Debt’s Grip: Risk and Consumer Bankruptcy (University of California Press 2025)
Our book, Debt’s Grip: Risk and Consumer Bankruptcy, University of California Press, August 2025, is now available. Debt’s Grip uses eleven years of court records and surveys from the Consumer Bankruptcy Project to provide a thick description of what it means to live in financial precarity in the United States. Through personal narratives from our surveys, bankruptcy filers describe in their own words the privations and struggles they suffered. The book documents how policy choices have piled risk onto American households and calls for a shift in direction so people are not left behind when misfortune befalls them.
Interdisciplinary Research Is Hard and Other Lessons from Debt’s Grip, forthcoming Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law (Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Deborah Thorne)
With the publication of Debt’s Grip: Risk and Consumer Bankruptcy, we discuss working together as the interdisciplinary research team that currently runs the Consumer Bankruptcy Project (CBP), a project that has survived for more than four decades. Our predecessors gave us two core principles for the research. The first is a dogged reliance on empiricism as its epistemic touchstone. The second is the inclusion of scholars from a range of disciplines with a particular emphasis on sociolegal studies. We focus on key examples of the CBP’s contributions and the challenges that come with interdisciplinary work. Debt’s Grip illustrates these contributions and challenges, and we highlight the book throughout this essay.
Debt on the Ground: The Scholarly Discourse of Bankruptcy and Financial Precarity, 20 Annual Review of Law and Social Science 219 (2024) (Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Deborah Thorne)
A rich literature uses law and social science methods to better understand household financial distress and overindebtedness both inside and outside of bankruptcy. This scholarship contributes to several ongoing scholarly conversations, such as those on income and wealth disparities across race and class, how people live in circumstances of financial precarity, why people turn to the legal system to solve their problems, and how to improve access to justice so people can get the help they need. We first review the current literature about who files bankruptcy, the contributors to people’s need to file bankruptcy, what happens to them in bankruptcy court, and what happens after their bankruptcy cases conclude. We then outline a research agenda of “low-hanging fruit” that will contribute to broader sociological and sociolegal research agendas.
Portraits of Bankruptcy Filers, 56 Georgia Law Review 573 (2022) (Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Deborah Thorne)
One in ten adult Americans have turned to the consumer bankruptcy system for help. In this Article, we use CBP data from 2013 to 2019 to describe who is using the bankruptcy system, providing the first comprehensive overview of bankruptcy filers in thirty years. We use principal component analysis to leverage these data to identify distinct groups of people who file bankruptcy. This technique allows us to situate the distinctions among filers’ financial and household situations within what bankruptcy laws and courts can and cannot provide. We critique the consumer bankruptcy system, based on the totality of people who have used it recently, to identify avenues for reforming bankruptcy and to underscore the broader economic, racial, and social issues that consumer bankruptcy filings highlight.
Driven to Bankruptcy, 55 Wake Forest Law Review 287 (2020) (Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Deborah Thorne)
Over the last ten years, 15.1 million people filed for bankruptcy owning 16.4 million cars. These cars provided access to work, education, medical care, childcare, food, and other life necessities. They also were major household investments, the most expensive asset most bankruptcy filers owned other than a house. Using data from the CBP, we document what happens to car owners and their car loans when they enter bankruptcy.
In How Often Do Debtors Seek to Reaffirm Auto Loans? A Report Based on Consumer Bankruptcy Project Data, American Bankruptcy Institute Journal, Jan. 2020, at 46, we provide a summary of our findings from the article about how people attempt to keep their cars through bankruptcy.
Graying of U.S. Bankruptcy: Fallout from Life in a Risk Society, Sociological Inquiry (online version September 2019) (Deborah Thorne, Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Katherine Porter)
The social safety net for older Americans has been shrinking for the past couple decades. The risks associated with aging, reduced income, and increased healthcare costs, have been off-loaded onto older individuals. At the same time, older Americans are increasingly likely to file consumer bankruptcy, and their representation among those in bankruptcy has never been higher. Using data from the CBP, we find more than a two-fold increase in the rate at which older Americans (age 65 and over) file for bankruptcy and an almost five-fold increase in the percentage of older persons in the U.S. bankruptcy system. The magnitude of growth in older Americans in bankruptcy is so large that the broader trend of an aging U.S. population can explain only a small portion of the effect.
Medical Bankruptcy: Still Common Despite the Affordable Care Act, 109 American Journal of Public Health 431 (2019) (David U. Himmelstein, Robert M. Lawless, Deborah Thorne, Pamela Foohey, Steffie Woolhandler)
Illnesses and medical expenses take a toll on American families. The CBP survey asks debtors what contributed to their bankruptcy filings and provides debtors with several options, two of which are medical expenses and illness-related work loss. Two-thirds of debtors cite at least one of these two medical contributors—equivalent to about 530,000 “medical bankruptcies” per year. In addition, a similar share of debtors reported a medical contributor to their filings before and after the Affordable Care Act (ACA)’s implementation. Despite gains in coverage and access to care from the ACA, our findings suggest that it did not change the proportion of bankruptcies filed in the wake of illness and medical expenses.
