After Governor Patterson signed the new bankruptcy exemption law yesterday, news outlets from buffalo to New York City noted the impact of the statute. Jonathan Epstein, Business reporter at The Buffalo News, quoted Jeffrey Freedman, Judge Bucki and me in an article published today.
My quote in the Buffalo News article: “This is a very good day for unemployed people and low-income working parents in Western New York,” said Peter Scribner, a Rochester bankruptcy attorney. “No longer will a working mom with three kids fear that she will lose the tax refund she needs to pay her rent and Niagara Mohawk bill. No longer will a creditor sue an unemployed worker and take away his car. No longer will a woman in bankruptcy be afraid of losing her engagement ring.”
Bloomberg News (author: Michael Quint) reported online yesterday that Patterson praised the bill in a radio interview on WOR. However, New York City continues to press to have the state and its municipalities excluded from the judgment debtor (non-bankruptcy) exemption for motor vehicles, and that supporters of the exemption update bill pledged to support that exclusion in the next legislature (this is true, actually.)
An editorial in The New York Times also praised the bill, while noting that the parking violations fines exclusion should be passed early in the upcomming session.
Brief articles also ran in in the Wall Street Journal (Associated Press – Article no longer available online) and the Ithaca Journal (Cara Mathews, Albany Bureau, Gannett News Service – Article no longer available online).