Prior to new federal bankruptcy guidelines going into effect on
Oct. 17, there was much speculation that Congress, to the
detriment of debtors, had handed the legislative reins over to
creditor lobbyists. Now, a month later, that hasn't turned out
to be the case — at least not for the farming community and
Chapter 12.  “Chapter 12 is actually much friendlier for farming
debtors as a result of the new bill,” said Susan Schneider,
associate law professor at the University of Arkansas.
Schneider, who serves as the director of the university's
graduate program in agricultural law, says the new and expanded
Chapter 12 was no accident.  “It definitely was meant to be.
There were a number of farmer advocates in the Senate wanting to
improve Chapter 12 for farmers. They weren't necessarily the
same ones wanting the overall bankruptcy reform bill. Those
wanting the bill to pass basically let the farmer advocates get
what they wanted in order to secure the farm-state votes. It was
a trade-off.”  The political game  In