Life in the Sweatbox, 94 Notre Dame Law Review 219 (2018) (Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Katherine Porter, Deborah Thorne)
The time before a person files bankruptcy is sometimes called the financial “sweatbox.” Using data from the CBP, we find that people are living longer in the sweatbox before filing bankruptcy than they have in the past. We also describe the depletion of wealth and well-being that defines people’s time in the sweatbox. For those people who struggle for more than two years before filing bankruptcy — the “long strugglers” — their time in the sweatbox is particularly damaging. During their years in the sweatbox, long strugglers deal with persistent collection calls, go without healthcare, food, and utilities, lose homes and other property, and yet remain ashamed of needing to file. Our findings challenge longstanding narratives about who files bankruptcy and why. These narratives underlie our laws, influence how judges rule in individual cases, and affect how attorneys interact with their clients.
“No Money Down” Bankruptcy, 90 Southern California Law Review 1055 (2017) (Pamela Foohey, Robert M. Lawless, Katherine Porter, Deborah Thorne)
A crucial decision for consumer debtors is whether to file chapter 7 or chapter 13. Almost all consumers will hire a bankruptcy attorney. Attorneys charge about $1,200 to file a chapter 7 bankruptcy, an amount they generally require their clients to pay upfront. Attorneys charge about $3,200 to file a chapter 13 bankruptcy, but clients can pay this amount over time as part of their cases. Chapter 7 and 13 bankruptcies are vastly different, including the relief achieved. Almost all chapter 7 cases end with the debtor receiving a discharge of debts. In contrast, only around one-third of chapter 13 cases end in discharge. Relying on CPB data, we expose the increasingly prevalent phenomenon of debtors paying nothing in attorneys’ fees to file chapter 13. Our data suggest that these “no money down” debtors are similar to those who use chapter 7. As such, because they cannot afford to pay their attorneys up front, these debtors seem to pay $2,000 more and have their cases dismissed at a rate 18 times higher than if they had filed chapter 7.
In Attorneys’ Fees and Chapter Choice: Exploring “No Money Down” Chapter 13 Bankruptcy, , American Bankruptcy Institute Journal, June 2017, at 20 (2017).
Older Publications
BOOKS
Broke: How Debt Bankrupts the Middle Class (Katherine Porter, ed., Stanford University Press 2012)
Elizabeth Warren & Amelia Warren Tyagi, All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan (Free Press 2005)
Elizabeth Warren & Amelia Warren Tyagi, The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke (Basic Books 2003)
Teresa A. Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren & Jay Lawrence Westbrook, The Fragile Middle Class: Americans in Debt (Yale University Press 2000)
Teresa A. Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren & Jay Lawrence Westbrook, As We Forgive Our Debtors: Bankruptcy and Consumer Credit in America (Oxford University Press 1989)
ARTICLES, CHAPTERS, ESSAYS
2007 CBP Iteration
Sara Sternberg Greene, Parina Patel & Katherine Porter, Cracking the Code: An Empirical Analysis of Bankruptcy Success, 101 Minnesota Law Review 1031 (2017)
John A.E. Pottow, The Rise in Elderly Bankruptcy Filings and the Failure of U.S. Bankruptcy Law, 19 Elder Law Journal 221 (2012)
Melissa B. Jacoby, Daniel T. McCue & Eric S. Belsky, In or Out of Mortgage Trouble? A Study of Bankrupt Homeowners, 85 American Bankruptcy Law Journal 291 (2011)
Deborah Thorne & Katherine Porter, Debtors’ Assessments of Bankruptcy Financial Education, in Financial Decisions Across the Lifespan (Douglas Lamdin, ed., Springer 2010)
Deborah Thorne, Extreme Financial Strain: Emergent Chores, Gender Inequality, and Emotional Distress, 31 Journal of Family and Economic Issues 185 (2010)
Teresa A. Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren & Jay Lawrence Westbrook, Less Stigma or More Financial Distress: An Empirical Analysis of the Extraordinary Increase in Bankruptcy Filings, 59 Stanford Law Review 213 (2010)
Katherine Porter, Life After Debt: Understanding the Credit Restraint of Bankruptcy Debtors, 18 American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review 1 (2010)
Melissa B. Jacoby & Mirya Holman, Managing Medical Bills on the Brink of Bankruptcy, 10 Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics 239 (2010)
Abbye Atkinson, Race, Educational Loans & Bankruptcy, 16 Michigan Journal of Race and Law 1 (2010)
Ronald J. Mann & Katherine Porter, Saving Up for Bankruptcy, 98 Georgetown Law Journal 289 (2010)
Dalié Jiménez, The Distribution of Assets in Consumer Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Cases, 83 American Bankruptcy Law Journal 795 (2009)
