar Sept. 30 in Bloomington on these and other issues raised by the legislation.

The October issue of the Illinois Bar Journal contains an article on “Bankruptcy Reform for Non-Bankruptcy Lawyers” by Chicago attorney Bruce C. Scalambrino.

He writes that although creditors may like the new bankruptcy reform law, it may be bad news for consumers and their attorneys. Some unanswered questions are raised.

The impending changes caused an unprecedented rush of bankruptcy filings in early September – as many as 9,000 per day – by debtors who are seeking protection before the new law makes the process more difficult.

The tens of thousands of visitors to Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield each year are unaware that Samuel H. Treat, a 19th century chief justice of the Illinois Supreme Court, lies buried there. Treat's grave remains unmarked, 118 years after his death.

Visitors come from around the globe to Oak Ridge to visit the tomb of Abraham Lincoln, and they often roam the grounds to see the burial places of other notable Illinoisans.

When Treat died in 1887, John S. Bradford, administrator of the estate, asked the Sangamon County Court for permission to spend no more than $200 for a tombstone. Although the request was approved, Bradford never obtained a monument before he died in 1892.

A fund-raising effort is underway, spearheaded by U.S. Judge Richard H. Mills of the Central District and the Illinois Bar Foundation, to buy a suitable monument for Treat, who was a justice of the Illinois Supreme Court from 1840 to 1855, and served seven years as its chief.

Assisting in this effort are the Illinois State Bar Association, the Sangamon County Bar Association, the Abraham Lincoln Association, the Illinois Supreme Court Legal Historical Society, and the Bar Association for the Central and Southern Federal Districts of Illinois.

A benefit reception Sept. 13 at the federal courthouse in Springfield was attended by all seven justices of the Illinois Supreme Court and all but one of the federal judges in the Central District.

Chief Justice Robert R. Thomas remarked that “after surveying several of the more than 600 decisions that Justice Treat authored as a justice of the Illinois Supreme Court, I know that we are honoring a true servant of the people.”

The life and career of Samuel Treat coincide in several ways with that of Richard Mills.

Treat was first elected to the bench to represent the 8th Circuit, which also is the circuit court on which Mills first served. Treat was appointed by President Franklin Pierce in 1855 to the District Court in Springfield, where Mills now sits.

And most remarkably, Mills recently was shown an old plat map of Springfield, revealing that Treat's first home there occupied the very space on which the federal courthouse was later built.

In fact, Mills' ground floor chambers are located on the actual site of the former Treat homestead.

The fund-raising effort continues to provide a suitable marker for Treat. For information, contact Susan M. Lewers at the Illinois Bar Foundation, (312)726-6072 or smlewers@isba.org.

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