David U. Himmelstein, Deborah Thorne, Elizabeth Warren & Steffie Woolhandler, Medical Bankruptcy in the United States, 2007: Results of a National Study, 122 The American Journal of Medicine 741 (2009)
Deborah Thorne, Elizabeth Warren & Teresa A. Sullivan, The Increasing Vulnerability of Older Americans: Evidence from the Bankruptcy Court, 3 Harvard Law & Policy Review 87 (2009)
Katherine Porter, The Debt Dilemma, 106 Michigan Law Review 1167 (2008)
Robert M. Lawless, Angela K. Littwin, Katherine Porter, John A.E. Pottow, Deborah Thorne & Elizabeth Warren, Did Bankruptcy Reform Fail? An Empirical Study of Consumer Debtors, 82 American Bankruptcy Law Journal 349 (2007)
2001 CBP Iteration
Deborah Thorne & Katherine Porter, Financial Education for Bankrupt Families: Attitudes and Needs, 24 Journal of Consumer Education 15 (2007)
Melissa B. Jacoby, Bankruptcy Reform and the Costs of Sickness: Exploring the Intersections, 76 Missouri Law Review 903 (2006)
Melissa B. Jacoby & Elizabeth Warren, Beyond Hospital Misbehavior: An Alternative Account of Medical-Related Financial Distress, 100 Northwestern University Law Review 535 (2006)
Teresa A. Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren & Jay Lawrence Westbrook, Less Stigma or More Financial Distress: An Empirical Analysis of the Extraordinary Increase in Bankruptcy Filings, 59 Stanford Law Review 213 (2006)
Katherine Porter & Deborah Thorne, The Failure of Bankruptcy’s Fresh Start, 92 Cornell Law Review 67 (2006)
Deborah Thorne, The (Interconnected) Reasons Elder Americans File Consumer Bankruptcy, 22 Journal of Aging & Social Policy 188 (2006)
Elizabeth Warren, Families Alone: The Changing Economics of Rearing Children, 58 Oklahoma Law Review 551 (2005)
David U. Himmelstein, Elizabeth Warren, Deborah Thorne & Steffie Woolhandler, Illness and Injury as Contributors to Bankruptcy, Health Affairs (2005)
Robert M. Lawless & Elizabeth Warren, The Myth of the Disappearing Business Bankruptcy, 93 California Law Review 743 (2005)
Melissa B. Jacoby, The Debtor-Patient: In Search of Non-Debt-Based Alternatives, 69 Brooklyn Law Review 453 (2004)
Elizabeth Warren, The Economics of Race: When Making It to the Middle Is Not Enough, 61 Washington & Lee Law Review 1777 (2004)
Elizabeth Warren, The Growing Threat to Middle Class Families, 69 Brooklyn Law Review 401 (2004)
Elizabeth Warren, The New Economics of the American Family, 12 American Bankruptcy Institute Law Review 1 (2004)
Elizabeth Warren, Financial Collapse and Class Status: Who Goes Bankrupt?, 41 Osgoode Hall Law Journal 115 (2003)
Teresa A. Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren & Jay Lawrence Westbrook, Who Uses Chapter 13?, in Consumer Bankruptcy in Global Perspective (Johanna Niemi, Iain Ramsay, William C. Whitford, eds., Hart Publishing 2003)
Elizabeth Warren, Bankrupt Children, 86 Minnesota Law Review 1003 (2002)
Elizabeth Warren, What is a Women’s Issue? Bankruptcy, Commercial Law, and Other Gender-Neutral Topics, 25 Harvard Women’s Law Journal 19 (2002)
1999 CBP Iteration
Melissa B. Jacoby, Collecting Debts from the Ill and Injured: The Rhetorical Significance, But Practical Irrelevance, of Culpability and Ability to Pay, 51 American University Law Review 229 (2001)
Melissa B. Jacoby, Teresa A. Sullivan & Elizabeth Warren, Rethinking the Debates Over Health Care Financing: Evidence from the Bankruptcy Courts, 76 New York University Law Review 375 (2001)
Melissa B. Jacoby, Teresa A. Sullivan & Elizabeth Warren, Medical Problems and Bankruptcy Filings, Norton’s Bankruptcy Advisor (May 2000)
1991 CBP Iteration
Elizabeth Warren, The Bankruptcy Crisis, 73 Indiana Law Journal 1079 (1998)
Teresa A. Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren & Jaw Lawrence Westbrook, Consumer Bankruptcy in the United States: A Study of Alleged Abuse and of Local Legal Culture, 20 Journal of Consumer Policy 223 (1997)
Teresa A. Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren & Jay Lawrence Westbrook, Bankruptcy and the Family, 21 Marriage & Family Law Review 193 (1995)
Teresa A. Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren & Jay Lawrence Westbrook, Consumer Debtors Ten Years Later: A Financial Comparison of Consumer Bankrupts 1981-1991, 68 American Bankruptcy Law Journal 121 (1994)
Teresa A. Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren & Jay Lawrence Westbrook, The Persistence of Local Legal Culture: Twenty Years of Evidence From the Federal Bankruptcy Courts, 17 Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy 801 (1994)
1981 CBP Iteration
Teresa A. Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren & Jay Lawrence Westbrook, Law, Models, and Real People: Choice of Chapter in Personal Bankruptcy, 13 Law & Social Inquiry 661 (1988)
Teresa A. Sullivan, Elizabeth Warren & Jay Lawrence Westbrook, The Use of Empirical Data in Formulating Bankruptcy Policy, 50 Law & Contemporary Problems 195 (1987)